FAST FACTS
1. The Himba
(singular: Omuhimba, plura: Ovahimba) are an ancient tribe in
Namibia, closely related to the Herero (read more about the Herero here)
2.
Language: Otjihimba,
a dialect of the Herero language
3.
Population: about 20,000 to
50,000 people
4.
They are a semi-nomadic,
pastoral people who breed cattle and goats.
5. Women tend to perform more
labor-intensive work than men do, such as carrying water to the village,
building homes and milking cows. Men handle the political tasks and legal
trials.
6. Their homes are simple,
cone-shaped structures of saplings, bound together with palm leaves, mud and
dung
7. In the Himba culture a sign
of wealth is not the beauty or quality of a tombstone, but rather the cattle
you had owned during your lifetime, represented by the horns on your grave.
8. The Himba have been plagued
by severe droughts, guerrilla warfare (during Namibian independence and the
Angolan civil war) and the German forces that decimated other groups in
Namibia. Despite Himba life nearly coming to a close in the 1980s, they have
persevered and their people, culture and tradition remain
9. The women are famous for
rubbing their bodies with otjize,
a mixture of butter fat and ochre, believed to protect their skins against the
harsh climate. The red mixture is said to symbolize earth's rich red color and
the blood that symbolizes life
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