Traditional cultures in Namibia

Meeting Grashoek Ju/’Hoansi Living Museum 23.05. & 24.05.2025

Kathrin Dürrschmidt

On Sunday, 18.05.2025 morning I received a phone call from the manager of the Ju/’Hoansi Living Museum, Apollo, informing me that the police arrived in Grashoek that morning to investigate a guest that had taken pictures of children and that there apparently was a problem.

On Wednesday, 21.05.2025 I spoke to Apollo again. The British tourist had been arrested and was faced with 38 charges including rape and child trafficking and indecent assault. Apollo was not aware of any of those assaults and said it would be better if we came up to Grashoek to have a meeting.

The Living Culture Foundation Namibia (LCFN), representative of the seven official Living Museums in Namibia, was informed on Sunday by the manager of the Living Museum in Grashoek about the incident in which a visitor to the Ju/'Hoansi Living Museum in Grashoek allegedly took nude photographs of minors.

Incredible but true! The Living Museum in Grashoek, Namibia’s first Living Museum, celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2024.

For this occasion, we organized a small commemorative event in December 2024 together with Carsten Möhle from Bwana Tucke-Tucke, featuring an archery tournament followed by a dinner!

In the Mbunza Living Museum, another major infrastructure project financed by our association was completed in September 2024.

The Living Culture Foundation Namibia helped setting up a small campsite including a shower and toilet for travelers who visit the Mbunza Living Museum to further support the Living Museum.

During the last project tour, the idea of a traditional workshop at the Mbunza Living Museum came about. The aim of the workshop was to improve traditional craft techniques that originally played a role in the respective traditional cultures and are now demonstrated in the living museums, as well as to relearn lost techniques. Furthermore, the workshop should also contribute to intercultural exchange. It was the first time that members from all seven Living Museums came together.

The Living Culture Foundation Namibia is organizing a traditional workshop and music festival for all Living Museums from Monday, October 30, 2023 to Friday, November 3, 2023. The workshop will take place at the Mbunza Living Museum, approximately 15 km west of Rundu.

The employees and patients of the dialysis clinics in Tangermünde and Genthin handed over a donation of €4,000 to Dr. Ralf Kühn, founding member and chairman of the board of the German-Namibian association Living Culture Namibia at his farewell party from work. This money was given to the Living Culture Foundation as a grant for the further development of the museum landscape in Namibia.

Thanks to a very generous donation of €3,600 from Ms. Ute Schmidt-Rohr, we were able to successfully complete the first part of the water infrastructure project at the Mbunza Living Museum.

A pump was installed at the Samsitu campsite very close to the Living Museum and it continuously pumps water via a small mini-pipeline into a 2500m³ tank at the museum. Thus, for the first time since the opening in 2011, the museum project workers have a regulated water supply directly at the project site.

 This meeting was a "follow-up" to the previous meeting in March 2022 to assess the project progress in the development of a Herero Living Museum in Otjokavare. From our side, two things were essential. Firstly: Better communication structures must be created. Secondly: There must be a clear agreement on further cooperation with the Herero community from Otjokavare and a commitment to the concept of the "Living Museum" with all of ist interwoven principles.

In August 2022 we paid a visit to the Mafwe at the Living Museum in the northern part of Namibia to, among other things, install a new road sign.

The erection of the sign had become necessary because the Mafwe had moved two years ago and some of the tour operators, who until then had only known the old place, were going to nowhere out of habit. The sign erected two years ago at the crossroads 3km south of the museum was too easy to miss. Therefore it was necessary to put up a bigger sign.