'Certain uncertainties' or Venturing progressively into colonial apologetics?

Abstract

This article deals with Brigitte Lau's contentious article "Uncertain certainties" of 1988. The author explains the controversy sparked by the article and refutes her call for a revision of the historiography of the war of 1904-08; further, the article's echo is contextualised and explained in terms of a specific Namibian-German psychological reaction to the trauma of 20th century German history among Namibian Germans.