A young Himba woman, her body beautified with ocher and
butterfat, attends the wedding festivities. Around her neck
she wears a torque of copper wire bound by leather and
packed with ocher and mud. This torque indicates her status
as a married woman. The highly valued conch shell hanging
from around her neck is worth as much as a young goat, and is traditionally passed down from mother to daughter.
Himba families live in small temporary dwellings built from
curved branches covered in mud. They periodically abandon
these dwellings to search for pasture for their herds of sheep
and goats, returning later in the year when rains have
replenished the grass supply. Their natural environment
provides them with everything they need for clothing, shelter sustenance, and adornment.
On the day of the marriage, a group of women, headed by the wife of the chief and including the mothers of the betrothed and the bride, parade around a family compound in a snakelike formation. They approach each bystander in turn, asking for blessings and a small gift for the couple. Gifts are usually money, tobacco or ocher. If onlookers have nothing to give they place a stick or twig into the receiving hand as a gesture of goodwill. Approached by the line of women, a girl, at left, receives a good natured mocking because she has no gift to offer.
The Himba groom sits secluded in a specially built nuptial hut. A female in-law comes to bless him by covering his talisman belt, shell pendant, and copper necklace with a mixture of chacoal and animal fat. In the tranquil darkness of her family hut, a mother prepares her daughter for marriage, giving her the treasured Ekori headdress. As the bride leaves her parental home, the front part of her headdress is rolled
forward, allowing her to see straight ahead only, thus
protecting her from the emotions of leaving her family. The
bride wears the Ekori on her journey to her new home and
must keep it on for the first month of married life.
On the morning of the marriage, female friends apply a
mixture of ocher, aromatic herbs, and perfumed butterfat to
the Himba bride. A staple Himba cosmetic, this rich mixture
provides protection from the sun, as well as beautifying the
skin. The married women attending the bride wear the small,
leather rosette headdress known as Erembe, which replaces
the Ekori headdress after the first month of marriage.
The Ondjongo dance forms the climax of Himba marriage
ceremonies. In this classic courting dance the participants
assume the roles of oxen and herders, with a view to
figuratively hunting down prospective partners. Standing in a semi-circle facing a line of men, the women clap and chant,
while one of them dances in the center in the manner of a
favourite cow. With her arms raised to imitate horns, the
woman stamps her feet as though they were hooves, and
struts in time to the clapping.
At the time of her marriage, a Himba bride is given a
ceremonial headdress called Ekori.This headdress is made of
the softest hides, decorated with iron beads, and covered
with ocher and butterfat. Around her neck she wears a
torque of copper wire bound by leather and packed with
ocher and mud. To the sound of joyous chanting, an
exuberant Himba girl leaps and twirls while women ululate
their approval of her performance. This young woman is
dancing the part of the predator in the Otjiunda, or calf
enclosure dance. She will be surrounded by other dancing
women who will try, without touching her, to chase her from
the enclosure.
A Himba mother parts the ocher-colored veil made of beads
and twisted cord covering her daughter’s face.This veil is
designed to conceal her face in public and indicates that the
girl is no longer a child and is in transition to becoming a
woman. To secure the bond with her ancestors, a Himba
girl’s hair is lengthened with ancestral hair belonging to her
mother or grandmother. Her hair is then twisted into long
braids and rubbed with ash from the fire to secure the shape
of the braid. Finally, the braids are covered with a mixture of
ocher and animal fat.
Female relatives of a Himba bride prepare for the wedding by tressing each other’s hair and applying ocher and perfumed butterfat to their bodies. A staple Himba cosmetic, this rich mixture not only beautifies the skin, but also provides protection from both the sun and the cold desert nights.
Always the center of attention, Himba babies from Namibia
are never left on their own and are carried everywhere in a
hide back-sling, or on the hip of their mother or caretaker.
The pastoral Himba regard their offspring as a great blessing, and even a cattle-rich man is not considered truly wealthy until he has many children and grandchildren.
Brandishing their healing sticks, Katjambia and her assistants
travel from village to village treating the sick and exorcising
the posessed. Katjambia is the daughter of a renowned
Himba headman, and one of the most respected healers
living today. A striking six-foot-two-inch tall woman, she
travels through the territory with a small team of assistants
providing healing wherever it is needed.
A gravely ill woman receives healing from renowned Himba
healer, Katjambia. The Himba believe that all sickness is
brought on either by a curse or a premature call from the
ancestors to join them in the afterworld. The curse is said to
be carried by a black dove-like bird that flies down from
southern Angola.
Katjambia and her assistants prepare a healing house, known as Otjitara, made of mopane wood poles painted with stripes of goat’s blood and charcoal paste. Inside the house will be a bench with a round plate containing white ash, two ritual necklaces and various talismans. This healing house will serve an individual suffering a severe health problem for his and her entire lifetime.
Katjambia has been called to cure a woman with severe chest pains and internal bleeding. As the healing rites begin,
Katjambia shakes her sacred calabash rattle at the afflicted
woman to agitate the unwelcome spirit.
At the climax of the healing, the woman emits several loud
grunts, which Katjambia answers by calling out “Njoo Njoo,”
words of a strange language believed to come from Angola.
She identifies the curse as that of an ancestor who was killed
by black magic and has come back to take revenge. The
woman shakes with convulsions. Gradually, Katjambia
relieves the woman of the malevolent spirit by absorbing it
into her own body, leaving the woman calm and healed.
Katjambia works to exorcise three women posessed by the
spirit of a lion sent to them by their deceased husband. Killed by a lion himself, he has dispatched the spirit to bring his wives to join him in the afterworld.
Surrounded by chanting healers, the posessed women exhibit all the savagary of the lion spirit that has taken hold of them. As Katjambia shakes her rattle to draw out the spirit, the lionposessed women bite wildly at it in a frenzied state.
Totally posessed, the women are transformed into lions, they
roar, growl, and lash out with their “claws,” crawling on all
fours for several hours. They are under the spell of their
husband’s call to join him in the afterworld.
As the exorcism reaches its climax, one of the “lion women”
squats with her claws outstretched (at left). Katjambia
summons all of her powers to draw the lion spirit out of the
woman. Her eyes roll back and she enters a trance, absorbing the evil force into her own body. The wild behaviour of the women gradually begins to subside. Forced into Katjambia’s body the lion spirit remains so powerful that she is unable to expel it, no matter how she tries.
Brought to the ancestral fire by her assistants, Katjambia
summons the force of three generations of healers embodied within the flames. The fire has burned continuously since it was first lit many centuries ago and its embers have been carried wherever the Himba moved. After six hours of chanting and praying to the ancestors for help, Katjambia reaches a state of total exhaustion. At two o’clock in the morning , a shaft of light miraculously flahes from her head and disappears into the darkness. Her body finally relaxes, and Katjambia, free of the lion spirit, silently lies down and sleeps. To our amazement, we managed to capture on film this moment of release.
