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The Himba People (Namibia) - 2004
The Himba People (Namibia) - 2004
Jacek Pałkiewicz2006-06-25 14:17:39
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their staffs. Their torsos also gleam ochre red, a symbolic simulation of sleek and beautiful cattle.
A Himba homestead, onganda, is a simple cone-shaped structure of saplings, bound together with palm leaves and plastered with mud and dung. A family may move from one onganda to another several times a year in search of grazing. At the heart of a Himba family's existence is the sacred fire, okuruwo, at which the lineage head officiates, and which is moved between camps by herders. Another pillar of Himba religious beliefs, sacred cattle, plays a lesser role today than in earlier times.
The saying "omuHimba omuHerero" meaning "A Himba is a Herero" illustrates the way most Himba see their relationship with the Herero, from whom they are descended. According to oral tradition the Herero migrated from the great lakes of East Africa into present-day Zambia and southern Angola, arriving at the Kunene River in approximately 1550. From here they crossed into Kaokoland, a starkly beautiful, austere and arid region in the remote north-western corner of Namibia. For centuries these "ochre people of the dry riverbeds" have lived a semi-nomadic pastoral existence in Kaokoland. Separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the northern Namib Desert, an inhospitable region referred to as the Skeleton Coast, the Kaokoland interior was inaccessible to early mariners. It was only in 1850 that the first Europeans, travelling overland, made their appearance in this remote and rugged wilderness.
Until the 1980's only a minute percentage of Himba children went to school. With their cattle and small livestock providing milk and meat, the Himba remained isolated from the rest of Namibia and impervious to Western influences. A survey done in1972 by the Department of Agriculture estimated that there were at least 160,000 head of cattle in Kaokoland. This amounted to an average of 12 head per person, in addition to small livestock, ranking the Himba amongst the
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See photographs from:
Namibia Gallery
