Diversity in the Postcolonial State: The case of the return of looted heirlooms from Germany to Namibia in 2019

• Autore: Reinhart Kößler
• Carica: Retired Director and Associate, Arnold Bergstraesser Institute, Freiburg, Germany
• Pagine: 112-127

Diversity in the Postcolonial State:

The case of the return of looted heirlooms

from Germany to Namibia in 2019

Reinhart Kößler

Abstract

The restitution of the bible and the riding whip of Namibian national hero Hendrik Witbooi,

which had been looted during colonial conquest by Germany in 1893, triggered a controversy

that points to fundamental contradictions of the postcolonial state. In particular, the official

narrative that highlights unity over diverse historical experience is called into question. In early

2019, issues coalesced around the question of ownership to the restituted heirlooms. These

relate to the colonial roots of the Namibian state and its homogenising thrust.

Keywords: Memory – restitution – territoriality – Postcolonial State – Namibia.

SUMMARY: 1. Introduction. 2. Wanderings of a bible and a whip, or: restitution and its

pitfalls. 3. At the origins of the Namibian state. 4. The hegemonic narrative and

diversity. 5. The Postcolonial State and its colonial heritage.

 Retired Director and Associate, Arnold Bergstraesser Institute, Freibur g, Germany; Professor,

Department of P olitical Scien ce, University of Freibur g; Associate Visiting Pr ofessor, Department of

Sociology, University of Education, Freiburg. Su ggested citation: R. Kößler, Diversity in the

Postcolonial State: The case of the return of looted heirlooms from Germany to Namibia in 2019, in

Nuovi Autorit arismi e Demo crazie (NA D), n. 2/2019, pp. 109-124. The text has been sub mitted on 21st

November 2019 and, after peer-review, 10th December.

Nuovi Autoritarismi e Democrazie:

Diritto, Istituzioni, Società

n. 2/ 2019 ISSN 2612-6672 | 110

1. Introduction

At times, seemingly obvious and simple actions expose fundamental contradictions.

This is true of the postcolonial situation that exists between Namibia and Germany. In

the course of the first restitution by a German state entity of objects looted from its

former colony in February 2019, unexpected conflicts, pitfalls, controversies and, in

particular, postcolonial entanglements became apparent. Such situations can be termed

as postcolonial precisely because they articulate both the persistence of colonialism and

its multi-sited nature, which continues to affect both the former colony and its

metropole, albeit not in the same forms or on equal terms. Of particular relevance to the

topics treated in this paper are diversity and the handling of problems stemming from it

by officialdom, including the government and the ruling party, in postcolonial Namibia.

The first experience of restitution to Namibia of cultural goods acquired by a German

institution in a colonial context brought out some fundamental issues which point to

central traits of the postcolonial state and the specific postcolonial situation of Namibia.

These problems will be at the centre of this contribution, whereas I shall only briefly

recapitulate the actual process of restitution itself

1

.

In the following paragraphs, I would like to set out two main and interrelated

propositions. First, restitutions of robbed cultural objects, as well as of deported human

remains, while unquestionably necessary, still can in no way undo the impact and

consequences of colonialism; it can even be said that such consequences become re-

articulated in fresh conflicts on the ground. Second, this is reflected in practices of the

postcolonial state, which, as in the case that occasioned this paper, positions itself as the

immediate heir of the colonial state. In important ways, the colonial state has provided

the groundwork on which the postcolonial state rests. Besides bureaucratic practice, this

applies in particular to to the principle of territoriality, which appears as germane to the

present case study. After a brief rehearsal of the circumstances surrounding the

restitution of two important heirlooms from the ethnological museum in Stuttgart,

capital of the German state of Baden-Württemberg, I shall pinpoint my first conclusion,

concerning the predicaments of such actions which cannot undo the effects of colonial

rule. Following this, the practice of the Namibian state and its representatives in this

particular case, as in other respects as well, is shown not only to underscore this finding,

but also to point to broader issues around the handling of diversity, as also epitomised in

conceptions of national history in independent Namibia.

1

For such an account, see R. Kößler, The Bible and the Whip – Entanglements around the restitution of

robbed heirlooms in Arnold Bergstraesser Institute Working Paper no 12, Freiburg, 2019;

https://www.arnold-bergstraesser.de/sites/default/files/field/pub-

download/kossler_the_bible_the_whip_final_0.pd f (last accessed 8.12..2019). The observation of th e

restitution was made possible since I was included in the delegation of the Ministry of Science and the

Arts of Baden-Württemberg, which I gratefully ackn owledge.