Namibia, a former German colony in the southwest of Africa, has pledged to accept any Germans struggling to pay the spiraling energy costs in the country who wish to migrate, insisting there is “no upper limit” to those wanting to escape the cost-of-living crisis.
The country’s president, Hage Gottfried Geingob, welcomed Germany’s Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck to Windhoek this week, and told German officials Namibia has ample space to host as many Germans who wanted refuge from the inflation encapsulating Europe.
The African country has introduced a new visa specifically for German citizens who can now live in Namibia for up to six months, where they can work remotely and feel at home with affordable living costs as they wait for Europe’s winter of discontent to blow over.
“You Germans are very welcome to us!” Nangula Uuandja, the CEO of the Namibian Investment Promotion and Development Board, told Germany’s Bild newspaper.
“Namibia is also called Germany’s little sister. We have cities that look like German cities. This is your second home here, a piece of Germany in Africa. We have German architecture, German street names, with the A1 even a German autobahn! German is one of our languages,” he added.
The former German colony still enjoys much of its German heritage, including a German-language daily newspaper and two German-language radio stations. German is still taught as a language at many state schools.
The country celebrates traditional German holidays like Oktoberfest and holds typical German carnivals in the capital of Windhoek every year.
Up to 15,000 German Namibians live in the country as descendants of former settlers.
“You can live and work here during the winter, you don’t have to fear the high heating costs like in Germany!” Uuandja explained.
“Our President wants to welcome more Germans!” he added, assuring that unlike in Germany, there are no threats of blackouts in the months to come.
“We always have electricity!” he claimed.
