by ALEXANDRA LESIEUR
“A Himba woman poses on 19 August 2010 in the village of Otjakati, 40 kms from Opuwo in northern Namibia.” PHOTO/AFP
“We survive from the Baynes mountains. It is where we can move our cattle in spring-time for grazing, where we get the honey sugar. It is our kitchen,” said Muhapikwa Muniombara.
“If they build the dam, they’ll kill us,” said the 35-year-old, who has traditional necklaces and bracelets adorning her ochre-tinged body.
The largely nomadic Himba also bury their dead in the arid hills around the Kunene River which forms an oasis in the vast desert and part of Namibia’s northern border with Angola.
Generations of these graves will be flooded by the mooted 1700-gigawatt hydroelectric dam and the Himba worry their ancestors will be angered and could react badly, causing havoc with their lives.
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