The Himba

Himba

Environment and Human Adaption

 

Namibia

                                                                              Desert elephant 

Let me take you to an incredible and beautiful yet cruel and unforgiving place. On the lower west side of Africa is a place called Namibia. Within Namibia is the Kunene region. It’s a harsh environment to survive in. Temperatures run about the low 70’s in the winter up to the high 90’s in the summer. In the last two hundred years the climate has been changing and becoming warmer and more unpredictable. Droughts are common for prolonged periods of time. The Kunene region sees as little as 250mm rainfall annually. However, with the weather being so unpredictable it may receive up to 450mm of rainfall, which causes devastating floods. This was the case in 2010 where people lost their livelihoods and buildings along with homes when they were destroyed by the flooding. The rainfall is heavy at times, but still short lived and far in between. With the high temperatures rising and little protection as far as shade from the intensity of the sun, the environment is very dry and scarce on water. Thriving in this environment are Lions, Giraffes, Ostriches, and Zebras, along with Desert elephants, and Black Rhinoceros, both of which have been trying to grow from near extinction. The semi-desert like environment's flora includes the famous Welwitchia plant, Aloe Zebrina, Baobab tree, and the Mopane tree.

Showing the size of the Welwitchia plant

Since the Kunene region is so cut off from the world, due to its size, and ruggedness of the access routes, the people who inhabit this land live in rural villages. The one best known group of people is the Himba. They are able to survive so well due to a couple physical adaptions they have acquired. First the melanin pigment they have is like a natural sunscreen for the skin. It helps prevent skin cancer by protecting them from UV rays.  They also have longer limbs to help cool them off. Their limbs grew longer so their bodies could have more surface area, which allows more body heat to be lost. Along with physical adaptions there is still a need for cultural adaptions as well. The Himba make a paste-like substance called otjize. They mix butter fat, ash, and ochre.  Twice a day they rub it all over their bodies to help with the harsh sun exposure. They also wear very little clothing, so they don’t over heat. The men wear loin cloths and the women wear mini like skirts made out of goat skin. They rarely come across westernized clothing.  When they do, the men are the ones that wear it. Being a nomadic tribe, when resources become diminished in an area, the village will pack up and move to new grazing lands with a new water source. That way they never run out of the essentials to survive in such a climate. They are so isolated from big cities, globalization, and urbanized populations that the Himba people have managed to live almost exactly the same way for centuries.

                                                               Isolated Himba village

Language & Gender Roles
The Himba people speak a language called Otjihimba. Centuries ago the Himba and the Herero were once united as one. In the middle of the sixteenth century they came from Angola but split into two tribes. This is why they share the same language. After other marauding tribes that took almost all their cattle they escaped back to Angola. Since the 1920’s the Himba have reestablished themselves in the Kunene region. At the end of the 19^th century a missionary named Gottlieb Viehe translated the bible into the Otjihimba language using script based on the Latin alphabet.  

Himba alphabet

The Women work very hard every day. They take care of the livestock, do all the gardening, care for the children and the elderly, make all the clothes and jewelry, prepare the food,  and milk the cattle. They also walk long distances to fetch the water for the village. It’s common to not find the men in the villages. They are either tending to the grazing animals away from the village or more recently moving to the cities to find work. The children are very independent compared to most other societies. At twelve months they are seen walking, running, playing, feeding all on their own. The children will stay close to their mother till the age of three. Than they move in with their other siblings. The children are looked after by all members of the village. They help with the chores around the village.

A Himba woman milking the cattle

Himba mother and child

                                                                                                          Family

Subsistence & Economy

The Himba own livestock but only eat meat once sometimes twice a week. Their cattle is very precious to them which is why they eat mostly maize flour or just mealy mixed with curdled milk or they just have curdled milk similar to plain yogurt. Making this meal requires hard work. They wake up in the morning and milk their goats or cattle. They place the milk out into the sun to curdle, and then they spend hours mixing it. They eat few vegetables and almost no fruit. Sometimes during the droughts when the cattle are at risk, they are able to survive off of the nuts from the ongongo trees. Now with the tourism in Africa increasing the Himba are able to make some money and now it’s becoming more and more often that you will find the Himba men at bars and the women at the grocery store.

At the store

The only food that the Himba produce is from their livestock. It’s what helps them survive. They don’t trade it because it’s about their only food source. They are so in touch with their livestock that they only milk two of the four teats, so the calfs can drink from the other two. They spend most of their days grazing their livestock making sure there is water and food for their cattle.

The woman looking after the cattle

The Himba women make incredible jewelry, Beautiful necklaces and bracelets that they sell to tourist sometimes for Kwanza. With the money they earn they can go to the stores to buy food and sometimes medicine. Since they are able to buy medicine the Himba are starting to lose their old remedies and soon it will be lost in their culture. When visiting a Himba village it is customary to bring them pasta, flour, sugar, coffee or tobacco.

