John Muyamba
RUNDU – Historian Kletus Likuwa has donated 18 of his scholarly publications relating to the history of the two Kavango regions to the Kavango East Regional Council to make publications on the region’s history available and accessible to the community.
The donation was handed over earlier this week at the Kavango East regional council. Likuwa is a historian and senior researcher from the Multi Disciplinary Unit of the University of Namibia’s (Unam) main campus, and he is also a moderator of Rumanyo, a Bantu language spoken in two dialectal variants – Rushambyu and Rugciriku – in Kavango East.
Likuwa has 35 publications to date; among them is the 2020 history book, titled: ‘Voices from the Kavango, a Study of the Contract Labour System in Namibia’. in 2021, he published a journal, titled: ‘Continuity and Change in Gender Relations Within the Contract Labour System in Kavango’, among others.
“Historians and local scholars have since 1965 published on the Kavango areas, now called Kavango East and West regions,” Likuwa said.
Likuwa noted that despite the increase in publications on the histories of the two Kavango regions, historians continue to receive persistent questions on why their histories are not written or why it is not part of public history or national school history books, and why is it not readily available and accessible.
“The persistent call and request for clarity on what seems a paucity on community history is the basis for this engagement,” Likuwa noted.
“Part of our mission as a research centre is to strengthen sustainable and transformative community engagements by engaging with national and regional leadership to identify potential and key areas for collaboration,” he said.
“As well as to tap on the regional indigenous knowledge system (IKS) to respond to community challenges like natural disasters and collaborating with stakeholders on some key community developmental projects,” he added.
The regional leadership received the 18 history publications relating to the two Kavango regions for use in community, libraries and resource centres within the region.
“What you are doing is great when it comes to the history of the region; if you go around the region, there are now few elders who can tell our history; grandparents have all died. Our generation is the only model of grandparents. If these books are going to be in the school system, at least young ones will have something to rely on,” said the chief regional officer for Kavango East, Ludwig Thikusho.