Museums remain closed

The Owela Display and Educational Centre and the Alte Feste in Windhoek are both still closed to the public.The Alte Feste was closed for repairs around 2014 and Owela was closed on 16 March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.According to the curator of exhibitions for Owela, Olivia Nakale, the museum – which is located next to the National Theatre of Namibia - cannot be reopened now."The building needs to be repaired and renovated and there are just no funds. "Once we get funds, the work can start and the display and educational centre can be reopened. Until then, unfortunately, it will remain closed," she said.The same goes for the Alte Feste, its curator for social sciences, Miriam Mubusisi, said."The German embassy gave us money so that we could stabilise the building to ensure that it did not collapse. Now there is no money to do the other repairs and much-needed renovations. The museum falls under the ministry of education, arts and culture, which means heritage must compete with classrooms.To stop children being taught under trees, classrooms are built, she said, adding that heritage is “unfortunately last on the list of government priorities".Plans in pipelineMubusisi said plans have already been made for when the Alte Feste is restored."We will exhibit all the historical items there again. There are also plans to house natural heritage exhibits there. All the items and objects that were housed in the Alte Feste are now safe in the Bergmann Haus.”She added that all who are proud of their history and want to preserve it are welcome to contribute to the restoration work.Other museumsMeanwhile, the National Museum of Namibia, located opposite the Independence Memorial Museum, is an administrative building with only have a few exhibits.The building houses numerous scientific, archaeological and anthropological collections, many of which date from the 1900s.“The anthropological collection is of cultural coastal effects of all the ethnic groups of Namibia. The natural science collections include reptiles, snakes, spiders, scorpions and insects. The mammals consist of wet samples, as in animals, and dry samples, such as the skin and bones of different animals. We also have a collection of fish. However, access to all the collections must be arranged and granted in advance,” Nakale said.The Independence Memorial Museum is open to the public, but the television sets showing videos that complement and explain its various exhibitions do not work. Many of the descriptions to the exhibitions are gone too, with the building in need of repairs.

Museums remain closed

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Namibian Sun 2025-08-11

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Museums remain closed

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Namibian Sun 2025-08-11

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