Euro-African Life in Namibia

It is “ FIVE OF KIND” time again and this year the bi-annual jewelry group exhibition is called “FIVE OF A KIND + 1” . The last exhibition was held in 2012 under the name “six of a kind”. Five of a kind + 1 consists of the same core group of the original “five of a kind” exhibition held in 2011. This unique group exhibition shows the work of five Namibian goldsmiths and jewelry designers and one guest designer joining the group at every “five of a kind” exhibition, therefore the add-on “+1” behind the title. (Attila Giersch)   The exhibition opened on the 16 th April at the Omba Gallery at 18h00 for 18h30 and will run until the 30 th of April, 2014 . The exhibition shows contemporary jewelry of five local goldsmiths . The six designers made effort to use new materials and unique design concepts. The presentation of the jewellery in the gallery is also unique. Every designer will present their jewellery pieces on different backgrounds, from a rustic back...

There are those who believe that some people are ‘born’ with the ability and spatial intelligence to draw and paint well, while others are not. Twenty-nine year-old, Witlock Kamatoto is currently exhibiting a series of sample works at Omba Gallery until the 12 th of April 2014, and once he paints the story of his colourful background, the aforementioned belief instantly leaps to mind. Kamatoto, a husband and father born and bred in Otjiwarongo , central-northern Namibia, disclosed that as a toddler and young boy, when out looking, his parents frequently found him drawing and scribbling in the sand with a small, dusty finger. In adolescence, at school especially, his ability to draw well was recognised and identified by a teacher, who encouraged him to continue drawing until he was considered the best artist at school. He never thought of what he does as ‘art’ and still does not; to him, the ability to draw and paint well are like any other skills which form the basis of a ...

“There is nothing mysterious about what happened here,” a leading academic in the field of early Namibian history said on Saturday, 29 March 2014, at the site of a memorial stone erected to commemorate the Nama and Herero victims of the 1904-1908 war, in Namibia.  The epitaph on the memorial stone reads, “In memory of the thousands of heroic OvaHerero and OvaMbanderu who perished under mysterious circumstances at the realm of their German colonial masters in concentration camps in Swakopmund (Otjozondjii) during 1904-1908." Members of the Nama and Herero communities gathered at the old cemetery in Swakopmund on Saturday, to commemorate the 110th year since the infamous Extermination Order issued by General Lothar von Trotha in 1904. (Photograph: German soldier guarding Namibian POWs) Prof. Dr. Reinhart Közle r of the University of Freiburg in Germany says that the thousands of unmarked graves along the Swakop riverbed contain the remains of prisoners of war, who were ...