Cultural preservation within Damara people
Spira Tlhankane | Friday May 27, 2016 10:19
The Living Museum of the Damara is situated about 10 kilometres north of the famous Twyfelfontein rock engravings site. It is an authentic open-air museum, which is independently managed by the Damara.
The museum gives visitors interesting insight into Damara traditions, culture and original lifestyle. Their original culture was a mixture of an archaic hunter-gatherer culture and herders of cattle, goats and sheep.
When Arts & Culture arrived at the museum, it looked more like an ancient place of living. The museum is built next to a mountain and there is a rock tunnel at the entrance to make the place even more appealing to the visitors.
There is a reception at the entrance where visitors pay to get their Damara experience.
The Damara people are talented artists and there are artifacts placed for sale at the Museum reception. They make various artifacts ranging from traditional bracelets, neckpieces, earrings, amulets and many other forms of indoor decor. Upon arrival, there was a 20-year-old man called Simon Howaeb, who introduced himself as the main guide.
He was dressed in leather shorts popularly worn by the San people. He said the main intention of the museum was to show people how Damara people used to live in the past.
“Damara people used to live like this close to 500 years ago and now our culture is forgotten. In 2010 we decided to open this museum to revive our culture,” he said.
Howaeb who dropped out of school due to financial challenges said they do not live at the museum, but they come there everyday to pursue their mandate.
He said the reason why the museum is located next to a mountain is to show that Damara people often relocated to the mountain caves during heavy rains because their structures could not withstand the weather conditions.
“A Damara chief got married to 10 or more wives. He was a lucky and very busy man,” he said.
He said knowing how to make a fire was one of the qualities that determined whether a young man was ready to get married or not.
The Damara men at the museum then demonstrated to people how they used to make fire in the past. While the one man was holding a small piece of wood, the another twisted a stick into a hole in the wood. As there was more and more friction between the wood and the stick, smoke started to appear. As the wood started to glow, the man put grass on the glowing wood to make fire. It looked like a difficult task, but the men did not take long.
From there the Damara people led us to a hut where they kept their herbs and medicinal products. They showed us the herb called stinking bush, which they said is used to fix stomach pains. There was also a mophane tree, which they said is a sacred tree in their culture. They use it to build houses among others. The leaves of the mophane tree can also be used for healing.
The Damara people also served the visitors traditional beer. Afterwards they ended their tour with their traditional dance. At the back of the yard, there was a one-legged old man who made leather products. He mostly made mats and clothing from goat skin.
He indicated that in the past they used wild animal skins, but now Damara people cannot because they are not allowed to hunt anymore. They also played their traditional games including one of holes and stones known as morabaraba in Botswana.
Tourists sustain the Damara museum and it is open everyday throughout the year from sunrise to sunset. The number of tourists who visit the place vary with seasons.
The Living Culture Foundation of Namibia (LCFN) supports the museum. LCFN is a non-profit German-Namibian organisation, which focuses on cultural cooperation in rural areas in Namibia.