A cultural experience, unmatched elsewhere in the world, awaits both locals and tourists when visiting the

Living Museum of the Damara for the first time.

At the museum, visitors have the unique opportunity to get to know the fascinating culture and traditions of the
Damara people. The museum contributes to the preservation of the Damara culture, and is a regular source of
income for the tightly-knit community. The Living Museum of the Damara, located near the Twyfelfontein
rock engravings, is an opportunity for visitors and locals to learn of the history of the Damara people.
According to the supervisor at the museum, Otto Tsibeb, the Damara culture has to a great extent fallen into
oblivion. Tsibeb said the framework of the Living Museum of the Damara; an attempt was made to reconstruct
the lost culture of the Damara.
Our culture is being forgotten and we want to save it and teach our children about the way we lived, he said.
Visitors to the Living Museum have a choice of several programmes which are presented by an Englishspeaking guide. At the museum, visitors will encounter traditional blacksmiths showing the art of making
weapons and tool and the tanning of leather that shows the steps in the production of traditional clothes.
Furthermore, there is a crafts and curio shop on site. Song and dance accompanied by traditional games, fire
making displays and much more can be experienced.
Great importance is attached to representing the ancient culture as authentically as possible, Tsibeb noted.
Visitors are shown how the Damara start a fire by using sticks and donkey dung. Their traditional beer made
out of herbs and certain substances produced by ants, which is collected from an anthill, provides for an
interesting taste.
The museums huts, clothes, household tools and all the other materials of days gone by are made by the
villagers themselves.
The Living Museum of the Damara was developed and built by Hans-Bernhard Naobeb in cooperation with
the Living Culture Foundation Namibia. Since Hans- Bernhard visited a traditional Mafwe Museum in the
Caprivi in 2004, it was his dream to present the traditional Damara culture in a museum.
The museum was opened in early 2010 and was a huge success for the Damaras, as it highlighted their unique
culture. It has becomes a workplace and a business venture for the community, and the profits are shared
among the community.

At the moment, a group of more than twenty Damaras have secure employment with the museum. Tsibeb said
since the museum has opened, there has been a reduction in unemployment rate, especially amongst the
youths.
Due to the proximity to Twyfelfontein, a World Heritage Site, visitors tend to see the museum as a quick inbetween stop
Damara people living in Namibia
and broader southern Africa have mystifi ed anthropologists as they are suspected to be a group of Bantu
origin who speak a Khoisan dialect. Indeed being from khoisan existence but due to their resemblance to
some bantu groups of West Africa it is speculated that the Damara were the fi rst people to migrate to
Namibia from the nor th. They lived in the whole of southern Africa with the San people, whose name is
derived from the Damara language.
There is evidence (2000 before Christ)that the Damara have kept small herds of stock for centuries, they
also grow tobacco and pumpkins, and in more recent time they have begun cultivating vegetables and corn.
Prior to 1800 the Damara occupied most of Namibia, but large numbers were displaced or killed when the
Nama and Herero began to occupy this area in search of better grazing. When the fi rst Europeans visited
Namibia the Damara were a group of semi-nomadic gardeners, pastoralists and hunter-gatherers. They also
had skills in mining and metal work. However in 1960 the South African government settled the Damara in
Damaraland, an area of poor soil and irregular rain fall. Due to this many Damara now work in the urban
areas and only about one quarter of their numbers still occupy Damaraland.
The Damara called themselves #Nukhoe meaning \\\'black person\\\'.

vcalabashes, hunting tools, bellows, hides, etc.