Namibia’s Himba, a vanishing culture

My third trip to Namibia. While one can find Himba in more tourist visited areas, there culture has been shifted by tourism. I ventured up riverbeds to near the Angola border to find a villages where tourism doesn’t exist. Here is a tease of what I brought home.

A few more candid shots from the Himba Village. The night before the shoot, we visited the village. I was camping with a guide who was Herero so he could speak with the Himba. We negotiated a trade that would allow us to visit the settlement the next morning early, while they were starting their day. We didn't ask for any special re-enactment, etc. We just wanted to photo every day life. In return for the privilege, we provided ground corn (maize meal), cooking oil and some snuff to the village.

BTW in the prior post, the lady in the background of the first image is wearing a traditional headdress for someone to be married. the headdress on the young girl is a traditional headdrss that signals she has had her first menstrual period, but she was not yet ready to have sex. They wed very early in this culture.

In the black and white image below the lady is wearing the 'day to day' headdress of the OvaHimba.

The adults seldom wear western clothes, but the children are sometimes dress in some western clothes like tee shirts or shorts, especially the male children.

Good work. Thanks for sharing.

Beautiful

Very powerful images! Lesser known civilizations such as these are getting harder and harder to find. I would love to see more of what you captured!

As time allows, I am continuing to edit images from the Himba. this first image is a Himba lady with a small female child. One can tell the child is a girl by the hairstyle and necklace. The second image is a lady preparing ochre by pounding the ochre stone (Hematite) into small pieces. Thereafter the fragments are mixed with butter, slightly heated by means of smoke and applied on the skin. This is a traditional skin care for Himba women. The men do not coat the body with ochre.

Very powerful images.

fusionphoto wrote in post #18800527
Very powerful images.

Thank you.