Germany hands over looted artefacts, including 23 ancient pieces of jewellery, to Namibia – on loan
- The returned items were taken mostly between the 1860s and the early 1890s. Hundreds of other objects remain in Germany
- ‘All the artefacts were collected during the Germany colonial era from different Namibian communities,’ said a Museum Association of Namibia spokeswoman
Namibia on Monday took delivery of 23 ancient pieces of jewellery, tools and other objects pillaged during colonial rule, and returned as an indefinite loan from Germany.
The return of the artefacts is part of a project to encourage rapprochement between the two nations.
“All the artefacts were collected during the Germany colonial era from different Namibian communities,” said the Museum Association of Namibia chairwoman, Hilma Kautondokwa.
The returned items were taken mostly between the 1860s and the early 1890s, she said. Hundreds of other objects remain in Germany.
The items were handed over to the National Museum of Namibia by the Germany’s Ethnological Museum of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.
They were immediately put up for public exhibition and will be available to local academics for research.
In May last year, Germany acknowledged it had committed genocide in colonial-era Namibia and promised a billion euros in financial support to descendants of the victims.