The Happy Cruisers Go to South Africa: Epupa Falls and the Himba People of Namibia

We continued to head north after leaving Etosha National Park driving through Owamboland to Oshakati, where we spent the night, and on to Ondangwa where Marius landed when he served in the South African Defense Force in 1985 and 86. Both Chris and Marius served in the SADF during the Angolan civil war and neither had been back to this area since. Marius was based at Mahenene, between Oshikati and Ruacana, so we decided to see if the old military compound located there was still accessible. We saw the towers where he stood guard at night along with the old tires that had been stacked up for added protection while he was stationed there.

The Gate to the Mahenene SADF Base

Marius stood guard in this tower during the Angolan Civil War.

Old tires remain from the 1980's

Girls from the Mahenene Women's Project

To our surprise, the base is now part of the Omahenene Training Center set up in 1994 at Omahenene Research Station, to train residents from surrounding villages in various vocational skills such as horticulture, computer literacy, needle work and hospitality. Since its inception, the center has trained hundreds of students in Socio-economic and socio-political skills. The Mahenene Project for Women is supported by the Women’s Action for Development, a NGO led by Namibian born Veronica De Klerk. WAD focuses on social and economic self-help and empowerment to improve economic status and provide a political voice for rural Namibian women. The WAD has developed sewing cooperatives, provided agrarian training and created savings clubs for women to finance their activities. In addition, the WAD is very active in the effort to bring an end to violence against women.

Leaving Mahenene we traveled on to Ruacana. We had to drive carefully and pay attention in order to avoid hitting the many donkeys, goats and cattle walking in and along the highway! It seems that the best grass is along the highway and everyone brings livestock there to graze. Road kill is a common occurrence and none of it is wasted!

Typical housing and friendly people.

A mobile medical clinic parked next to the highway.

Ruacana is a small rural village near the Kunene River and the place nearest to the Angolan border post where Chris guarded the main water pipe into Owamboland while he served in the SADF. Being back in the area brought back a lot of memories and triggered several dinner conversations about their experiences.

Our original plan was to travel from Ruacana to Epupa Falls along the Kunene River but the heavy rains and advice from the locals against doing this due to severe flooding led us to Plan B which involved traveling south to Opuwo and then back north to Epupa Falls.

Himba women at petrol station in Opuwo.

Epupa Falls

The border river between Namibia and Angola, the Kunene, plummets down a 40 meter deep gorge at the Epupa Falls close to the nearby village of Epupa. In the Herero language Epupa means “falling water”. Normally the water going over the falls is crystal clear however due to the heavy rain, the water was a deep reddish brown. Even so it was one of the most beautiful, magical places I have ever seen. We stayed at the Kapika Waterfall Lodge on a hill high above the village and hiked down to the river for a closer look.

Great traveling companions - Chris, Kalima and Marius

Thank goodness there were no crocodiles this time!

Children in Epupa village.

An amazing place!

The Himba

One of the highlights of our trip to Namibia was our visit to a Himba homestead. The Himba are an indigenous people of the Kunene region of northern Namibia and Southern Angola. They are semi-nomadic raising goats and cattle and they are famous world over for covering themselves with otijize, a mixture of goat butter fat and ochre (iron oxide powder) giving their skin a reddish glow.

We found an excellent guide through the Kapika Waterfall Lodge staff. As a young man he had been sent to school, where he learned English. He suggested that we bring food as a gift when visiting the village rather than giving the Himba money. Kalima also brought seashells from Hawaii and New Zealand as a gift. Upon arrival we asked permission to visit and learn about their culture. The "clan leader" graciously accepted and we spent about 2 hours with the people of the homestead.

Our guide with a basket of ochre.

Modern clothes are scarce, but generally go to the men when available.

Traditionally both men and women go topless and wear skirts or loincloths made of animal skins in various colors. Breasts are considered non-sexual but buttocks are carefully covered. The Himba still adorn themselves with traditional jewelry according to ancient customs.

Both men and women wear large numbers of necklaces, arm bracelets, sometimes almost like sleeves, made from ostrich eggshell beads, grass, cloth and copper and weighing as much as 40 kg. Adult women wear beaded anklets to protect their legs from venomous animal bites.

The hairstyle of the OvaHimba indicates age and social status. Children have two plaits of braided hair. From the onset of puberty the girls' plaits are moved to the face over their eyes, and they can have more than two. Married women wear headdresses with many streams of braided hair, colored and shaped with otjize.

When the girls have completed their puberty ceremony, the so-called ekori festival takes place and she receives the ekori headdress made from tanned sheep or goatskin with three leaf-shaped points, often decorated with iron beads.

The Ekori Headdress

When she has been married for about a year or has had a child, the ekori head-dress is replaced by the erembe headdress made from the skin of a goat’s head and fastened under the hair at the back of the head by two thongs. From then on the ekori is worn only during ceremonial occasions.

An Erembe Headdress

Himba males also wear different hairstyles, such as the single plait, the ondato, worn by young boys down the back of the head.

This young man is wearing the ombwiya headdress, a scarf made from fabric covering the hair and decorated with an ornamental band.

We were told that the Himba women never wash in their lives. Rather, they ‘smoke’ themselves clean using herbs which give their skin an almost musky/woody smell, before reapplying a new layer of otjize.

This symbolizes earth's rich red color and the blood that symbolizes life, and is consistent with the Himba ideal of beauty. The morning beauty regime can take up to three hours a day. The large white shell worn on the breast is called the ohumba.

Members of an extended family typically dwell in a homestead, "a small, circular hamlet of huts and work shelters" that surrounds "an okuruwo (ancestral fire) and a central livestock enclosure."

Location of the Okuruwo (ancestral fire)

Livestock enclosure

In the 1980s it appeared the Himba way of life was coming to a close. A severe drought killed 90% of their cattle, and many gave up their herds and became refugees in the town of Opuwo living in slums on international relief. Because they live on the Angolan border, many Himba were also victims of kidnapping during the Angolan civil war. However, they have persevered and their people, culture and traditions remain.