CAPE TOWN, Aug. 19– South Africa on Wednesday returned ancestral remains and the mortal remains of two Namibian political prisoners during a solemn repatriation ceremony in Cape Town, the country’s legislative capital.
Two rooms were filled with ivory-colored coffins, side by side, each draped with the Namibian flag. The mortal remains of 84 indigenous people had been held at the Iziko South African Museum for more than 100 years and were said to have been used for “scientific reasons.”
Chairperson of the Council of Iziko Museums of South Africa Marvin Mdhluli said: “They entered the South African Museums as objects of race-based pseudo-scientific research,” aimed at portraying indigenous communities as having inferior attributes and status.
In a separate room stood two coffins containing the remains of political prisoners Festus Nehale, who died in 1971, and Simon Petrus Nileng, who died in 1974. Both had been imprisoned on Robben Island, South Africa’s notorious prison where anti-apartheid and other political prisoners were detained during apartheid.
They were buried in Cape Town. Members of the Namibian delegation solemnly bowed their heads before the coffins before addressing guests at the ceremony.
The handover also included grave goods and body casts, including beads, ostrich eggs and jewelry with lineage to Namibia.
“For too many years, the remains of our freedom fighters and ancestors were kept far from the land they called home. This was an injustice to them, their families and their communities,” South African Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie said in a statement.
“By bringing these political heroes and ancestors home, representing the Ovambo, Himba, San, Nama, Damara and Herero peoples, we restore their dignity, identity and rightful place in their homeland,” he said.
Namibia’s Minister of Education, Innovation, Youth, Sports, Arts and Culture Sanet Steenkamp said the liberation heroes will be reburied at Namibia’s Heroes’ Acre on Aug. 24. “Now they return to a free and sovereign Namibia,” she said.
“Some of these ancestors were taken from their communities and became part of the colonial scientific and museum collections where they were treated as objects, rather as people.” (Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)
