traditional tribes of southern Angola

But it was time to get back on the road – to another country I haven’t visited before: Angola.

I’ve been on a couple of tours with a company that like to go deep into tribal stuff, and I signed up to their tour visiting various different tribes in southern Angola.

& I have to say, there are some great tribes in southern Angola, for those of us who love seeing very different traditional dress!  Above you can see the ornate beaded ‘necklaces’ worn by the Muila tribes – which never come off, they sleep with their heads resting on a stool.  The lady on the left is from the Himba tribe, known especially for the reddish substance they smear on their hair and bodies: a paste made from butterfat, ground red ochre, and some kind of aromatic resin, which apparently protects them both from the sun and from mosquitoes.  The bits of goatskin sticking up from the middle of her head indicate that she is a mother (or has been married for at least a year).

Unfortunately, alcohol has become a bit of a problem among some groups, and after one inebriated lady decided to give me a hug, I had the red 'mud' all over my arms, shoulders and Tshirt all day - and not easy to remove when you are rough camping, 'showering' out of a bucket of water behind a tree!

The men can also look rather cool – this either a Himba or Tua man (the Tua being a more lowly tribe, who often imitate the dress of the Himba):

The people we met - from some seven different tribes, I think - were welcoming, and did not mind us taking their photos, although I assume the tour company had paid them something.  Some visits, expecially to the Tua tribe, felt rather 'commercialised', with the women mostly sitting by blankets displaying various items of jewellery and trinkets they wanted to sell to us, with the pressure to buy feeling very strong, but even for those of us who they made very little money from (I bought just one necklace and one bracelet) they still did not complain as we wondered around their settlements taking photos.

We were given some information about them – which tribes were nomadic and which settled, which tribes kept goats and which kept cattle, etc – but I have to say that it was hard to take it all in, as well as remembering which tribe was which, and (for the purposes of labelling my photos) what was the name of the village/area where we were.  & it was not the most ‘comfortable’ tour, with quite a few days of camping and some very rough roads.  We missed a boy who ran out in front of our vehicle by just centimetres, I think, as there was some contact with the large bag he was carrying, and the vehicle carrying our camp staff, food and cooking equipment ended up on its side beside the road at one point, when the need to avoid driving into some of the very bad potholes resulted in three cars across a road that only had room for two.  I did not see the accident, but thankfully no-one was hurt and we still got to eat!

OK, final photo from this visit – of two girls attending a ‘fico’.  This is a coming-of-age ceremony, which both boys and girls go through, marking their transition from childhood to adulthood.  Very different ceremonies in different parts of the country (for different tribes), with this picture showing two girls – attendees at a fico – from the Humbi tribe.  The ‘elephant ears’ of the girl on the left indicate that she has already done her fico, whilst the beaded hair of the girl on the right is part of the build up to her own fico, due to take place within the next month.