Himba - the beautiful people.

What could be more beautiful than this?
I’ve returned from two week tour to Namibia. It was a great trip, Namibia is definitely one of the top countries I’ve visited until now. Its wildlife, countryside, its people! I visited also the Himba village near Opuwo. I spent about two hours with them and i can only wish it would be longer. At least a day or two.

Himba environment
Their village is situated in the pleasant surroundings of grassland and Mopane trees. It is ideal for their cattle as they have plenty of food and a shadow in hot summer days.

Himba beauty
Young Himba women are stunningly beautiful. This girl looked at me with some kind of curiosity and pride at the same time.

Young himba girl
Adolescent girl. She does not use the ochre colour yet but she already started to cultivate her hair.

Grinding red sandstone
This is how Himba women grind the red sandstone to produce ochre colour. They mix the red dust with butter and then rub it in the skin two times daily.

Shy, but nosy.
Small girl. She is even younger than the previous one. You can tell that because she has only one braid. The patches of red colour are from her mother.

The Chief of the Himba village
The chief of the Himba village. He had six wives, only four are still alive. He is obviously exhausted from tough life, but still he is firmly leading his family. This chair is his throne I would say.

Himba woman profile
A profile of Himba woman. The leather decoration on her head means she is married. She is not young anymore but still elegantly “dressed”.

Young himba girl cooking porridge
Cooking maize porridge. This is the main food for Himbas, they eat meat rarely and there is no vegetables and fruit in their diet. This young lady is going to school. Girls that go to school do not dress traditionally any more. She even speaks some basic English, so I talked to her for a while.

Breastfeeding a Himba baby
Himba mother and a child. Breastfeeding.

Is she in love?
Is she in love?

Himba teens dancing
Himba girls dancing. They performed a dance for us but they continued with vigorous dancing long after we left. They had a great fun and it was a delight to watch them whirling around with their braids flying.

Visiting Himba people is unforgettable experience and next time i go to Namibia I will definitely visit them again. And spend some more time with them.

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15 comments:

  1. mankica, 10. June 2008, 21:31

    Luka, krasne fotke! In vse te si naredil v dveh urah. Zares super! Afrika je resni?no prav posebno doživetje. Mene je navdušila in to predvsem zato, ker so ljudje še vedno tako zelo druga?ni in zanimivi, preprosti, a fascinantni. Verjamem, da si se imel odli?no. Tudi jaz se še kdaj vrnem na afriško celino!

     
  2. Andrej Potr?, 10. June 2008, 22:50

    ?arobna dežela, enako velja za fotografije. Upam, da tudi sam kdaj obi?šem ta del afriške celine. Res fajn fotografije.

     
  3. neo4Hidak (Kristijan), 11. June 2008, 0:49

    WOW

     
  4. Ivan, 11. June 2008, 15:14

    ?estitke!

     
  5. Marin, 11. June 2008, 18:43

    V filmu RRRrrr (igrata Marina Foïs in Gérard Depardieu) je bilo eno pleme tocno takšno, rdece :).
    Cudovite slike!

     
  6. Marianne, 11. June 2008, 18:54

    hi! i wonder if you have some more information about the Himbas food? do they eat many times a day? what else do they eat then porridge and some meat?

    -Marianne from Norway

     
  7. Luka Esenko, 12. June 2008, 3:22

    Marianne hi,

    as I talked to them their main diet is maize porridge. But they do eat meat once a week or sometimes two times.. But they really do not eat any vegetables or fruit, esecially fruit no. I’ve visited the school also and their lunc was - porridge.

    They usually eat two times a day, breakfast and supper.

    Hope it helps.

     
  8. Yves Rubin, 14. June 2008, 18:15

    This is a superb story, thank you Luka! Enlightening and beautiful, I just hope that they will preserve their culture with the increasing afflux of visitors to Namibia.

     
  9. Petra Nuzdorfer, 15. June 2008, 13:43

    sploh ne vem kaj naj napišem, ker sem ostala brez besed… resni?no!

    fotke so FENOMENALNE!

     
  10. Laryl, 16. June 2008, 9:46

    Thank you for the beautiful photos and information. I truely enjoyed it.

     
  11. Katja, 17. June 2008, 12:33

    ?udovite slike, ?udoviti ljudje, ?udovita ?rna Afrika! Tista prava in tradicionalna…da še je na svetu koš?ek neokrnjene narave in tistih pravih ljudi…pozdrav?ek, Katja- saj veš katera ;-) Eni pa na tropsko Kubo v kratkem… :-)

     
  12. Izi, 17. June 2008, 20:37

    Zivjo Luka - Izi tuki, nore fotke kot smo ze navajeni od tebe, povej a bos imel kako predstavitev potovanja in ce kje in kdaj! Kako si potoval sam, ali si bil zopet vodic?! En afriski JUMBO - Izi&Vida
    ps zvrcn kej

     
  13. Ana, 23. June 2008, 12:54

    Krasne fotke! Ja, imas prav, Namibija je tudi zame ena od najljubsih držav, kar sem jih obiskala doslej. Oblezla sem kar veliko, v Himbaland pa nisem sla - vem pa, da bom ob naslednjem potovanju tja sla prav gotovo! Se enkrat - super si pofotkal!

     
  14. Teja, 7. August 2008, 19:58

    Pre?udovite fotografije! Tudi sama si zelo želim obiskati Namibijo.

     
  15. Roderick Eime, 12. August 2008, 1:37

    Agreed. Sensational. Now you must visit the Trobriand Islands!
    http://monolith.com.au/papua-new-guinea/vactrav.html

     

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