Marthina Mutanga
SOME members of a large group of Ovaherero people scheduled to travel to Germany to negotiate the return of a sacred belt belonging to one of their late chiefs found themselves in a predicament due to taking the Sinopharm vaccine, which is not recognised in Germany and requires a mandatory 10-day self isolation at own cost.
The group of 30 women and men from the Ovambanderu and Nguvauva clan, who were initially scheduled to travel this weekend but postponed the trip to 31 October, will go to Germany on a mission to negotiate with the Braunschweig museum the return of an artefact belt that belonged to the late Chief Kahimemua Hija-Kungairi Nguvauva.
Freddy Nguvauva from the Nguvauva clan explained that four members of their group who had taken the Sinopharm jab were left with no choice but to go back and receive the AstraZeneca jab in order to travel with the rest of the group.
Freddy said they only found out on Thursday, while at the German embassy to receive their visas, that those who took the Sinopharm vaccine will have to self isolate for no less than 10 days upon arrival in Germany.
“We would be required to isolate at own cost, which is too costly for us while in Germany, so those who has taken the Sinopharm jab opted to get vaccinated again with AstraZeneca,” he said.
Germany is amongst countries that do not recognize all WHO-approved vaccines as proof of immunity against Covid-19, and in line with the Ordinance on Coronavirus Entry Regulations for vaccinated travellers, everyone is required to be immunized with one of the vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
Freddy said once in Germany, their first call of duty is to identify the belt that was handmade by indigenous people and was taken from the late Chief Nguvauva.
The trip is a follow up to an earlier call by Namibia’s Founding President Sam Nujoma, to the Voigts family to hand over the historical belt that has a cultural significance to the community.
Nujoma made the appeal in 2019 during the 122nd commemoration of the battle of Otjiunda at Okahandja, claiming that the belt is a token of reconciliation and goodwill.
Gustav Voigts was a soldier who was tasked to disarm Chief Nguvauva, removed the chief’s sacred traditional belt together with a gun, and other items which he later took to the Braunschweig Museum in Germany for safekeeping, but later collected them.
Chief Nguvauva was the leader of the Ovambanderu community between 1850 and 1896.
In May 1896 at Otjunda, Chief Nguvauva was wounded and later surrendered to the German colonial soldiers.
Accused of organising the uprising against the Germans, he was sentenced to death and executed on 12 June 1896, together with Nikondemus Kavikunua in Okahandja.
Freddy confirmed that the museum in Germany funded four people and the Namibian government funded one person, while the rest collected funds to take up this mission.
“We have approached the Voigts family in Namibia and negotiated with them as we want to claim the belt back,” narrated Nguvauva.
The late Chief of the Ovambanderu Kilus Munjuku III Nguvauva also made a similar plea to the Voigts family to return the traditional belt, saying the community only wants the heirloom and it does not want any form of compensation or damages.
