The object is over three meters high and weighs over a ton. Erected in 1486 by Portuguese navigators in the region, it served as an orientation lighthouse. The Cape Cross will be returned to Namibia, German Culture Minister Monika Grütters announced on Tuesday at a press conference at the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin. “The return of the Cape Cross stone cross is a clear signal that we recognize our colonial past, and that we seek and find with the countries of origin the means to have a respectful coexistence. »
The restitution is hailed as “a strong gesture” by Namibia’s ambassador to Germany, Andreas Guibeb. It is part of a policy pursued by Berlin for several years, aimed at calming the tense relations between the two nations. Increasingly willing to accede to Namibia’s demands, acknowledging that “for many decades the colonial era was a blind spot in German memory culture.” Wishing to remedy this, Berlin had already agreed in February 2019 to hand over to the heirs of Chief Nama Hendrik Witbooi, who died in 1905 in a battle against the soldiers of the German Empire, his Bible and his whip.
The object had left the desert of Namibia for Berlin in 1890, shortly after the passage of the country under the control of the German Empire. His return had been claimed since 2017 by Windhoek. For Andreas Guybet, this restitution will allow the country to work on its “colonial past and the path of humiliation and systematic injustice that it left behind”.
In the process, Berlin announced on Tuesday the return to ancient Namibia of around twenty old objects in the form of a loan. The artefacts will be transported to the National Museum of Namibia on Friday, so that they can “be studied by local researchers and artists”, the Berlin museum said, adding that this is one more step in the process of reassessment “of the long and complex history between Namibia and Germany”.
The cross exhibited since 2006 in the permanent collections of the museum should soon return to its place of origin, without any date being announced for the time being. The Ethnological Museum of Berlin also concluded an agreement last year with Nigeria relating to the return from 2022 of the bronzes of Benin.
