Swakopmund Genocide Museum
- A very small museum on the outskirts of Swakopmund, Namibia, that is the only such institution that deals directly and exclusively with the topic of the genocide against the Herero and Nama during the German colonial rule in Namibia, especially between 1904 and 1908 – see under Namibian history!
The museum is the work of one individual, activist and artist Laidlaw Peringanda, himself a relative (great-grandson) of Namibia’s Herero national hero Hosea Kutako.
Apparently it was also Peringanda who left the red spray paint on the Marine-Denkmal in the centre of town in protest (see Swakopmund).
The Economist once said about this place: “One of the smallest museums in Africa might be its most important”.
When I visited Swakopmund in 2022, I had no idea this museum existed. It wasn’t mentioned in any guidebooks nor did anybody as much as hint at it, even though I made it clear to the company that organized this trip for me that I was quite interested in the dark aspects of the country’s history. But I guess they didn’t know about this museum’s existence either. I only learned about it from watching a documentary linked to the release of the 2023 German movie “Der vermessene Mensch” (‘Measures of Men’ in the English version), which is horrific and heartbreaking enough. The museum could only underscore this.
The museum is indeed small (just over 10 square metres) and housed in one room, but its walls are covered with black-and-white photos from the time, taken especially in the concentration camps (see Shark Island) that the Germans set up to incarcerate captured surviving Herero and Nama (of whom about half did not survive the camps). Many of the images are quite gruesome.
There are also a couple of artefacts on display and various books about the subject. And the curator is usually on hand to comment further about the subject and answer questions. He also organizes visits to the Herero cemetery in the south of Swakopmund.
Opening times: Monday to Saturday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Whether an admission fee is levied I could not find out. But there’s probably a way of making a donation.
Location: in a simple (black) residential quarter on the north-eastern edge of Swakopmund, Namibia, at 2409 Deuteronomy Street.