Over the past school holiday, I took my first extended trip
with Namibian friends. It was awesome.
With my colleague in the village
I went to the northern part of the country, dubbed ‘Wamboland’
because, although it consists of several regions, the majority of the area is
inhabited by those of the Oshiwambo tribe. (Volunteers call it ‘O land’ because
all of the regions start with the letter O… but no Namibian understands if you
refer to O land!) I traveled with my friend/short-term housemate/colleague who
I’ve worked closely with in Tses this year. She was excited to get to show off
the white girl to her friends and family, and I was excited to see another
place and way of life. Plus we’re good friends. It was a win all around!
the headman's family we visited in the village
I found Wamboland really interesting because to start with,
the culture is SO different from the Namas where I live. People in the north
are extremely respectful and adhere to tradition much more strictly than those
in the south. There are arguments to be made, of course, that apartheid didn’t
break apart the culture in the north the same way as in the south (family units
were left alone – Wambos sometimes came south to work for Boers, but in the
south the Boers actually took over the land and disrupted the local
communities). It was really something to walk around the biggest town in
Namibia (excluding the capital city) and not be harassed.
visiting a UNam campus with some friends (Oganga? something like that. It's a crop science/agriculture specalty campus)
The coolest part of my trip was, of course, staying with my
friend and her family and just seeing how they live. They have an extremely
modern house, but even there some things are done traditionally. My first
evening we ate mahangu, traditional millet porridge (don’t chew because there
is sand inside!), traditional spinach and mopane worms. Yep, worms. Meme
(mother) was extremely entertained watching me try to eat it! Luckily she wasn’t
one to be offended if I didn’t try something, but “Aunt Francis from Kansas
says two bites of everything,” as Dad always told us.
learning to make mahangu (and getting laughed at)
bon appetit!
When we went to the village to stay with my colleague’s
cousins, we experienced yet another lifestyle. Here, they actually harvest and
pound the millet into meal themselves; they pick the worms out of the ground to
eat; until a few years ago they fetched water from a pretty gross-looking
watering hole. We visited the headman and brought him gifts, and saw a few
different homesteads where different family groups live. It was sad to see how
dependent people are on the land, because northern Namibia is in a serious
drought again this year and already they are starting to suffer from it. (Side
note – all of them blame climate change for the string of recent droughts.
Catch up, America!)
The water hole near the house
part of the family
