Visiting the Himba

**pictures coming soon**
One of the last indigenous people, Himba are very proud of their culture which has survived wars. Meeting them was a unique experience I won't forget.

To actually communicate with the Himba, we had to get a guide who could speak Herero, their language. Our guide turned out to be a former Himba herself who went to school and learned English. The tribe we visited was her own, and our experience went something like this:

7:30 am We woke up early and drove to the market to meet our guide/translator, since we had to drive her to the tribe. While at the market, we picked up bread, oil, and maize to give as a gift to the tribe. Our guide, Queen Elizabeth, said this was a customary procedure for visitors.

8:00 am After paying for our gifts, we drove for about thirty minutes along a gravel dirt road, leaving houses behind and replacing the city with spaced out clusters of mud huts. Most of these small villages were empty, as the Himba are still semi-nomadic. But the one Queen instructed us to drive up to was full of people.

The Himba villages are made up mostly of women. In fact, upon first look, that seems to be the only people there! We walked up to a small mud hut where an older woman was sitting and watching over the porridge bubbling in a large, black iron pot. We greeted her and gave her the gifts we had bought. She introduced herself as... well... I have no idea how to spell her name at all.

The older woman called the rest of the tribe over to us, and suddenly we were surrounded with women and children. The air smelled strongly of ochre, which is the red paste Himba women apply to their skin for sun protection. We introduced ourselves to everyone, and they had a good laugh teaching us how to say hello in Herero.

Queen told us we could take pictures as much as we wanted, so we snapped a couple group photos with all the Himba children. I also became a big point of interest, because they hadn't seen hair like mine before. The girls especially enjoyed to touch it, and tried to teach me how to say "hair" in Herero.

We were then led over to a grinding rock. My family was led by Queen, while I was led by both hands by the village children. One of the older girls showed us how they ground up barley for porridge with the stone, and then we were urged to try it. There is something very funny about watching a foreigner try out grinding, for all the children were giggling by the end. Even Queen thought it was amusing.

After that, the chief of the tribe came over and introduced himself to us, shaking each of our hands with his in turn. Queen explained why there weren't many men in the villages: most were down in town, drinking beer. But the chief usually stayed in the village, as it was his responsibility to make sure the tribe had enough to eat. He had several wives as well.

From there the kids led us to the main hut, where the chief usually stayed. It was mud, like the others, but inside the small hut was decorated quite thoroughly. There were mats of cow hides on the dirt floor, piles of maize flower given to the tribe by the Namibian government, and trinkets hung from the ceiling and walls, some of which were broken walkie talkies, a radio and a dirt covered cell phone.

A Himba woman was inside, and had the small fire pit going. Queen explained that the women would burn sage and use it as a natural cologne, since there was very little water here. The Himba woman showed us, squatting over the embers and fanning herself with the scent just like splashing water on yourself during a shower.

The woman then proceeded to rub herself with a mixture of Vaseline and ochre. The red ochre clay has a unique smell to it. Very earthy, and muddy. Queen told us the women do this multiple times as a daily ritual. The Himba woman then asked Queen something in Herero, which made her smile and chuckle to herself. We were asked if we'd like to try some of the mixture as well. I had thought we had gotten a laugh out of grinding...

The woman rubbed the ochre all over my face, which felt like a thick, grainy cream. She finished, and took a step back, saying -to my surprise- in English, "You are Himba now." She smiled, and I thanked her, turning towards everyone else. The hut was filled with laughter at my changed appearance, and no one else in my family opted for a Himba makeover. I sat back down amongst the Himba children who giggled and took some of the ochre from my face and rubbed it on their arms. They giggled and played with my hair and the buttons on my shirt, holding my hands with theirs.

Queen and the other Himba talked in Herero. I figured they knew each other, as Queen had lived here before moving into the city. One of the kids began to clap, and upon my joining in, the others did as well.

Then the Himba  children got up and performed a little dance. They stomped their feet excitedly and clapped their hands, making themselves a beat, then added in singing, which I cant exactly describe since the sounds were so foreign I'm not sure if they have a spelling, and one by one got up and danced in the small hut. It was a unique sight to see, and hear!

11:30 am We were then led out to the final stop of our Himba experience. While we had been busy learning about the culture, some of the women had set up a display of necklaces and other trinkets to sell us. Queen told us everything -bracelets, anklets, necklaces, drums, dolls, to name a few- were all handmade by the women and girls. We bought a few items, and Queen bargained a bit to get us a discount. Then we said our farewells, heading back to the car still surrounded with the curious village children. When we opened our doors, the kids took an interest to the empty water bottles laying on the floor. Queen asked if we would donate them, which we agreed, as the entire bottom floor of the car and back of the trunk were littered with them. The Himba people used them for multiple things. Most importantly was baby feeding.

12:00 Upon emptying our car of plastic treasures, we said our final farewell and left back to the city, dropping Queen off back at the market. All of us were still excited with our experience of a unique culture, and it was the topic of discussion for most of the drive back home.