Cape Town to Windhoek: 'Hottentots' or Khoekhoen?
The rehabilitation of an ethnic cluster
29.11.2007 - 27.04.2008
The two nations of South Africa and Namibia evoke many conflicting emotions when their past is considered. One is the Imperial German colonial rule in South West Africa of the late nineteenth – early twentieth century. These nations’ shared past has, since the 1960s, been of developing academic interest, not least at the Linden-Museum Stuttgart, and the present exhibition focuses on the Khoekhoen - once colloquially known as Hottentots – people of the region.
The exhibition discusses and displays their cultural achievements of the past 2000 years. This includes their experiences under both Dutch and German colonial administration, and in particular the Great Nama War of 1903-08 in southern Namibia, when the Nama people battled against German occupation of their territories. Part of this campaign to crush Nama independence was the establishment of concentration camps by the German Defense Forces – the Schutztruppe. Families flung into these were decimated by starvation, forced labour, and the generally appalling conditions within these camps. Today this policy is categorized by the U.N. Convention of 1948 as genocide. By the time of the Nama defeat, more than half the population of 20,000 had perished.
The exhibition includes traditional dwellings, musical instruments, beautiful beadwork, and contemporary, colourful patchwork textiles. Of specific historical interest is a Nama language bible which was the personal property of the Nama leader, Hendrik Witbooi. This remarkable language – best known because of the click sounds it incorporates – was first given a written form by Protestant missionaries at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The bible was looted by troops when the German colonial forces stormed Witbooi’s capital in 1893, and, after a sojourn in the Imperial Colonial Department in Berlin it was donated to the Linden-Museum Stuttgart in 1902.
An exhibition catalogue in German will be available at the price of EUR 29,90.
Admission fee:
EUR 7,-/5,-
Children under 14 are free
Guided tours (in German):
Sundays 11:00 (except Easter Sunday)
Wednesdays 18:00
gallery of the exhibition
The exhibition discusses and displays their cultural achievements of the past 2000 years. This includes their experiences under both Dutch and German colonial administration, and in particular the Great Nama War of 1903-08 in southern Namibia, when the Nama people battled against German occupation of their territories. Part of this campaign to crush Nama independence was the establishment of concentration camps by the German Defense Forces – the Schutztruppe. Families flung into these were decimated by starvation, forced labour, and the generally appalling conditions within these camps. Today this policy is categorized by the U.N. Convention of 1948 as genocide. By the time of the Nama defeat, more than half the population of 20,000 had perished.
The exhibition includes traditional dwellings, musical instruments, beautiful beadwork, and contemporary, colourful patchwork textiles. Of specific historical interest is a Nama language bible which was the personal property of the Nama leader, Hendrik Witbooi. This remarkable language – best known because of the click sounds it incorporates – was first given a written form by Protestant missionaries at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The bible was looted by troops when the German colonial forces stormed Witbooi’s capital in 1893, and, after a sojourn in the Imperial Colonial Department in Berlin it was donated to the Linden-Museum Stuttgart in 1902.
An exhibition catalogue in German will be available at the price of EUR 29,90.
Admission fee:
EUR 7,-/5,-
Children under 14 are free
Guided tours (in German):
Sundays 11:00 (except Easter Sunday)
Wednesdays 18:00
gallery of the exhibition