WITBOOI Traditional Authority leaders said yesterday that they had not agreed that the late Hendrik Witbooi’s Bible and whip be repatriated from Germany.
This comes after education minister Katrina Hanse-Himarwa held a press conference last week, together with Namibian ambassador to Germany Andreas Guibeb, where they announced that the Bible and whip will be returned on 26 February 2019.
The traditional authority’s kaptein Salomon Josephat Witbooi said in a statement that the |Khowese traditional community through its royal house and traditional authority did not give up their rights and the privileges by asking another clan, formation or the government to speak on their behalf.
“We, therefore, reserve all those rights, and immediately call on both the Namibian and German governments to involve the affected community in this process,” he stressed.
Hanse-Himarwa had stated that the Witbooi family had agreed and worked with the government, hence all the preparations which were done to ensure that the Bible and whip were repatriated.
She added that the late Witbooi was a national hero whose artefacts belong to all, including the state.
Salomon Witbooi said in his statement that it is disheartening and disrespectful to the royal house since these items were personal items of no military significance and did not belong to the state.
He said this does not mean they disagree with Hanse-Himarwa that Witbooi was a national hero.
“It is very disturbing that the surviving direct descendants, namely the great-grandchildren of Auta !Nanseb, are denied to receive these items on behalf of the Witbooi royal house and the clan at large. This is not only ethically flawed, but represents a flagrant denial of the final wishes of the surviving elders of the |Khowese clan,” he said.
Witbooi said Hanse-Himarwa handled the issue insensitively, and continued the “crafting of a false narrative that aims to exclude the |Khowese royal house, and has shown total disregard to the Witbooi traditional community”.
He also expressed the view that due to the history behind the Bible and whip, the matter cannot be a mere public relations event between the two countries.
“This repatriation is not merely a handover for us, but it obligates the German government to express remorse and a plan of restitution to ensure that those affected are uplifted from the current and deep socio-economic challenges faced by our people,” said Witbooi.
Hanse-Himarwa yesterday said the people who are in denial are the same ones who had initially agreed to have the Bible and whip repatriated last year before the process was postponed to this year.
“The allegations are devoid of any truth. They were part of the delegation which was supposed to repatriate the Bible and whip last year. We do not need their mandate to repatriate those objects and artefacts as it is a national call to repatriate the stolen items,” said Hanse-Himarwa.
She also urged the traditional authority which feels excluded to come and join the repatriation proceedings, because “the door is open, and nobody is excluded”.
The Namibian had reported that New York lawyer Kenneth McCallion had on behalf of the family written to the Linden Museum in Stuttgart, Germany, requesting that the repatriation should be put on hold for now.
The museum, however, refused to do so, and said they would rather have the repatriation happen sooner rather than to delay returning what already belongs to the Witbooi family.
Guibeb said the request to delay repatriation is not known to them, but added that a lawyer’s letter alone cannot stop the repatriation from happening, unless there is a court interdict.
