Bern museum returns cultural artefacts to Namibia

The Bern Historical Museum returns cultural artefacts to Namibia Keystone-SDA

After 120 years in Bern, a collection of cultural artefacts is returning to Namibia. The Bern Historical Museum has transferred ownership to the town of Usakos, where the objects were originally acquired under colonial rule. An exhibition in Bern explores the theme of repatriation.

The exhibition Destination: Usakos will run from September 18, 2026 to July 4, 2027, as the Bern Historical Museum (BHM) announced on Thursday. It features objects which the museum has already transferred to the Namibian town of Usakos.

The collection was assembled in the early 20th century in what was then “German South-West Africa”. In 1906, the Swiss engineer Victor Solioz and his wife Marie acquired around 286 everyday objects, jewellery and weapons from Namibian railway workers. At the time, Solioz was working as chief engineer on a German railway project. The exact circumstances of the acquisition remain unclear to this day. The couple brought the collection to Bern, where the museum purchased it in 1928.

A years-long process of restitution

In June 2026, the BHM transferred ownership of the entire collection to the Usakos Town Museum. Twenty-eight of the artefacts are already in Namibia. The majority are now on loan and on display in Bern, before the objects are also repatriated at the end of 2027.

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The repatriation was preceded by a process lasting several years. Since 2018, the museum has been strengthening its ties with partners such as the Museums Association of Namibia and the Usakos Town Council. From 2023, a collaborative project was launched in which new knowledge about the objects was gathered in cooperation with the descendants of the railway workers.

Coming to terms with the past and responsibility

“Cultural heritage should be used where it holds significance for people as a source of knowledge and identity,” museum director Thomas Pauli-Gabi was quoted as saying in the press release. The exhibition curator, Samuel Bachmann, added that a collection linked to Namibia’s greatest national trauma could not be retained against the wishes of the descendants. A study from 2024 showed that museums in German-speaking countries hold around 19,000 artefacts from Namibia, while the National Museum of Namibia itself possesses only around 1,600 objects.

A future in Usakos

For the Usakos Town Museum, this is its first collection of its own. The town’s deputy mayor, Kleophas Johannes, expressed the hope that the artefacts would remain at the Usakos Museum for the next 120 years. They must not be locked away again, but must be accessible to the community.

The development of Usakos is closely intertwined with the construction of the Otavi Railway and German colonial history. At the beginning of the 20th century, in what was then German South-West Africa, the railway served as the logistical backbone of the colonial power, Germany. The railway linked the Atlantic port of Swakopmund with lucrative copper mines.

Local labour was exploited for the construction of the railway and the extraction of minerals from the mines. Land and natural resources were seized from the indigenous population without compensation. To this day, the construction of the Otavi Railway is regarded as an example of the interplay between economic exploitation, military oppression and the establishment of colonial structures.

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Translated from German, reviewed by an English Department journalist.