2025
The “Mapping Aminuis” project enables students in the Kalahari Desert to record their local environment using modern mapping methods and make this knowledge usable in the long term. By using OpenStreetMap and creating digital maps, the participants learn to systematically document their village of Aminuis and the use of paths. This makes previously undocumented knowledge visible worldwide. By transferring knowledge to younger generations, the project also contributes to cultural preservation in the Kalahari. Place and place names as well as geographical knowledge, e.g. about paths and path use, are thus preserved. The project trains 20 young Namibians to document local geographical knowledge and make it visible online. In addition, the project makes paths and places and thus local ways of life visible on googleMaps that were previously undocumented. As part of the project, interviews are conducted with older residents of Aminuis so that local knowledge can also be passed on to the younger generation.
