Return to Namibia by private Swiss

Katharina Küng from canton Zurich had a headdress that she had received from her mother hanging on her wall for a long time. “We thought it was the padding of an old suit of armour,” Küng says. It wasn’t until a trip to Namibia that she realised – in the Swakopmund Genocide Museum – that it was a traditional Herero headdress.

Before colonisation, married women wore it on special occasions. During German colonisation, missionaries forced the population into European dress. She decided that the headdress had to go back but didn’t dare bring the artefact to Namibia herself: “I was afraid of doing something illegal – what if I was arrested while crossing the border?”

Küng contacted curator Peringanda via the internet and together they decided on the safest method for both parties: the headdress was sent by post. Today it is back.