Faces of Southern Angola

Beverly’s Adventures Visiting Remote Tribal Areas

by Beverly Houwing

I never thought I’d ever have a reason to go to Angola given its history and my being more of a wildlife and landscape photographer, but in 2019 I remarked over a lunch with a friend who leads many African tours for both wildlife and tribal photography, about why we’d never met up in Africa given the amount of time we both spend there.

She said, “Bev, you must come to Angola and see it while it’s still pristine. There is nobody going now and you should photograph the tribes there. They are amazing!” It was a valid point and very intriguing, so I went with her in June 2022.

A little history about the Republic of Angola... it was formerly a Portuguese colony. It has been one of Africa’s more isolated countries for tourism and one of the last great travel mysteries. It has is been virtually untouched by foreigners because it was closed off to most outsiders for decades due to stringent visa policies, high prices, and the travel warnings - all that before COVID even happened. With the exception of the development of the country’s substantial petroleum reserves, Angola’s economy has long been unable to take advantage of its natural resources because of the devastation caused by the protracted civil war lasting 27 years and only ending in 2002.

Angola has beautiful tribes that follow the time-honored traditions and ways of life largely untouched by the modern world. By traveling in a mobile tented camp with an amazing support team, who set up spacious tents for us to sleep in, showers, toilets, a kitchen, a dining tent and a battery charging area that ran off a generator, we were able to go into very remote locations and live right next to the villages, spending a few days at each place to establish more of a connection with the local people.

Instead of just dropping in and taking pictures for a few hours and going on to the next place, we stayed and brought food - bags of maize and flour, goats and threw parties in the villages to get into the spirit of their culture. It was greatly appreciated and facilitated their willingness to be photographed by our group.

People from the tribes were constantly dropping by our camp, when we weren’t in their village, so we took advantage of having more photo opportunities with them and set up a makeshift “portrait studio” under our large dining tent.

We were encouraged to bring items that we wanted to use to enhance portrait photography. I brought a silver/gold reflector and others brought large cloth backdrops (the black one was the most popular), other reflectors and full flash set ups. We even improvised with tilting tables on end that had an interesting texture, and attaching table clothes and fabrics to the sides of our vehicles for backgrounds. Otherwise we were out photographing in the villages to capture their daily lives.

The Mucubal Tribe are beautifully dressed in multiple layers of strikingly vibrant colorful African fabrics that are becoming scarcely visible in modern day life. The women make square hats from the fabrics by using sticks to support the shape. Mothers use goat skins to make a “papoose” to carry their babies on their back. They are still living a traditional semi-nomadic lifestyle relying on livestock, due to excellent water access in their area.

They were the first stop on a two week trip in the southern part of Angola. We started in Luanda, the capitol and had a night there before getting a regional flight to Lubango, a large city in the south, which is close to the main tribal areas. From there, we set our on our “road trip” getting to very remote areas - often driving on desert tracks when the roads vanished, through sand, over boulders and traversing dry river beds. Miraculously getting stuck happened only once, getting lost a couple times and thankfully no breakdowns at all. These areas have no cell service and there were places where we passed one vehicle and a couple people on motor bikes the whole day.

The Himba tribe has very striking women, covered in a mixture of ochre and fat, called Otijize. They spend as many as three hours a day maintaining their beautiful appearance. The different neck pieces and hair styles determines the importance and status of the individual person. The jewelry of married woman is a main necklace that has a shell or cone shell, which symbolizes marriage and is strung with iron and ostrich egg beads. Their ankles are covered with iron bracelets. On their head they wear an ornate headpiece called the Erembe, which resembles cattle horns. Their wrists are banded with coils of iron and plastic etched bands. Their hair is braided with mixture of animal hair, cow dung and ochre. Unmarried men wear a simple braid toward the back of their heads. Village life is simple with the young girls tending to herding and milking the goats and the women cooking a goat milk and flour or maize porridge to feed their families.

The Mohacahona are another tribe that lives a nomadic life. The tribe we went to see one morning was in a very established village with a large cattle kraal and goat enclosures. They had sturdy huts and were busy storing large amounts of maize in them. The next afternoon we decided to go back and photograph them in the afternoon light and the village was deserted! We couldn’t figure out how a village of 80 or so people could just disappear like that. But in this area, people wander from village to village and eventually venture back at some point.

The women also have very intricate hairstyles. The women’s haircut is made with a mix of cow dungs, fat, coal, and herbs for the fragrance. Their traditional headdress is called Kapapo, and decorated with colorful barrettes, beads, leather, aluminum strips from cans and jewelry.

The Mwila are said to be one of the earliest Bantu people to undertake the migration into Angola. The women are famous for keeping their traditional African culture with some of the most astonishing hairstyles.

Hairstyles are very important and meaningful in Mwila culture. Women coat their hair with a red paste called, oncula, which is made of crushed red stone. They also put a mix of oil, crushed tree bark, dried cow dung and herbs on their hair. Besides this, they decorate their hairstyle with beads, cauri shells, buttons, and even dried food or feathers. In addition to beading their hair, they wear heaving bead work around their necks. Their necklaces change as they mature, with each being meaningful for each period of their life.

I’m very happy I got to experience a place like Angola. Despite the turmoil of its past, it is a remarkably peaceful and friendly place now. As more tourists visit these remote parts of the country, and as the local population pursues living a more modern lifestyle, these traditional ways will not be around indefinitely. •

See more images from my Angola trip: https://www.flickr. com/photos/squidgallery/albums/72177720301330002

I worked with Long for over 30 wonderful years at a few different cutting edge publications where he held the editorial fashion director position. Long was well respected in his craft. He was a natural fashion influencer and leader and I still can’t believe he suddenly left us one day last fall. I had the pleasure of accompanying Long to Italy many moons ago. What a lovely adventure. I’m sure he is up in heaven giving the angels styling tips and discussing the latest Dolce & Gabbana collection. A true fashion maverick. Miss you my dear friend.