The Ovahimba are protected in many ways by their isolation and remoteness but the governments of Namibia and Angola seem, I think, to be less intent on acculturation seeing them as an important facet of the tourism industry. I think tourism if managed sustainably helps to support many of their traditions and the Ovahimba see this as a means of promoting the longevity of their culture.



Due to droughts at various times in their history, there have been further migrations to other parts of the country. The Herero people are said to be of the same bloodline and still speak the same language.
The Ovahimba are universally welcoming and truly accepting of visiting photographers and tourists. In Namibia there is more tourism and yet their cultural resilience is impressive. The men, have to some extent adopted some western traits but the women are almost universally traditional, even in tourist honey pots like Epupa. In Angola where sixty percent of the Ovahimba are found there is much less tourism and here, even the men, are still immersed in traditional practices. In both countries which are divided by the Kunene river the Ovahimba are still living in ways which have changed little in the last few decades.

They live in total harmony with the semi arid and arid environments in which they exist. They are semi nomadic and move when the desert advances or when there are years of drought. There was rain last year for the first time in Southern Angola for seven years. Climate change which is largely driven by the industrial nations truly impacts on those living in the Sahel in Northern Africa and the desert fringes of the Namib and Kalahari. The Ovahimba adapt and move in response, despite losing many of their livestock.
Whilst in this region I visited several villages and was surprised at the degree of resilience of the tribe in the face of homogenisation and the impact of tourism. Whilst it is a remote area there are now travellers who are exploring the beauty and isolation of the area. The Ovahimba are more numerous in Angola than in Namibia and as a result of their relative isolation they have had less exposure to tourism.


En route I stopped at a very traditional Himba village. They had rarely seen anyone from outside the region. On my visit I witnessed an animist ritual where they were sacrificing a cow (they asphyxiated it) to send one of the male members of the tribe who was sick to a clinic in Opuwo (Namibia – about 50 kilometres away).
The woman moved on their knees to taste Mopane leaves in water. This was done in turn. Christian missionaries, despite their presence, have been ineffective here. Colonisation and the indoctrination and conversion of people to Christianity with traditional belief systems has been one of the most enduring impacts on the African continent
In Namibia I visited several villages and was surprised at the degree of resilience of the tribe in the face of homogenisation and the impact of tourism. Whilst it is also remote area, there are now travellers who are exploring the beauty and isolation of this region. This will undoubtedly have an impact.


Namibia is a very sparsely populated country (2.5 million people) and it is this, isolation and strong cultural heritage which has protected the Himba tribal enclave. They are nomadic pastoralists who migrate from a central or ‘home’ village to villages in areas which offer them better grazing for their animals. These movements are both seasonal and essential when there is a drought.
They live in simple huts made with a frame of Mopani tree branched and then covered in a mix of clay and cow dung. Quite strong, resilient and thermally insulated.



The Himba still dress in leathers and have wonderful jewellery much of it with meaning beyond decoration. The women cover themselves in butter made from milking their cattle and shaking it is a calabash until it congeals. They then mix this with red ochre from the ferruginous soils to make their bodies red! Their hair too is braided and each braid veneered with clay and the red ochre.
There is little westernisation even in close proximity to Epupa – the women are still bare breasted and seem to take pride in their sartorial elegance. A very few of the boys can be seen in t-shirts but they are anomalies and when dressed in western attire, often for school, it seems to take away from the cultural wealth that is reflected in their ‘tribal’ traditions.



Their hair styles change when the transition from girl to woman and boy to man, takes place. The young girls have two or sometimes four very distinctive braids which are sealed partially with a black clay and these braids are aligned to fall over the front of the eyes and/ or back towards the neck. When they reach puberty they are then allowed to use the ochre and butter and are transformed by the red colouration.
Boys, too, have very distinctive braids which may be double or single depending on status? The women wear a lot of jewellery and often have a beautiful white shell as a centrepiece. This is known as an Omba. They wear bracelets on arms and legs and have lines on the leg bracelets to indicate that they have two children. If they have more, which they do, the rest of the children are not symbolised in this way.

If women morn the loss of someone in the family one of the leg bracelets is shortened and they may also wear a leather crown if they have lost their husband. This leather crown was worn for marriage and not again until there is death. The Himba are a patriarchal and polygamous tribe and men may have several wives.
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Read the first in Trevor’s series on photographing tribes The last of their kind
Also read Trevor’s Human Connection article and feature on Capturing Character in People Photography here on Eye for the Light
All images © Trevor Cole