ABOUT POVANHU
Povanhu is a word from Oshikwanyama and means:
among the people • through the people • with the people
Povanhu is a young company that was founded at the Center for African Studies at the University of Basel. The founding members from Namibia and Switzerland have worked together on many university projects and want to give new impetus to tourism in Namibia. Our trips are planned and carried out with our sister organisation in Namibia, Povanhu History and Heritage Tours CC, which is majority-owned by Namibians.
We believe that one should do less but more enriching long-distance travel. This is why we and our Namibian partners offer inclusive thematic specialist trips. These trips are intended to provide a post-colonial experience in a country that is still shaped by colonialism and apartheid. We want to enable our customers to experience the diversity of past and present social and cultural worlds in a country in the Global South.
What defines us?
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We enable travellers to gain a current, inclusive and diverse picture of Namibia’s past and present.
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We put people at the center of our tourism experience.
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We invite travellers to understand what the country means to Namibians.
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We support emerging small entrepreneurs and local initiatives that operate outside the conventional paths of Namibian tourism.
Our tours enable travellers to have access to and engage in personal exchanges with scientists, activists, artists and experts in Namibia and Switzerland.
TEAM
Ndapewoshali Ndahafa Ilunga
Ndapewoshali Ndahafa Ilunga is a historian, trained accountant, project manager and specialist in Namibian labour law. She has been working in the field of cultural heritage, art and culture since 2014. She is vehemently committed to the preservation, documentation and decolonisation of Namibia's historical landscape and cultural heritage.
Giorgio Miescher
Co-founder of Povanhu and expert in historical geography and social and economic history, internationally renowned Namibian historian, involved for three decades in various research, teaching and exhibition projects in and about Namibia and South Africa. Numerous publications on Namibia and southern Africa.
https://zasb.unibas.ch/de/personen/giorgio-miescher/
Joëlle Martz
Joëlle Martz is currently a master's student in the Changing Societies program at the University of Basel. With a bachelor's degree in International Hospitality Business and Event Management and a broad professional and academic background in tourism, she has been intensively involved with the tourism on the west coast of Africa since 2019.
internships
On every tour, a Namibian tourism or heritage student will accompany us. He or she gets to know a new perspective on Namibia during an internship and gains enough background knowledge to later offer own tours on Namibian society and history. At the same time, as a participant, you get an insight into the lives of young Namibians and a lot of additional information from their perspective.
Gelsomina Bertaccini
Gelsomina Bertaccini, or Gelsi for short, studied International Business Management and has worked for various organizations abroad. Today, alongside Povanhu, she works as a teacher at the Kleinhüningen primary school.
Luregn Lenggenhager
Co-founder of Povanhu and expert in environmental history. He received his doctorate on the history of nature conservation in Namibia and has since coordinated several projects and publications on the history of animals, land law and nature conservation in southern Africa. He is currently a postdoc at the University of Cologne and an associated researcher at the universities of Namibia and Botswana.
http:// www.luregn.com
Tuhafeni Matheus
Tuhafeni Matheus studied geography, environmental studies and history at the University of Namibia and brings a unique interdisciplinary perspective to sustainable tourism. His comprehensive understanding of the intersections between cultural heritage and environmental protection shapes his vision of tourism that economically enables local communities to manage existing natural and cultural resources independently.