When there’s a holiday in Namibia, usually celebrations will only happen in one town in the country. And that town is selected depending upon who can pay for the festivities. Needless to say, Opuwo won’t be hosting any of the holiday celebrations anytime soon. So it was a real treat for me to hear that there would be a cultural festival in Opuwo. So last weekend I made my way over to the soccer field where the festival was taking place and settled in on one of the bleachers to watch the festivities. When I got there some important people were speaking and welcoming us to the festival. With Opuwo being the regional capital, of course there isn’t just one language spoken. So after welcoming us in English, they moved on to speaking Otjiherero and then lastly Khoekhoe (the click language). And with every new speaker they repeated this process of translating in all the languages.
A few hours later, the traditional dances finally started.
With each tribe doing different dances, they all really varied in their form and type of dance. It was also really neat to see them all in their traditional dress too. With Opuwo being the spread of a National Geographic magazine, it’s not that I don’t see people in traditional dress every day, it’s the fact that here they were showcasing their culture and out of the every day environment. Previous to this festival, I haven’t taken many pictures, if any, of the Himba and Herero people in Opuwo because as part of their culture (specifically of the Himba culture), it’s rude to take pictures of them. But at the festival, I felt comfortable enough to take pictures of the various tribes, as it was a cultural festival.
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