Research and Documentation Platform for Academic Legacies of German and International Researchers in African Languages
The Oswin Köhler Archive contains the complete academic legacy of Oswin R. A. Köhler (1911–1996) as well as parts of the academic legacies of other scholars of African languages. The archive is the central research and documentation platform for studies in African languages at the Goethe University. The custody and valorization of these academic legacies offers the opportunity of critically investigating the research history of German Afrikanistik which in large parts is still a desideratum.
Khwe visitors from Namibia learn how to use the Goethe University's central collection database CODA
The Oswin Köhler Archive houses the world’s largest collection of documents on Khwe language and culture, compiled by the German Africanist Oswin Köhler and his Khwe sources in northeastern Namibia between 1959 and 1992.
The Oswin Köhler Archive is committed to provide access to and engage members of source communities in researching and editing its collections.
The Khwe collection comprises thousands of manuscripts in the Khwe language, 99 letters in Khwe exchanged by Oswin Köhler and his field assistant Ndo Tinene, more than 1,600 photographs, one hour of film footage, ca. 60 hours of sound recordings, more than 300 ethnographic objects, 162 plant samples, and 322 drawings from the Khwe. All these materials are now accessible through the recently published central collection database of the Goethe University: https://www.coda.ub.uni-frankfurt.de.
During the most recent workshop, which took place from August 17 to 28, 2026 at the Oswin Köhler Archive, the visitors learned how to access the Khwe materials in CODA, search for and export information, download digital media, and edit, share, and use selected datasets for presentations. They enjoyed looking at images showing former cultural practices and listening to the voices of their forefathers. They were keen to learn more about their culture by searching the rich materials in the database.
The four visitors were
- Justa Kunyanda Ngombala, grandchild of ǁGo-kho-dom, Oswin Köhler’s first source,
- Stefanus Kafuro Dikoshi, grandson of Kafuro, Oswin Köhler’s most longstanding source,
- Sonner Ciayi Geria, chairperson of the Bwabwata Khwe Custodian Committee,
- Mercy Iyvonne Tutco, representative of the Khwe youth.
Mercy about her experience with CODA, 26.8.2026:
My name is Tutco Mercy from Namibia, residing at Chetto village, Bwabwata National Park. I was invited for two weeks by Gertrud [Boden] and Sonner [Geria] to come and attend. And it is very much interesting. I have used the CODA database and it was easy. They taught me how to search for items and how to download, how to make presentations. And the most interesting thing that I learned yesterday was about our culture. I was listening and watching them when they demonstrated a burial. When a person needs to be buried, what should be done and which medicines need to be used to wash people, to bath kids and elders. And I enjoyed it. It was really … I don’t know how to say … Now I know things that need to be used. Before, when people were going deep in the bush to collect medicines to come and bath kids, I used to think it’s something different. But what I saw in the computer, tells me: ‘When I go back, do it by myself, yes!’
Khwe-Orthography-Workshop in Mutc’iku, Bwabwata Nationalpark, Namibia
The Khwe language is one of the best-documented San languages in southern Africa with a dictionary, a grammar and numerous textbooks, including atwelve-part encyclopaedia with vernacular texts on almost all aspects of Khwe culture (Köhler 1989, 1991, 1997, 2018, 2021a, 2021b, 2021c). So far, however, only a handful of Khwe have been able to read and write their own language and to explore the comprehensive testimonies of their cultural heritage in the Oswin Köhler Archive.
At the express wish of many Khwe, a two-week orthography workshop took place from March 3-14, 2025 with funds from the Institute of African Studies at Goethe University Frankfurt and the Jutta Vogel Foundation at the University of Cologne. The lessons included the Khwe alphabet, tone marking, a comparison of the the different orthographic conventions used in publications, the spelling of Khwe proper names of people and places, which are often spelled incorrect in official documents, a large number of writing and reading exercises, as well as tests to check learning success. The teachers were Sonner Geria, Thaddeus Chedau, Hendrik Mbangu from the Khwe community and Dr. Gertrud Boden from the Oswin Köhler Archive.
24 participants from all 12 Khwe villages in Bwabwata National Park were very enthusiastic and committed to the project and have pledged to disseminate the acquired knowledge in their respective home villages. To support this, we decided to print a textbook with exercises, and make 200 copies of it available on site in Bwabwata National Park.
Khwe from Namibia in the Oswin Köhler Archive
The Oswin Köhler Archive at the Institute of African Studies houses the world's most comprehensive collection of documents on Khwe language and culture. In August 2023, four Khwe from Namibia came to Frankfurt for a three-week workshop and worked collaboratively with researchers on the collection. They further got to know the collection database and discussed options of access. At their request, six posters were designed for a mobile exhibition on Khwe culture as well as a booklet with historical photographs selected and annotated by the visitors. With these materials, they want to inform young Khwe in Namibia about the cultural practices and values of their ancestors. The three-week stay was financially supported by the Centre for Interdisciplinary African Research (ZIAF) at the Goethe University.
We mourn the loss of Snelia Mangonga (1982-2023), who died in a car accident on 1 October 2023, shortly after returning to Namibia. Our thoughts are with her family.
Workshop on the perception and description of environmental features
During their visit to the Oswin Köhler Archive at Goethe University in August 2023, Thaddeus Chedau, Sonner Geria, Snelia Mangonga and Hendrik Mbangu from Namibia's Bwabwata National Park also took part in a three-day workshop in the Nationalpark Eifel. The other participants were employees of the Nationalpark Eifel as well as scholars of the Goethe University, the University of Cologne and the Ruhr University Bochum. The workshop was initiated by Dr Gertrud Boden and included indoor and outdoor exercises exploring how people with different biographies and backgrounds orient themselves in a more or less familiar environment, which units and contexts they perceive and how they describe and categorize them. The workshop is part of the DFG-funded project "Potentials of a Collection", which, among other things, examines to which degree the academic categories used in describing the collection correspond to the environmental experiences of members of the collection's community of origin.
Link to press release of the Eifel National Park:
Collections
Oswin R. A. Köhler (1911-1996) |
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Oswin Köhler at work in the Dikundu research camp in Namibia |
