2018-03-13Staff Report 2 Alvine Kapitako Windhoek-A book titled ‘Reflections on modern Damara history’ was launched over the weekend. The author, Seth Mataba Boois told New Era the book was a result of his inspiration to rewrite ‘Eurocentric’ history of the Namibian people and in particular, the Damara people. As a child, Boois grew up listening to oral narrations of history and writing the book is his contribution towards shaping Namibian history. “The central hypothesis of this book is that like many marginalised tribes and communities all over the world, our people have suffered from the neglect of their history for the past two centuries,” Boois states in the book’s prologue. In around 1884, German merchant Adolf Luderitz followed by European missionaries, traders, colonial administration of Germany and other colonialists appeared on the centre stage in Namibia, then known as South West Africa, largely contributed to the distortion of the Damara history, Boois states in his book. “They have largely contributed to the denigrat[ion] or distort[ion] of the Damara history by insisting that the history of the Damara people was shrouded in mystery,” Boois wrote in the prologue. Chief Petrus Ukongo of the #Gaodaman clan, a subgroup of the Damara people commended the author for the publication, saying he looks forward to more volumes of the book. The revelations contained in the book are critical and children should be taught about them, added the chief. He also urged those with knowledge of oral history to take it to those who can produce it in publications. Boois has written five books, two of which are fiction. 2018-03-13Staff Report 2
