Snippets from the Audio Archive VI – Carol and Ron Gestwicki

Carol and Ron Gestwicki, a couple from northern America, worked for
the Anglican Church in Namibia from 1964 to 1966. Ron worked as a
priest in Windhoek’s African township, the Old Location, and as
such worked closely with oppositional leaders such as Hosea Kutako
and Clemens Kapuuo. Carol, a trained nurse, gave courses in the Red
Cross clinic of the Old Location and also evening and Sunday
classes for the Anglican church congregations. For a while they
lived in a caravan on the outskirts of Gobabis in eastern Namibia
in order to provide services to the so-called African reserve
population. Audio letters became the common feature of their
communications with their family. Given the increasing surveillance
by the colonial administration on foreign church workers in
Namibia, the couple decided to return to the US in 1966, after the
birth of their first child. Ron Gestwicki continued to work closely
with the exiled Namibian politicians and American Anti-Apartheid
groups in the US. For a while, their African friends in Namibia
continued to send them audio letters from Namibia. Today, the
Gestwicki’s collection of audio letters is housed at the BAB
Archives.