Damaraland and Kaokaland

Visit to the Damara people, 22 september
Last night we woke up because of a braying donkey, but for the rest we slept great. We even woke up because the sun is trying to peep into our tent, so we slept in!

After breakfast it is high time to fill up the gas tank at the Twyfelfontein Lodge. The filling station is a little further away from the lodge, and when we arrive there is no-one, so we drive a little further to see if we find someone. It appears to be sort of a mini village for the lodge servants. At least we see a garage for the safari vehicles and a laundry. The aggregate is also placed here and it makes a terrible noise, but this way it doesn't bother the lodge guests. When our tank is full we can hit the road again, but not without tracing if this lodge has a diner buffet too. That appears to be the case, so we make reservations for tonight to begin with.

Than we set out for the Anmire Traditional Village, also part of the Nacobta. It is 125 miles there and 125 miles back but it is so beautiful out here that driving is an enjoyment. Soon we meet with a pair of desert elephants. This is not an apart species, but a long time ago a group of elephants separated from the others, and this group has adapted itself to life in the desert.

Desert elephants only live in this area of Namibia and further nowhere else in the world. Beside that, this is not a game reserve, so here we find truly wild elephants. We step out of the car to observe and photograph them, but we doubt if this is such a good idea. Desert elephants seem to be more aggressive as other elephants.

Around noon we arrive at the Anmire Traditional Village, but we see nobody. Therefore we decide to walk around a little. It is some kind of open-air folk museum, containing all kind of huts. It accommodates an exhibition about the mode of life of the Damara people.

After a while a woman arrives and she tells us she lives in a village a mile from here. She saw our car coming and then ran all the way up here. She introduces herself as Monica en she speaks reasonable English. She starts to demonstrate the time-honored customs of the Damara people. She speaks with those typical clicking sounds, about which we saw a documentary once. It is strange to hear this language being spoken live. Hans can imitate some sounds reasonably, but my attempts are nothing like it.

Further it goes with the demonstration of musical instruments, architecture, use of medicinal herbs, rituals, etc. We feel a bit embarrassed because she has to do all of this just for the two of us. At the end I ask her about the recent way of live of the Damara people, upon which Monica asks if we like to visit her village. At first we doubt if we can trust this, but than we consider that someone who works for the Nacobta, can not do wrong to any tourists.

She writes down her name and a P.O. Box number in Khorixas and we don't understand a bit of it. In the car she tells us that this is the P.O. Box of their village and every now and than someone from the village drives to and from Khorixas to collect the mail.
The intention is that we take as much pictures as possible of her children and family and than later send copies of them to that P.O. Box in Khorixas. We gladly take that license to photograph.
We suppose that she makes this request to all the tourists, but when we discover in her house only one very small yellowed picture of her children, we assume that we find ourselves in a unique situation.

The village consists of a couple of small houses or huts. Some are square, others round and in the middle we find a roof under which a couple of women are working. Among them the mother of Monica, of whom we have to take pictures too. Obviously this is also the "kitchen" since we see a fireplace and some pots and pans.

The house of Monica consists of one room with mud walls and a roof of corrugated iron. There are no windows. There is only one gap in the wall that serves as an entrance which is closed by a curtain. Another blue curtain divides the room in halves. Behind the curtain a double bed is found. We ask Monica about the whereabouts of her children's sleeping-place, but they appear to live at their grandmother. Further there are two small tables inside the house covered with blue table-cloths. On the wall are, beside the yellowed picture, a couple of blue knitted baby sweaters. She likes blue, Monica says. In spite of very limited means, she has furnished her house very nice. And by keeping it all blue she even goes in for somewhat of interior decoration. We wish we could come back later to see if our pictures are on the wall.

She also has a spirit of enterprise, for after the visit we have to go with her to the local shop, which can hardly bear that name. It also serves as a café and the both of us buy a cola and offer her one too, which she receives without thanking us. During our entire visit Monica doesn't show any sign of false, nor from serious, modesty. Besides we get the impression that she charged us an admission fee to the Anmire Traditional Village that was far too much. At least it was double the price as written in the Nacobta guide.

Outside the café is a group of people eating. Two children are sitting on the ground, in the shade, and eat indistinct white porridge from a kettle. We film the children and after that show the video to them on the LCD screen.
We have the notion that the boy doesn't understand that he is watching himself. The girl seems to get the idea a little better. At that moment we realize that these children perhaps never saw moving images before, certainly not of themselves.

On the way back to the Aba-Huab campsite we see two more desert elephants. We have read here and there that desert elephants are very rare and that you need a good guide to trace them. If that is true than we are very lucky, since we almost stumble over them.
These elephants walk in the dry riverbed. They are on their way to a watering-place and we follow them for a while. They gulp an incredible amount of water, which we can hear very loud and clear. There seams to be no end to it, but finally they peaceably trudge further, by which we follow them as far as we can. As the sun sets we arrive at the campsite and go sit in front of our tent to absorb this very special day.

