While in Namibia, Toto visited two local homesteads. One belongs to the chief of a local Owango village. The second was a traditional homestead of the Ova-Himba tribe in Northwest Namibia.
A friend of mine, Amy, has spent the past two years as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching English in a local school. She lives with Tete and Meme Kulo in their homestead as they support her efforts to improve the education of the village students. Tete Kulo is the chief of the village, so he is an important man in the area. (Tete and Meme mean "Uncle" and "Aunt" in the local language). A homestead consists of an area fenced in by logs to keep out wild animals. Inside the area are traditional round homes for the chief's family, as well as round meeting areas for visitors. This picture is of the entrance area where they greet guests. Can you see the cows' skulls from previous celebrations?
Tete and Meme Kulo are a very kind and generous couple who help many less fortunate children in their community. As I mentioned in Chapter 15, many families cannot afford to send their children to school in Namibia. Parents in these less fortunate families ask Tete and Meme Kulo to house, feed and educate their children, and give them the chance to move up in the world. In exchange, the children help with the chores around the homestead. Here is a photo of their kitchen area.
When I was there, I saw that the children have to extract every tablespoon of oil for cooking by collecting and pounding some local nuts. They also have to pound grain into flour for cooking with a large wooden mortar and pestle. A "pestle" is a heavy stick that they use to pound the grain in a hollowed-out log, which is called a "mortar." It was certainly hard work.
The kids were all very nice and well behaved. While we were there, my friend, Amy, decided to thank them for all their help by making them s'mores. They had never roasted marshmallows before, although they were experts at starting a campfire, as they do all their cooking over fires. Like all kids, they really enjoyed the roasted marshmallows and chocolate.
The Ova-Himba tribe that I visited were very different, in that their lifestyle is much more similar to that of their ancestors. Because they live in the Namibian desert area, they don't have access to much water. So they have adopted ways to stay clean without using water. To clean and protect their skin, they cover it with a cream made of the mineral ochre (remember from Chapter 12 that the San people also used ochre to make their cliff paintings.) That is why the women and children in these photos have a red color on their skin.
The Ova-Himba also live in round huts made of sticks, mud and cow manure. The children were absolutely adorable and spent time playing catch with me using a tin can and three round nuts from a tree. At a young age the children help their parents watch their livestock, which consist of goats and cows. During the day, the men and children take the animals out to find grass and water. At night, the animals return to the homestead to stay inside the fence, which is made of thorn bushes so that the lions, cheetahs and leopards do not eat any livestock. You can see the fence in the right side of this photo.
The women play an important role in the Ova-Himba tribe. Their royalty are always queens (women), not kings (men). Only older women are allowed to go to the two sacred sites where they mine the ochre. You can see how the woman in this picture is putting the ochre paste into her hair. Unfortunately it is more and more difficult for the Ova-Himba people to find land where they can raise their livestock and maintain their traditional lifestyle. About three times a year they move to different homestead sites in a continual search for grass and water for their livestock.
Travel Questions on the Namibian Tribes:
- What do "Tete" and "Meme" mean? Do they sound like other words you know, from English or other languages?
- Why do some parents ask the local chief to take their children into their homestead?
- How do the kids make flour and oil?
- What is the name of the mineral the women put on their skin and hair?
- What do the Owango and Ova-Himba each use as fences around their homesteads?
- What toy did the Ova-Himba kids use to play with Toto?
- Why do the Ova-Himba move their homestead a few times a year?
Global Nomad Questions on Namibian Tribes:
- Draw a picture of a Ova-Himba homestead including the animals.
- Tete and Meme Kulo lived 10 kilometers south of the Angola border with Namibia. If each kilometer is 0.62 miles, how many miles south of Angola did they live?
- Ask a grown up to help you find or make a mortar and pestle. See how long it takes you to grind some grains (rice, for example) into flour. How long do you think it would take to make enough flour for a cake or loaf of bread?
- Write an essay describing the differences between your life and the life of the kids in either of these two homesteads.
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