Thursday 6 March 2014

Namibian skulls are back tomorrow

Minister Jerry Ekandjo and a high-level official government delegation is expected to arrive in Namibia tomorrow, after completing a trip to Germany to retrieve fifty-five skulls and two skeletons of local origin removed to that country during colonial times.
Last week, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information Communication Technology, Mbeuta Ua-Ndjarakana said that the ten-person delegation would arrive tomorrow, bringing the human remains first to Parliament Gardens in the capital where they will lay in state.
Citizens have been asked to go to the gardens from early in the morning until lunch for singing songs and performing praise poems.
An official ceremony will start after the public viewing of the remains from 12h00.
Public ceremonies and rituals will take place until 18h00 that afternoon, while President Hifikepunye Pohamba is also expected to speak.
This will be the second batch of human remains returned to Namibia following the return of twenty skulls early last year. Previous reports suggest that as many as 400 skulls and human remains were removed from the country during Germany’s colonial occupation of the country.
However, according to Ua-Ndjarakana, the remains are scattered and the process of searching and verifying is arduous. “It’s a hunt,” he said.
The human remains returning to home soil tomorrow include those of Ovaherero, Oshiwambo, San, and Damara/Nama descent.

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