Third annual Nama Festival expected to be a bigger affair
The third annual Nama Festival will be held in Lokgwabe, Kgalagadi North on 31 August and 1 September 2018. This year’s instalment will be held under the theme, Cultural inheritance: gateway to Identity. The festival, hosted by the Nama Development Trust, celebrates the culture and language of the Nama. It has grown in leaps and bounds over years, and has managed to bring together the Nama from Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. The Nama, sometimes referred to as Namaqua, are an ethnic group from Southern Africa and the largest group of the Khoi-Khoi. Part of the events on the line-up for the event include Namastap and other traditional dances and performances, horse parade, Nama language and promotion and an excursion to Kaptein Simon Kooper National Monument. In the past then former president Mokgweetsi Masisi and historian Jeff Ramsey have graced the event. The festival has also attracted the German Embassy, National Museum, European Union, The Sol Plaatjie Institute in South Africa and the University of Botswana San Research Centre. Ramsay is expected to make an appearance again this year, and will present on the Nama Kaptein Simon Kooper. The festival co-director Nichodimas Cooper previously told Vibe that they still celebrate Kooper because he is considered a hero among the Nama. “When the Nama were attacked by the Germans, he managed to retreat and protect other people,” he said. The Nama and Herero people were amongst the ethnic African communities who fought against racial extermination and punishment meted on them by the Germans in then German South West Africa (Namibia) between 1904 and 1907. Approximately 10, 000 Nama people died during those wars. *For updates visit Facebook Page: Annual Nama Cultural Festival – Botswana.