The harsh life in former South West Africa, far removed from any colonial idyll, brought both ecstasy and despair to many Germans living there. Many of them documented these experiences in writing. Few were professional writers, yet they often displayed considerable literary talent. Whether farmers, researchers, women, or soldiers, they all share with us today the history of the former German colony, recounting the beautiful and the adverse experiences that life there brought. For many years, Werner Tabel collected selected works from this period and presented them in the African Home Calendar of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of South West Africa. In addition to the book contents, he was interested in the personalities and biographies of the authors. Compiled into a book, these essays from the home calendar now provide a colorful journey through a little-known, yet captivating and sometimes enlightening chapter of German literary history. Werner Tabel, born in 1929, was fascinated by distant South West Africa from an early age. To finance his travels, he worked as a freelance contributor for German and South West African newspapers and magazines alongside his job in the postal service. Since his retirement in 1994, he has been studying Modern History and German Studies at the University of Düsseldorf.