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Namibia's Himba embrace tourism, with little profit

ALEXANDRA LESIEUR | OHUNGUMURE, NAMIBIA - Oct 19 2010 13:22

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Their bare-chested bodies painted with rich ochre-red colours, Himba women sing and dance in villages untouched by modernity since their ancestors settled on the Angola-Namibia border 200 years ago.

Then the cameras click, and a European tourist in a floral print joins the circle of dancers, while her fellow travellers from an air-conditioned tour bus browse beaded jewellery for sale among the cone-shaped huts made of wood, mud and cattle dung.

The Himbas number fewer than 30 000, their communities straddling the remote border region where they have survived colonialism, wars and droughts with their ancient traditions intact.

Now they're earning bits of money by opening their communities for tourism, in the process changing the dynamics of the culture on display for visiting foreigners.

"Tourists, who mostly come from Europe, want to see people on their own, see how they do their ochre colour and cook," said Himba guide Matirepo Tjiras.

"The problem is that these visits disturb the village life," he said. "Women stop what they're doing to come and sell handcrafts."

Children skip school when they see tour buses arrive to beg for sweets, he added.

Other Namibians scorn the Himba for maintaining their traditional ways, seen as backward in an age of ever-encroaching supermarkets and cell phones.

But tourists are fascinated by the Himbas traditional way of life, and during winter months foreigners arrive daily in the village of Ohungumure to peak into their huts and marvel at their semi-nomadic lives.

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"The problem is not with the tourists but with us. We have to organise ourselves," said Kakarandua Mutambo, a local Red Cross official who founded an orphanage in nearby Opuwo.

"People are not thinking of developing any infrastructure for the community."

Tourism has brought some development -- it's the country's third-largest industry with nearly one million visitors a year.

"Tourists want to get to know our culture," said 19-year-old Veuzuvamuani, as her baby suckled below the large shell on her necklace.

"They bring us things to eat, buy necklaces and pay to take a photo."

That money allows her to visit her mother in hospital, buy blankets or maize meal to cook their staple porridge, she said.

Namibia has created a dozen "protected zones" in this region, and plans another for the nearby town of Opuwo. About 15% of Namibia's land falls under these zones first created in 1995 to grant local communities the right to exploit natural resources.

The money is then managed by the community and can be used to repair wells or build schools, according to the environment ministry.

But many local chiefs don't like to share the earnings with more distant communities.

"We met to build a well, but no one wanted to share their money," said one family leader, Tuaseuapi Mbinge.

Other efforts aim to spread the gains from tourism to more people, the Franco-Namibian association is raising funds to build a cultural centre near Opuwo.

But one manager at a nearby hotel wants to stop visits to the village completely.

"I will prefer not to do the Himba tour," said Andrew Lesch, saying if the visits stopped, it would "help them to become more independent."

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Namibia's Himba embrace tourism, with little profit

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