Damara Living Museum

The Living Museum of the Damara close to Twyfelfontein is the first traditional Damara project in Namibia and the only one of its kind. The possibility to experience the traditional Damara culture in this form exists nowhere else in Namibia or in the world. A number of cultural activities such as dancing, music, fishing and cooking are demonstrated whenever visitors visit the museum. As such, the museum has music instruments used on such occasions, some of these instruments have been preserved for a long time.

Together with the Bushmen the Damara belong to the oldest nations in Namibia. Their original culture was a mixture of an archaic hunter-gatherer culture and herders of cattle, goats and sheep. Due to their loose social structures the Damara were not able to defend themselves against aggressors during the colonization of Namibia. This is one of the reasons why their culture has to a great extent fallen into oblivion.

Within the framework of the Living Museum of the Damara, an attempt was made to reconstruct the ‚lost culture’ of the Damara. Here the visitors have the unique opportunity to get to know the fascinating traditional culture of the Damara, thus contributing to the preservation of the culture as well as to a regular income for the Damara community that built the museum.