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.

The first stage of the water infrastructure project for the Mbunza is, thanks to a very generous donation, in the starting blocks.

The access to a supply of water is one of basic human needs. However, this need is not fulfilled in many parts of Namibia. This is also the case in the Mbunza Living Museum in Northern Namibia, about 15 km west of the town of Rundu. The staff of the living Museum does not have a water supply and needs to carry water from a great distance.

To ensure a regular water supply (and further development) for the Mbunza we launched the "Infrastructure project for the Mbunza".

We have a new infrastructure project and ask for your support. This project is about supplying the Mbunza community with clean drinking water (step 1) and creating a sustainable source of income in the form of a small campsite for visitors to the Living Museum (step 2).

We are happy to announce the pre-opening of the Living Museum of the Khwe.

Supported by our project partners Gebeco and Futouris e.V. we have repeatedly organized workshops and project meetings with a group of Khwe-San from Mut’icu to develop a living museum in the last two years.  This work was quite successful and we are proud that the 7th Living Museum in Namibia is ready to receive visitors.

The Khwe museum project is developing in a very good direction. To maintain the positive tendencies, we organized a traditional workshop in the museum on March 24th and 25th, 2021. The aim of the workshop in March was, among other things, to make traditional clothing, tools and weapons. Furthermore, the museum program should be supplemented by other traditional activities. The activities are, of course, also focused on the motivation of the project group. 

We made it! In these testing times we have finally managed to deliver all aid supplies of our 6000€ fund raiser to the Living Museums.

Goal was to supply all Living Museums supported by us with basic food products to the value of 1000€ per museum to help the actors and their families to make it through this tourist and income free time.

The first two Living Museums have received the long awaited emergency food supplies.

After a couple of problems with suppliers in Windhoek resulting in some delays in the delivery of goods we were able to transport the supplies to the Mbunza and Mafwe. The joy was huge in both Living Museums

John, the manager of the Ovahimba Living Museum visited us these days in Windhoek and has now received the first delivery of blankets.

In the following weeks, all other Living Museums will also receive the blankets, as well as the Corona Emergency food supplies, for which we are still collecting donations through betterplace.

220 blankets for 220 museum actors

Based on the Corona situation in Namibia we sent out a donation call for a Corona emergency package on Betterplace at the end of May. Currently we managed to collect donations of 4000 Euros, 2000 E are still missing so that every museum can receive food supplies of 1000 E. Here you can continue supporting us:

Corona emergency support on Betterplace

We also received numerous donations directly onto our foundation account. We are very thankful and impressed by the willingness to support us during these difficult times.

Great donation - 220 blankets for 220 museum actors

Through our call for support Alexandra Sacharow from Red Earth Safaris learned about our emergency project. Her German clients Jürgen and Brigitte of the German company Siebdruck Uth donated 220 blankets for 220 actors in the Living Museums to a total value of N$ 13.200. We also want to extend our hearty thanks to that!

We received the thick wool blankets just now - fittingly on one of the coldest winter mornings of the passed years here in Windhoek. Together with the food donations the blankets will be distributed to the Living Museums in the next few days - we will keep you informed!

Traditional workshop of the Khwe at the Ju/‘Hoansi site

Since 2009 the LCFN has been trying to set up a project in the form of a living museum with the Khwe San in northern Namibia, unfortunately so far without success. Constantly changing project groups, little motivation and unrealistic demands by the Khwe group members, as well as some failed approaches by external development aid organizations made us think of the project as a failure.

We made a final attempt in January 2020. This was encouraged and financed by the Futouris association from Germany and the Namibian travel agency ATC, which have been supporting the traditional village of the Khwe since 2013. As a project sponsor in Germany, the German travel agency Gebeco is supporting the project.

As marketing and consulting organisation the Living Culture Foundation Namibia is also responsable for the proper signposting of the six museums it is supporting in Namibia. The relentless heat of the sun especially up north fades and burns away the colours of the signboard to the extend that we have to replace them every 2 – 3 years.

The Living Museum of the Mafwe has moved. In mid-February 2019, we were able to carry out the long-awaited relocation of the Living Museum of the Mafwe.

The tourism in Namibia is at a peak in 2017 and 2018 and the Living Museums are visited by quite a number of people in the last two years. Here are our statistics for the last year 2017.

