Bern museum returns colonial-era artefacts to Namibia

After more than 120 years in Bern, 286 Namibian cultural artefacts are beginning their journey home. The Bern Historical Museum transferred ownership of the collection to the Usakos Town Museum in June 2026, opening a new chapter in a case shaped by colonial rule, uncertain provenance and years of cooperation.

The objects include everyday items, jewellery and weapons. Swiss engineer Victor Solioz and his wife, Marie, acquired them in 1906 from Namibian railway workers while Solioz served as chief engineer on a German railway project. The couple brought the collection to Bern, where the museum purchased it in 1928.

Twenty-eight objects have already reached Namibia. Most remain in Bern on loan for the exhibition Destination: Usakos, which opens on September 18, 2026, and runs until July 4, 2027. The remaining artefacts are expected to be repatriated by the end of 2027.

The transfer gives Usakos its first museum collection of its own. It also forces Swiss institutions to examine how objects entered their holdings, particularly when records do not establish whether people gave, sold or surrendered them under colonial pressure.

The collection's ownership has changed, while the circumstances of its original acquisition remain unresolved. In 1906, Solioz worked on the railway built by German colonial authorities in what was then German South-West Africa. He and Marie acquired approximately 286 objects from railway workers, yet surviving information does not clarify the terms of those transactions.

That gap matters because the railway operated inside a wider colonial system. The Otavi Railway connected the Atlantic port of Swakopmund with copper mines and served as logistical infrastructure for German power. Indigenous people lost land and access to natural resources without compensation, while local labour was exploited in construction and mining.

The Bern museum has spent years addressing the collection's history. Since 2018, it has strengthened ties with the Museums Association of Namibia and the Usakos Town Council. A collaborative project launched in 2023 brought descendants of railway workers into research about the objects and their histories.

The process illustrates why provenance research reaches beyond purchase receipts. It requires museums to identify the people connected to an object, understand the political conditions surrounding its transfer and involve communities that colonial collecting practices excluded.

A 2024 study counted around 19,000 Namibian artefacts in museums across German-speaking countries, while Namibia's National Museum held around 1,600. The figures place the Bern collection within a much larger European pattern of cultural material held far from the communities connected to it.

The comparison does not determine the legal status of every object. It does, however, show the scale of the imbalance that museums and governments face when they investigate colonial-era holdings. Each collection carries its own acquisition history, documentation and relationships with descendants or local institutions.

Thomas Pauli-Gabi, director of the Bern Historical Museum, said cultural heritage should be used where it has significance for people as a source of knowledge and identity. Samuel Bachmann, curator of Destination: Usakos, said the museum could not retain a collection linked to Namibia's greatest national trauma against the wishes of descendants.

The exhibition presents the objects during the transition period. Visitors in Bern can see the material before most of it leaves Switzerland, while the display also records the research and discussions that shaped the transfer. That approach makes repatriation part of the museum's public work rather than an administrative event conducted out of view.

Usakos is receiving its first collection of its own, with the town museum set to become the objects' long-term home. Deputy mayor Kleophas Johannes said he hoped the artefacts would remain there for the next 120 years and stay accessible to the community.

That goal gives the transfer a practical dimension. Repatriation requires secure storage, conservation expertise, public programming and funding. The objects must be available for research and community use while receiving the care needed to preserve them. The Bern museum's continued loan arrangement provides time for the final logistics and for the Usakos institution to prepare.

Usakos' history is closely tied to the Otavi Railway. The line linked Swakopmund to copper mines and supported German colonial administration. Its construction relied on local labour, while colonial authorities seized land and natural resources from Indigenous communities. The returned objects therefore carry personal and local histories alongside their material value.

Their arrival can help descendants and residents build new accounts of the railway period from objects that were previously displayed and studied in Switzerland. It also gives the Usakos Town Museum a foundation for future collecting, education and collaboration with Namibian and international institutions.

The last artefacts are scheduled to leave Bern by the end of 2027, but Switzerland's provenance debate will continue. The Bern Historical Museum's decision follows a cooperation process that began in 2018 and expanded through descendant-led research from 2023. It offers a model for Swiss museums holding objects connected to colonial systems, especially where acquisition records are incomplete.

Switzerland did not rule Namibia, yet Swiss engineers, traders, collectors and institutions operated within European colonial networks. The Solioz collection shows how objects could reach Swiss museums through projects controlled by another colonial power. Its history therefore belongs in Swiss museum records and in public discussion about the country's economic and professional links to colonial rule.

Destination: Usakos will remain open in Bern until July 4, 2027. During that period, visitors can examine the objects and the evidence assembled around them before the collection's final transfer. The museum has already given Usakos ownership, so the remaining display rests on a loan agreed during the transition.

For Swiss institutions, the next step is concrete: identify collections with colonial connections, publish acquisition information, work with source communities and discuss return where partners request it. The Bern case sets a timetable and a precedent, while Namibia will determine how the objects serve Usakos once they arrive.