All of a sudden the fifth desert elephant is passing by sure enough. He calmly walks past us on the other bank of the river. After dark we drive to the Twyfelfontein Lodge and during diner we remain talking about everything we have gone through today.

To Opuwo, 23 september
Yesterday the road to the Anmire Traditional Village appeared to be so good, that we decide to go to Opuwo. We very much like to visit the Himba people but on forehand we thought that it would not be possible. Although we don't have much time and it is a long drive, we don't want to miss it and we go all out for a drive to Opuwo.

But at first we want to see the rock art at Twyfelfontein. We arrive very early but a small group of British young people is already here. But no guides. It is not allowed to walk around without a guide, but what if no guides are present?
The British and we take, at the same time, the decision to walk around by ourselves. We take different routes and soon the British come to meet the guides. But we don't want a guide anymore since we don't have much time left, so thankfully we don't come to meet any guide. We walk a small loop and still see quit some engravings. With a guide we undoubtedly would have made much more out of this visit, but we find this nice too.

We drive 300 miles to Opuwo and arrive at the end of the day. Immediately we feel at home and that surprises us. We realize that we lost a lot of fear for the unknown, because of all our traveling. In 1990 in Kenya we would have felt threatened in a city like Opuwo, while nowadays we have the complete opposite feeling.

Opuwo is the capitol of the Himba people and a lot of Himba gather here, as do other communities, to sell their goods and do some shopping.

We stare our eyes out at all the colorful dressed and nearly undressed people that swarm around here. Our main goal is again part of the Nacobta: the Kaoko Information Centre. Here we make arrangements for a guide who will take us to a Himba village tomorrow morning at 9.00. They also book us a bungalow for one night in the Kunene Village Rest Camp.

Luckily there is another guide who also has to go that way, otherwise we would never in all our born days have found it. We drive through all kind of roads, sometimes not even recognizable as a road, criss-cross through the town and finally find ourselves somewhere in the rear in a dead end valley. Here we meet the same Dutch group from the Aba-Huab campground. Now we're about fed up with that. It seems like we unintentionally follow them around.

The woman who works at this Rest Camp is very disinterested. She has no mind to book us into the bungalow and asks if we don't have a tent with us. With a poker face we tell her that we don't, not in the least because the entire camping site is filled with the Dutch group. The bungalows are on the other side of the grounds. Than we discover why she doesn't want to give us a bungalow. There is no water in it and she has to bring us water in containers. When we say that we take care of that ourselves, she immediately gives us the key to the bungalow.

But when we enter it we have major doubts if we made the right choice. Inside it is teeming with mosquitos and other creepy crawlies. There is just one mosquito net and that one is torn. We get the creeps at the thought that we have to sleep in here. There is nothing for it but to redecorate the room. We stack up all the furniture, by which we create just enough space to put up our tent inside the bungalow. Without tent-pegs it is not standing strong but at least we can go to sleep with a good feeling.

Visit to the Himba people and to Kavita Lion Lodge, 24 september
At 9.00 AM we're once again in front of the building of the Kaoko Information Centre in Opuwo. This center is intended to further well-balanced tourism to the Himba people. The local population benefits directly from the earnings of tourism. We meet KayKay, who will be our guide this morning.

At first we have to go shopping at the local wholesale trade. KayKay takes care for the shopping list, we take care for the payment. We buy huge sacks of corn flour, a couple of sacks of sugar, some parcels of coffee and some snuff. For the kids we take a large bag of vanilla cookies and then we can go for it.
KayKay sits down on the passenger seat of our car and points the way. On the way he explains his working method.

He is a Himba himself and comes from this area. Because we are just with two people he is going to take us to a small village. When he is guiding a bigger group, he visits a larger village, to prevent that the village is being overrun by tourists. At first he goes to a village by himself to talk to the headman about tourism and to ask if he is allowed to come back later with a group of tourists. Than he tries to divide his visits among all the villages to let them benefit from tourism equally.

KayKay comes from a little village about 40 miles from Opuwo. Twice a year he goes back to visit his parents. Once he brought real city food: canned fish. The entire village ate the fish, and afterwards it appeared that their stomach was not used to that kind of food, and they all had to see a doctor.

On our arrival in the Himba village, only women and children are present. The men are away to tend the flocks or have other pursuits. We greet the woman with "Morro", as we just have learned from KayKay. A couple of women are busy milking cows. The milk is collected in hollowed calabashes. These are being shaken constantly to churn the milk. (If we understood it correctly, that is.)