Here is the travelogue of Ulrike Laupichler, who won the Namibia holiday from the LCFN lottery:

We were greeted at the airport by the driver who took us to Africa on Wheels, where we were able to take over our Toyota Hilux 4x4. The car was equipped with brand new tires and carried us almost 3,000 km through Namibia without any problems

Werner will be at the Living Hunter's Museum and the Ju/'Hoansi-San Museum this week to help with the installation of new signboards and campsite add ons. Of course there will be some community meetings as well. End of the week Werner will also meet with a young group of Damara from the Spitzkoppe who might be interested in establishing a Living Museum. We will keep you updated.

The Living Culture Foundation gives thanks: Last year we had a brilliant fund-raiser by organising a raffle with a 14-day Namibia journey as main prize. The lucky winner of the tour, Ulrike Laupichler enjoyed the 14-day tour through Namibia from 22.01. – 03.02.2018 with her friend Sascha Müller.

A detailed tour review will follow shortly: We want to express our gratitude to the following sponsors, who made this fund-raiser a success:

On the 28.07.2017 we were celebrating the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Living Culture Namibia e.V. For the tenth time we have reason to celebrate and to look back on (more than) 10 years of project work in Namibia. Here we have put together a review of the events of the Living Museums and the Living Culture Foundation Namibia of the past 13 years.

On the occasion of our 10th anniversary we asked the managers of the Living Museums to give a short statement on how they see the work in their Living Museum. Here are the answers:

Brian Heyden, a tour operator from New Zealand who visits the Living Hunter’s Museum at /Xa//Oba annually, brought a special surprise for the villagers this year. He donated several bags of warm clothes, shoes and blankets to the Living Museum, ideal for the harsh winters of the northern Kalahari.

The New Zealand guests that went on a 3-week Namibia safari with Brian at the end of June bought all their camping equipment in Windhoek due to logistical reasons. After their visit at the Hunter’s Living Museum which the New Zealanders more than enjoyed, they decided to donate the complete equipment to the Bushmen after their tour.

Around midday we left the Living Museum towards the west to participate on a bushwalk together with the bushmen of the Living Hunter’s Museum. Although having been already several times on such a bushwalk with the San, every single time it is a wonderful, relaxing and exciting activity during which one is taken back to old times and one can imagine how the old bush life must have felt like. Thoughts start to wander. The stress and the everyday life seem far away and one starts to concentrate only on the essential things: But be aware of your steps, snakes, scorpions and other small animals are dangerous to step on. Now and then one of the San women discovered something special, e.g. Dchun (Walleria Nutans), which taste like old potatoes (that’s why they are called bush potatoes), the succulent root named “!ai!ai” (Raphionacme Velutina), which is essential for the old San’s survival or a sisal plant, known as “Oryx horn” or “Mother-in-law tongue”, which is used to make strings and ropes.

The almost meditative bushwalk had been constantly accompanied by lively conversations amongst the San. Often we stopped to analyze tracks of wild animals; we dug, picked and plucked. Suddenly a loud yelling and cheering, at first we thought a wild animal has jumped out of a bush. But no – one of the elder ladies jumped under a bush and started digging and revealed a small brown tuber.

It is with great pleasure that we announce the official opening of yet another Living Museum. Over the last year we have travelled to Omungunda – 40 km north of Opuwo – on a regular basis to hold meetings, motivate and guide. The efforts have not been fruitless and we are proud to invite you to the opening of the sixth Living Museum in Namibia: The Ovahimba Living Museum.

The Museum will officially open its “doors” to guests on the 05th November 2016 and we would like to give you the opportunity to come and celebrate this day with us. A demonstration of the program will be held in the morning whilst the opening ceremony will take place in the afternoon.

The aim of a second project meeting in March 2016 at the newly emerging Living Museums was to get an impression of progress of this project so far and to further motivate the Ovahimba project group to tackle challenges and to continue establishing their Living Museum.

Project report from Sebastian Dürrschmidt

On our project tour at the beginning of September, the LCFN was able to present the concept of the Living Museums to a group of Ovahimba in the north of the country. This marks the first step towards the establishment of a Living Museum.

Project report by Sebastian Dürrschmidt