The Himba of Southwestern Africa and the Implications of the Nation State :: Essays Papers

The Himba of Southwestern Africa and the Implications of the Nation State For over five centuries, the Himba bulk have breathed the hot and filmy air of the Earths oldest desert, raising fat, prosperous herds of livestock in a shrewd net of pasture lands, and honoring their ancestors through ancient sacred resurrects and venerated grave sites (Crandall). Anthropologists theorise the Himbas ancestral firelight has been flickering . . . since the 1600s, when they arrived as part of the great Bantu migrations from the north (Salopek). unbekn witnessst(predicate) to them, the arid and volatile beauty of Southwestern Africa has provided the Himba the worlds outgo cultural haven from violent confrontation and influence of foreign part (Salopek). However, this desert haven is no longer a refuge from racial discrimination and environmental destruction in an ironic twist of history, the Himba argon now threatened, not by European colonists, but by their own Independent nation state governances. In the past, foreign wars and encroaching western sandwich colonists left the Himba relatively untouched. However, globalization has wrought a new government mind in Namibia and Angola progress is profit at all cost, which translates to bulky tourism and unquestioned governmental river and land exploitation through precipitous damming projects. As both independent governments now urgently move towards horse opera ideals of ruthless progress, the international community must respond to Southwest Afrcias government proposals for Angolas Iona National Park and Namibias Epupa Falls Dam. 25,000 semi-nomadic Himba peasants, divide between Southern Angola and Northern Namibia boarders, now fight for their rights to choose the manner of their future. In the struggle for Himba sovereignty, these two cases stand out as blasting war cries of Himba cultural and political rights under attack.Smeargond with otjize, a blend of butterfat and ply iron ochre for protection again st the arid climate and blistering sun, the Himba are physically distinguishable as the Red People on the deluxe and brown landscape of Southwestern Africa ( Crandall). In scattered encampments or homesteads of 20 to 30 people the Himba drift with the seasons to new settlements in search of water and grazing lands (Bensman). Tending to semi-permanent gardens of maize, pumpkins, and melons, the Himba primarily live off the yogurt and butter fat of their livestock (Ezzell). As animals are sacred to the Himba, the passing of an elder is the whole momentous occasion for cattle to be slaughtered. By transferring ancestral fire to the exact place of burial, community life is physically and internally touch on on the fire.