Destination: Usakos

Around 300 cultural belongings from the everyday lives of Namibian railway workers in the early twentieth century are currently stored at the Bern History Museum. Dating from around 1904, the Usakos Railway Workers’ Collection is rooted in a context of violence, namely the construction of a colonial railway in what is now Namibia. While the collection bears witness to the exploitation of land, resources and people, it is also the historical and cultural heritage of those who worked on it. Many of their descendants still live in Usakos, the small town which was established back then as a railway hub. So what should a museum do with a collection of this kind? This question takes us to Usakos – and to a shared vision: for these cultural belongings to return home.