Sunrise gets better every day, but my camera still refuses to capture its magic.
We drive north towards Etosha National Park. We pass Brandberg Mountains mysteriously hidden behind the mist. Some overland group camp there instead of Spitzkoppe and explore nearby Bushman painting (“White Lady” is quite famous).
Further we make a stop by the stalls of Herero women. Herero is the third largest ethnic group in Namibia, originally part of Batu herders arriving to Namibia in mid 16th century. In fact, Himbas is a subgroup of Herero but colonization has made the subgroups look (and live) very differently. Himbas remained seminomadic herdmen and non-Christians, and consequently half naked by the standards of the Western world (Himba women never show ankles, so tourists in flip-flops are half naked to them).
The Herero women dress in full-body length Victorian style massive dresses brought to them by German missionaries. On the head they wear horn-shaped hat. They sell look alike dolls and ask for N$5 for a picture. None taken.
From 11 am to 3 pm the sun is unbearable. We passed the time in a nearby empty lodge with a pool. The house was built between huge boulders with no clear plan. We were running around like kids admiring somebody’s crazy creativity.
At 4 pm we walked to Himba village nearby that also runs an orphanage project for Himba kids mostly from the north of Namibia. We were taught how to greet in Himba language and how to use a handshake (both hands, three times). The next 2 hours we spent walking around the village, taking pictures, greeting women, playing with kids and then watching the washing ritual of Himba women.
Himbas is the most photographed tribe of Africa, so I expected the experience to be touristy and I was OK with that. Some from our group walked back to the camp as they did not feel comfortable staring at Himba's way of life. But I find the Himba culture interesting, different and worth understanding before it disappears completely. Himbas are in fact paid to accommodate tours and do not mind pictures. They do not speak any English, but kids are picking up some words already. The guide told us there are about 10-12k Himbas left, but the number is slowly decreasing as more and more kids are sent to schools and change their lifestyle because of the economic reasons.
The Himbas women are famous for their reddish skin color that comes from the daily beauty routine that involves smearing themselves with a mixture of butter fat, ochre powder, and herbs. This kind of deodorant also protects them from the sun. Women never wash themselves with water, they take steam baths all their lives created by sitting with a towel over a bucket with cols.
The queen of the tribe:
A beautiful girl. Two braids mean both parents are alive. Heads of boys are shaved.
Women hairstyle - hair extensions covered in ochre mixture.
One parent is alive:
More pictures of Himbas on flickr
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