Oshakati – The Deputy Minister of Education, Arts and Culture, Anna Hipondoka, has tasked scholars to carry out scientific research on totems and document them.
While attending the 2016 Totem Expo, an annual event that is held by the Oshakati Town Council, Hipondoka called upon the likes of Petrus Mbenzi, historians and academicians to direct their studies to totems with a view to expand an understanding of the concept.
According to Hipondoka, the country faces many challenges such as poverty, drought and land distribution thus there is need to explore the prehistoric cultural events for possible ideas and possible solutions.
Hipondoka thus requested that a study on totems should be complemented by the use of technological instruments available with cultural contents.
“We need to scientifically research, document, preserve and pass on knowledge on totems, culture and national identity. We need to understand what culture says about all these issues and how our forefathers dealt with problems of this nature. I therefore would like at this juncture to implore everyone here to make use of the presented opportunity by the Oshakati Town Council to discover his/her totem and get further information regarding such from the elders,” said Hipondoka.
She further called upon elders to pass on the knowledge to the younger generation and ensure that cultural heritage is passed from one generation to another.
“Let us not deprive our children of their cultural heritage,” she said.
According to Hipondoka, apart from a known fact that totems are a cornerstone of blood relations, totems also have an advantage in creating an environment-friendly nation, where people, animals and plants live together in harmony because traditionally people would neither kill nor eat animals within the same totem domain.
“Like in my case, I cannot kill or eat a dog, because we are associated with dogs on my paternal totem,” she said.
“We are informed that this concept is not only important in Oshakati or Africa alone, but countries in Latin America and Asia have been embracing totems for more than 10 000 years. This means we have been part of the global community for ages, probably without knowing our interrelations,” said Hipondoka.