Aino Moongo

Aino Moongo also named as Ndiwakalunga or Spinola was born in Oshakati, a large town within Ovamboland which is situated in northern Namibia and southern Angola. Aino crossed several borders from the age of four months until the age of eighteen picking and dropping languages along the way. She gained her Bachelor of Communication in Windhoek in 2015 and is currently busy with her “Culture and Societies in Africa” Master’s degree program at the University of Bayreuth. Aino is also a founding member of the Stolen Moments, Namibian Music History -Untold project which was turned into an exhibition showed at the Iwalewahaus of the University of Bayreuth in 2016; at the Basler Afrika Bibliographien in Basel, 2017; and at the Brunei Gallery, SOAS University of London in 2019.

Synopsis: The Silences of the Ongoma, The drum of the Owambo people

An attempt to understand the silences of the Ongoma, the drum of the Owambo people. This project will take us to the Kingdoms of Ovamboland of Northern Namibia and Southern Angola. An animistic, intimate and subjective journey into the realms of the Ongoma. A powerfully threatening instrument to the extent of paganization. The drum itself has no gender (?) but its handler and the spirits attributed definitely natured masculine. The Ongoma will have to be found in museums and books, handled with care; maybe caressed or played by whom who dares! Little is known, perhaps always meant to be in that way. Did it really disappear? How or why? How did it look like? Where was it made? How and from What was it made from? And by Whom?