Dagger with sheath · Namibia, Ovambo · ID: 3053544
Reinhold Kloppe, Windhoek, Namibia / Swinemünde-Harzgerode, Germany
Gerda Wilhelmine Emilie Kloppe, (1919 Windhoek, Namibia - 1994 Swinemünde-Harzgerode, Germany)
Zemanek-Münster, Würzburg, Germany, 5 November 2016, lot 510
Arno Henseler, Munich, Germany
Reinhold Kloppe (born in 1882 in Harzgerode) was a government official based in Brakwater, a district of Windhoek. The exact date of the family’s return to Germany, and whether they left German South West Africa at the end of German colonial rule or at a later date, is not documented. The only relevant document available to us is a certified translation, dated 1942, of the birth certificate of his daughter, Gerda Wilhelmine Emilie Kloppe, who was born in Windhoek in 1919, when the former German colony was under South African administration. Upon their return to Germany, the family brought with them gifts from the Nama and Ovambo peoples.
Description
wood, metal, copper wire,
Daggers of that kind were badges of royal herdsman, worn on a belt around the hips. In former times they represented special awards granted by the chief of the Ondonga tribe.
Already in 1910 Buschan reported in “Illustrierte Völkerkunde” (Illustrated Ethnology) about these extremely bizarre dagger sheaths. Such a stylization has already ceased to be useful and can only be compared with some “European fashion foolishness”. According to Tönjes (1911), chiefs (of the Ondonga tribe) conferred these prominent daggers on sentries as a special honour. They were worn on leather belts around the hips.
Comparing literature
Tönjes, Hermann, Ovamboland - Land, Leute, Mission. Mit besonderer Berücksichtigung seines grössten Stammes Oukuanjama, Berlin 1911
Publications
AHDRC: 0136481