MAN launches Oombale Dhi Ihaka mobile exhibition and catalogue || The Southern Times

Staff Writer

Windhoek - The Museums Association of Namibia (MAN) will launch a mobile exhibition and catalogue entitled Oombale Dhi Ihaka, an Oshiwambo proverb meaning ‘a bond that cannot be broken’.

The launch is scheduled for Monday, April 15, at Nehale Senior Secondary School in Onayena Constituency in the Oshikoto Region.

Namibian Vice-President Nangolo Mbumba will launch the exhibition.

The launch will be the first milestone in MAN’s Museum Development as a Tool for Strengthening Cultural Rights project, which sponsored by the European Union.

The head of EU Delegation to Namibia, Ambassador Jana Hybaskova, is expected to attend the launch.

The exhibition is based on photographs of 127 cultural artefacts, which were collected by the Finnish missionary, Martti Rautanen, over 100 years ago and provide a unique insight into the cultural heritage of the Ondonga kingdom.

The famous missionary was popularly known among the Oshiwambo-speaking people in northern Namibia as Nakambale.

The section on the historical artefacts has been supplemented by oral history, recorded in the 1930s, giving an account of the early Aakwaniilwa and important information about the burial sites of some of the early leaders of the kingdom.

The exhibition and catalogue also feature the story of a fragment of the “Power Stone” of Ondonga, which was also discovered in the National Museum of Finland.

The exhibition covers 10 panels and is designed as an educational resource that will be available to travel around Namibia.

Secondary schools in Ondangwa and Oniipa will be able to book, through MAN, for their learners to visit the exhibition at Northcote School during the week of 27-31 May and receive a guided tour.

Teachers who organise a visit to the exhibition will receive a copy of the 120-page catalogue (which contains a lot more detailed information).

Free copies of the catalogue will also be distributed to secondary schools libraries throughout Namibia.