Witbooi heirlooms give clan hope

MEMBERS of the Witbooi clan on Thursday gathered at Gibeon village in the Hardap region to witness the coming home of their late kaptein Hendrik (!Nanseb) Witbooi’s Bible and whip.

The objects were likely captured during an attack on the late kaptein Hendrik Witbooi by the German colonial forces at Hornkranz in the Khomas Hochland mountains more than 120 years ago.

The items were then donated to the Linden Museum in Stuttgart, Germany in 1902.

Witbooi clan elders handed back the Bible and whip for exhibition in the national archives to education minister Katrina Hanse-Himarwa following the symbolic handover of the artefacts to them by president Hage Geingob on Thursday at the tranquil village of Gibeon.

Clan members spoke to on the sidelines of Thursday’s restitution ceremony were unanimous in their opinion that the returned Witbooi heirlooms should bring tourism spin-off benefits for them.

Clan member reverend Neels Simon appealed to the government to speed up plans to build a museum at Gibeon village, where the historical artefacts of the Witbooi clan should be displayed.

“They (artefacts) should not be kept for a very long time at the national archives. We want these artefacts displayed at our local museum,” he said.

Gibeon has been the home town of the Witbooi clan, a sub-tribe of the Nama people, ever since the first kaptein of the Witbooi clan Kido Witbooi, arrived at the village with his followers in about 1850. Simon further suggested that the Witbooi Traditional Authority should sell copies of the Bible to generate income for the betterment of the Witbooi clan.

Reverend Pineas Topnaar echoed those sentiments. “The government should speed up plans to build a museum for keeping and displaying the artefacts,” he said.

According to Topnaar, a museum at Gibeon displaying the Witbooi heirlooms would attract tourists to the village, and “surely that would bring socio-economic development”.

He said by returning the artefacts to their rightful owners, the German government has shown “kind of remorse” for the atrocities it committed against the Nama and Ovaherero people during the 1904-1908 genocide.

Another clan member, Floris Fleermuys, said the significance of the return of the late Witbooi’s treasures must have socio-economic spin-offs for his descendants.

“It should not be a scenario of you come and give back the Bible and whip, and leave,” he stated.

Fleermuys noted that there are many forgotten landmarks at Gibeon village that could together with the display of the artefacts at a local museum attract tourists.

Unam lecturer Memory Biwa said the symbolic handing over of the Bible and whip had touched many clan members emotionally.

“When we talk about redressing the German colonial injustices, we must also think of material compensation,” she said, expressing the hope that Germany would consider aspects of restitution.

– luqman@namibian.com.na

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