Waves of Change, Phase II: Return to Lüderitz

By Rob Barnes

By GRID-Arendal

August 24^th, 2025

After an eight-hour drive from Windhoek, Hasan and I arrived in Lüderitz and were greeted by the welcome sign we painted last year. The lines were still sharp, a traditional fisherman pulling a boat rope next to the words “we are all pulling in the same direction”. No graffiti. No damage. The town had looked after it.

This was my third trip to Namibia, I was proud to see what we had started last year through the “Waves of Change” campaign, a community-powered project that’s turning the walls of Lüderitz into massive works of ocean-inspired art. This time, we spent eight days in Lüderitz.

This time I was able to get more involved with the painting, helping Hasan on the big pieces. We worked using Hasan’s pre-cut stencils and a spray gun, hastily taping pieces up against the Lüderitz wind and painting between gusts. The community members that had been trained last year during Phase I were also working on painting across the town, so we could focus on the more complex murals.

Waves of Change, Phase II: Return to Lüderitz

What changed since last year

Last year, the Waves of Change murals launched a conversation. This year, those conversations walked into classrooms. Waves of Change Phase II centres on schools and the Ocean Literacy Toolkit, so the walls are not just backdrops, they are lesson plans you can touch. The champions from Phase I kept their momentum. Seeing the Benguela Infinite Fisheries and Harvesting Association offices painted, a promise from last time honoured, felt important.

Classrooms as coastlines

We focused our time on three schools around Lüderitz. The themes, based on the Ocean Literacy Toolkit, were tailored by level:

Pre-primary: animals that live in and around Lüderitz.

Primary: the seven principles of ocean literacy.

Secondary: livelihoods and what the ocean gives us.

Students at each school were invited to an unveiling where they added their painted handprints, putting the finishing touches on the murals.

Their thanks felt genuine, and it gave students permission to take pride in the murals, to call them theirs. They spoke about seeing ideas they had only heard before, now visible on brick. Curiosity turned into questions, then into drawings, then into claims of ownership, our school, our ocean, our future.

Art and a life turning

We sat with Namibian artist Armand Welsket for an interview that left Hasan visibly moved. Armand spoke plainly about years entangled in drugs and crime, and about the decision to stop. He credits consistent support, the chance to work, and the act of painting to rebuild trust. His words were tough and hopeful, a reminder that public art can be more than a pretty picture on a wall. It can be a scaffold for a different life.

Armand leaned into the reason we paint here at all. The African Penguin, the Bank and Cape Cormorants, the Cape Gannet, birds that read the current like a map. The plastics that choke bays. The talk of oil offshore. Murals cannot solve these pressures, but they can keep the story present, and present stories change choices.

A day with a ranger

We joined Ukarapo Mungunda, a NAMCOB ranger, for a session with the Angra Pequena School environment club. She made a presentation to the kids entitled “A day in the life of a ranger”. We asked the students about work in Lüderitz. They described how closed fishing seasons in the Marine Protected Area protect stocks, and how those closures also mean quiet months for some households. Some families stay and wait, and have to deal with unemployment. Others travel north for work and send money home. The conversation was honest. Protection and livelihood must both fit, like two hands holding the same net.

Small encounters, large feelings

We visited the temporary bird rehabilitation centre at the Ministry of Fisheries complex. We met a penguin with a tiny cast on its leg. It stared at us, tilting its head. Small, awkward, determined. The centre is a small outdoor area, almost like a garden shed, with a small pool for the birds to swim. It’s a temporary solution until the NIMPA+ project builds a dedicated NAMCOB centre, but it is full of careful attention. That cast on the penguins leg said more about care than any speech I could write.

Partners and thanks

Waves of Change is a collaboration shaped by the Namibia Nature Foundation, NAMCOB, the Lüderitz Town Council, schools, local artists, and GRID-Arendal. The Phase I champions have become mentors. The Phase II focus on schools makes the learning visible and local. Thank you to everyone who opened walls, brought ladders, and stood in the wind with us.

What comes next

The school walls will keep teaching long after the last brush is washed. We are already planning Phase 3, taking the work to other coastal towns, involving local media, and empowering the Waves of Change champions to continue the work long after the project ends. The plan is simple, light maintenance where needed, classroom use of the Ocean Literacy Toolkit, and more student-led detail added over time. We will keep documenting so the work can be shared with the wider coast.

Planning the next phase

After those eight days in Lüderitz, we drove back to Windhoek for a two-day NIMPA+ consortium retreat at a secluded mountain lodge, Kapps Mountain, with barely working internet. We took stock at the halfway point of this five-year project, noted what was working, what needed attention, and mapped the next two and a half years.

During the retreat, Hasan and I ran a Claymation workshop, a hands-on team session using plasticine to make short stop-motion clips. It was playful and useful, a way to observe how we collaborate and to reflect on how we manage the project.

After the retreat, we returned to Windhoek for a two-day governance workshop and training with local stakeholders and government officials. A short writeup of that session can be found here: NIMPA+ training inspires new momentum for marine protection.

AI Generated Image - This was given to the team as a storyboard for their animations

A new wave of change?

Before we packed up to travel back home, I thought about what we had accomplished beyond paint. The walls will fade and be refreshed; the memory will stay sharp.