Red Himba

Kaokoland in Namibia: one of the last wild lands in Southern Africa.
This territory, which looks like a hostile and inhospitable planet, is still almost devoid of any human impact ...
It is there, in this semi-arid setting, that the fascinating Himbas people live.
These pastors, semi-nomads, from the banks of the Nile in Egypt, have succeeded in perpetuating their ancestral way of life, in these conditions of extreme life.

We went to meet them in their small village, at the end of endless red dirt tracks between the Kunene River and the Namib Desert.

Made up of a few dried dung huts symbolically built in a circle around the livestock enclosure, it is only visible at the last moment as it merges with the surrounding nature.

The women welcome us, naked breasts, dressed in a simple loincloth in skin tied around the waist, neck, wrists and ankles decorated with jewelry.
Their exceptional appearance comes from the sublime ocher red hue of their skin, and their amazing hairstyles, symbol of their age and social condition.


Younger children are clinging to their breasts, while older children play happily around them.
Time has stopped, the hours are ticking to the rhythm of daily tasks: cattle, cooking, jewelry making and beauty rituals.
Every day women and children coat their body and hair with a mixture of fat and hematite powder, which gives them this characteristic shade.
Few men around, they are far away, traveling endless distances in search of pasture for their cows which constitutes their only wealth.