Stolen Moments forever

The essence of Namibia’s rich music history is encapsulated in the work of such popular township bands like #Kharixurob & Band. The songs and performances of these music pioneers are now captured and preserved in the NBC archives to ensure they are not lost for the future. The project is sponsored by the German Embassy.

A small group of concerned music aficionados is making it their mission to preserve Namibia’s rich popular music heritage. Aino Moongo, Thorsten Schütte and Baby Doeseb, founding members of a research group to preserve the local music heritage, found to their disquiet that much of the earlier musical traditions runs the risk of being lost.

As part of their Stolen Moments, Namibian History Untold project, they are now transferring old long play recordings to a digital medium.
Many of the recordings such as by #Kharixurob and Band, predate independence and are difficult to trace and in danger of being lost forever. According to Ullrich Kinne, “The German Embassy supports the Stolen Moments project financially with an amount of almost N$700,000 in the framework of its cultural heritage preservation programme to avert that”.
The assistance comprises support, training and the provision of technical equipment for the digitalization of the music and stored in a database to be shared by the NBC and the National Archives. It also includes the training of audio-technicians by a German expert and the subsequent financing of the digitalization of numerous recordings by Namibian technicians.
Aldred Dreyer, Chief of Technology at the NBC commented “The project is of great importance to the country and to the NBC and contributes to the preservation of Namibia’s rich culture and heritage.”