The activities all take place under the central roof. Here we find a couple of women busy grinding corn by using a couple of stones. Corn flour and milk are the most important food articles of the Himba, so the sacks of corn flour, which still lay in the car, will come in handy. Of course I have to try to grid the corn, but it is not as easy as it seems, and they laugh hard at my attempts.

It is so dark under the central roof that I have to use my flash-light to make pictures. A toddler finds those sudden flash-lights so great that he never leaves my side. Everywhere I go I find a little naked boy next to me.

A little further in the village stand a couple of mud silo's to store corn flour. Next to those is a tiny little hut, where a couple sleeps at night. We ask ourselves if two people can lay here in full length, but apparently it can. In contrast to those in the Damara village, these huts are not furnished. They are completely empty. They are only meant as a shelter for the night. But there are some kind of head-rests in the huts. It's staggering that they are exact copies of those from ancient Egypt.

KayKay points out the main hut and tells some very interesting tales about that. In front of this hut lies the ancestrial (or ritual) fire. This is the most important spot in the village. No-one is allowed to walk between this hut and the ritual fire, so we do that neither. When someone dies, his body is placed inside that hut. It is allowed to cry inside that hut, but nowhere outside. After that the body is placed next to the ritual fire, and the name of the deceased is called, followed by the funeral. A couple of weeks later the deceased has joined the ancestors and he or she can be honored as an ancestor.

In case a woman gives birth to a death child, this baby is first buried inside that hut. A body has to be buried within 24 hours because of the smell. The mother has to stay in that hut for two weeks next to her buried child. The other villagers take care that she receives food and drinks, because she is not allowed to leave that hut herself. When the two weeks have past, they dig up the baby, place it next to the ritual fire, and call its name. And after that the baby is buried permanently.

Among the Himba it is custom to have more than one wife. Every man has one head-wife, that is chosen by his parents. The next women are his own choice. KayKay's parents have already chosen a wife for him. She is eleven years old, so in about four years he can marry her, he tells.
The intention is that, during the day, a man spends his time with his head-wife. Apparently it is not important where he spends the night. It is of importance to divide the nights and materials fairly over the wives, by which the head-wife has to receive a little more than the other wives. This is to prevent jealousy and arguments.

In the mean time the entire village has gathered around the central roof. It seems that also people from surrounding villages have come here. Everybody brought something to sell to us and it is displayed in a large circle.
In any case I want to buy some jewelry and they appear to be of lead, or something like that, since they are literally heavy as lead. I realize what these women have to carry all the time. It seems that they don't wear much, but what they wear weighs far more than our European clothes.

KayKay tells us that it is time to take the goods from the car. These are all put together near the roof. Tonight the headman will divide them. In no time everybody has gotten a pot, pan or can and dozens of those are put down next to our goods. For the rest everybody keeps their hands of them. It is almost touching and it is a pity that I don't have any film left.

We say goodbye and on the way back we remain talking to KayKay. Obviously tribal wars are still going on up here. The Himba and Herero people are from the same origin and speak each others language. But when an Owambo enters this area he has to speak the Himba language. If he doesn't he will be killed. We can't believe it (or didn't understand it well) but life in this part of the world is so different from our life that nothing is impossible.

I bethink myself that this is probably the best birthday I ever had. What a special way to turn 35.

Meanwhile it is afternoon and we set out for the Kavita Lion Lodge. Because of my birthday we want to spend the night in luxury. The room is so big that we can put up ten tents, but luckily that is not necessary.

As so many lodges in Namibia, this one doesn't have many rooms. The service is very hospitable and personally. We've got the feeling that we are invited by friends. (But if our friends would ask these prices for their hospitality, they wouldn't be our friends anymore.) We are welcomed personally by Uwe and Tammy, the owners.
We make a game drive before diner. We don't see very many animals. But after all the impressions at the Himba it is nice to sit lazy in the back of safari vehicle and be driven through the African landscape, with a soothing setting sun on our face.

Three years ago Uwe and Tammy closed down their farm, because it is tough to live from farming in Namibia. They decided to completely apply their selves to tourism. Because vegetation is so scarce around here, the rule of thumb is that 48 acres are needed for one cow. That seems pretty much to us, but we don't know the first thing about farming and certainly not in Namibia. But since tourism has fallen down a bit, they doubt if they will start farming again for half their time.

Their lodge is anyway fantastic. The rooms are huge and luxurious, although the bathroom turns into a swimming pool after a shower. Tammy understood that today is my birthday and she lays fresh flowers next to my dinner-plate. The restaurant has no walls, just a large thatched roof.
Uwe hunts on his estates from time to time and tonight we eat eland from the grill. Uwe and Tammy shove on with their guests at the dinner-table.

Next: Etosha