Full Circle - Namibia

23rd November 2006 - Nambiba
It's true. what goes round, comes round.We have spent the last several days here in Namibia visiting and living with the native 'San Bushmen' and 'Himba People', two of the nomadic tribal inhabitants of this land. These people still live much the same as they have for hundreds (thousands?) of years. Still painting their bodies each day with red ochre paste, still gathering food and medicines from trees and shrubs, and still hunting and living in a predominately polygamistic tribal existance where life is largely untouched by the changes that have shaped our western society over the last two hundred years or so. They taught us how to make fire, snare birds and make the bows and arrows which they still use for daily survival, and they sang and danced for us around the camp fire. Their land is largely flat, unfurtile and stoney, the red soil intermittantly sporting dry brown desert grass and short spindly trees. These are the people who, at the time of Europe's colonial wealth, were persuaded to part with their homelands, much as the New Zealand Maori did, for, in some cases, a mere handful of glass beads and a few empty promises.
Today Namibia has some of Africa's most significant mineral wealth and is a major player in the continent's economy. Nomads like the San Bushmen and the Himba People now have much of their land back (probably not that with the diamonds and uranium though) and are free to live in traditional ways or to migrate to the urbane arears. Whichever they prefer. But here's the spin.
It's now us, descendents of the old colonial powers, who pay them large sums of money to enjoy their hospitality and exorbitant prices for a mere handful of glass beads that pass as ethnic jewelry. I guess what goes round comes round. At least they've learned something from us!