Henning Melber

Henning Melber "is director of the Dag Hammarskjold Foundation in Uppsala Sweden, and prior to October 2006, was research director at the Nordic Africa Institute for six years. At age 17, he went in 1967 to Namibia, which then was still under South African colonial occupation. He matriculated and obtained the Abitur at the German Higher Private School (HPS) in Windhoek. Professional training in journalism in Munich (1971 to 1972) was followed by a short employment period at the German daily “Allgemeine Zeitung” in Windhoek. He studied Political Science and Sociology at the Freie Universität in (West-)Berlin and joined the anti-colonial liberation movement SWAPO of Namibia in 1974. From 1975 he was prohibited to re-enter Namibia until 1989 and South Africa until 1993. In 1977 he graduated in Political Science and received a PhD in the same discipline in 1980 at the University of Bremen, where he also obtained a venia legendi (Habilitation) in Development Studies in 1993. First academic employments included positions at both the Max-Planck-Institute for Human Development in (West-)Berlin and in the Namibia Project at the University of Bremen. Since 1982 he was Senior Lecturer in International Politics at the University of Kassel. After Independence he returned to Windhoek as the Director of the Namibian Economic Policy Research Unit (NEPRU) in 1992. He was chairperson to the Namibian-German Foundation for Cultural Co-operation (NaDS) between 1994 and 2000 and a member of the President’s Economic Advisory Council since its establishment. From 1996 to 1998 he also served as the chairperson of the Association of Namibian Publishers (ANP). In 2000 he became Research Director of the Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala/Sweden. He was a vice-president of the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) from 2002 to 2005 and is vice-president of the International Network of Genocide Scholars (INOGS) since 2005. He has published widely in the area of African Studies, notably on racism and on solidarity as well as liberation movements, and in particular on Southern Africa and especially Namibia."

Related Sourcewatch

 * UNESCO and the Press - Dag Hammarskjold Foundation
 * Roger Southall - coauthor