                                                                       Jewelry

Marriage & Kinship

When Himba girls are at a pre puberty age, they wear their hair in 2 to four braids in front of their face. Once they hit puberty the braids are then styled in to smaller strands that still cover the face. Once she is of age to marry, her hair is lengthened using goat hair extensions and tied away from her face. When the boys are of age to also marry they wear their hair in braid that sweeping the back of their heads. Once they marry the women put on a head piece and the men wear a turban on their heads. Because the cattle are of such importance the Himba want to exchange their livestock with matrilineal or their patrilineal kin. They take on the endogamy rule. And since it will cost the husband to be 20 head of cattle they want the cattle to stay within the family. This is why they prefer to marry cross cousins. Once a girl is born her husband is already picked out for her and she will marry between the ages of 15 to 17. The Himba culture is polygamists that are encouraged to have more than one spouse. The richer the man with cattle marries multiple times so that the women can help take care of the livestock.   

Himba girl

Himba boy

The Himba don’t just pick one decent line over the other. Their family linage is the bilateral descent. Both sides are equally important. This makes them an egalitarian culture. The leader of the clan is the oldest male. He keeps the family ancestral fire burning and speaks to their ancestors. But, when wealth is distributed it doesn’t go to the son. It is passed on through the maternal uncle's instead. They acknowledge both sides.  

Social & Political Organization

Himba villages are set up in districts. The districts cover large areas and each district has a chief. Each village has a male elder called the headman. The headmen make up a senior council. If there are problems with the village the headman will go to the chief to work them out. The chief helps the villages within his district sometimes even going to the government to make sure his district is taken care of. They are there to stop wars and keep the peace within the villages. The headmen are the chief’s advisors but, if the chief is not doing his job the headmen can kick him out and pick another replacement.

Himba headman

The Himba are not involved with too much violence and law breaking. If there is a dispute over cattle, like which cattle belongs to who between the villages, the headmen bring this dispute to the chiefs and he calls upon both parties involved and works it out. If a man is caught in the act of rape, he is to pay the victim and may receive a severe beating.

Belief Systems & The Arts

The Himba religion is a monotheism religion. They believe in one god named Mukuru but also worship their ancestors. They believe that Mukuru is so busy that the ancestors act as his representatives. They believe that man; woman and cattle were produced by Mukuru hitting a tree with lightning and out they came. They have managed to contain the fire produced by the lightning and make sure that it never goes out. The headman of the village is the only one to tend to the fire due to its importance. His hut is the only hut allowed to face the fire and no one is allowed to walk between the fire and his hut. Once every week the headman uses the fire to worship these ancestors and ask for rain, reproduction amongst the cattle and wellbeing and blessings.

The Himba are known for the red tint on their skin. Also doubling as sun protection the butter fat and ocher mixture is beautiful to the people. Like eyeliner, mascara, and lipstick, the Himba consider the mixture as their makeup. They apply it every morning before they leave their huts like we apply ours before we go out. They even rub the mixture in their hair to style it like we style ours.

                                                             Getting the Ochre ready for mixing

The Himba spend a lot of time creating crafts to sell to tourists. This includes jewelry, dolls and carved gourds depicting animals.  

                                                                  Hand made Himba doll          

  

Himba crafts

                                                       Traditional Himba dance and singing

conclusion

The Himba people are considered one of the last true traditional cultures still out there. But no matter how true to their traditions they are, with the increasing number of tourists and missionaries that tread on their way of life, they are starting to lose their way. In some ways it’s a positive thing. More and more Himba children are becoming educated due to the traveling schools and the women are able to make some money selling their crafts to the tourists. They are able to buy medicine that will aide in issues they couldn’t help before. But with the positive also comes the negative. The educated children are leaving their homeland to experience more. The men are leaving the village more to go to the cities and work, but they are also going to the bars and getting drunk. The men are preforming adultery, and with the aids epidemic in Africa, are spreading aids in the villages. Now that they are going to the stores to buy their medicine their traditional ways of medicine will be lost. And with practicing less and less of their old ways it will eventually lead to their disappearance.  

Unfortunately the Himba culture does not have a huge influence on modern societies. They are very tight knit and work together as a community. The women help take care of not only their children but the children of others. They all cook together and take care of the livestock. They remember and pay tribute to their ancestors unlike the modern world who mourn the loss of a loved one but more often then not will be less appreciative and start to forget them as time goes on. The modern world seems to think that they need to influence the Himba culture. People bring them candy when they don’t have a dentist or tooth brushes and translating their religious beliefs into the Himba language causing the Himba to question or forget their own. Others need to realize that just because they seem primitive it doesn’t mean they are not happy.  

                                                              Little Himba boy with a lollypop



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