COMMUNITY-BASED TOURISM Stopovers en route to the main tourist attractions in the south provide an opportunity to meet the interesting people of the south. Ten kilometres from Berseba is Bruckaros Campsite in beautiful mountain surroundings. With minimum facilities, and no running water, the attraction here is the scenic landscape. In Keetmanshoop, Adonai Tours offers an introduction to Nama culture and an opportunity to experience some of the highlights of the south. The tours visit the Keetmanshoop township, Tseiblaagte, to view Nama singing and dancing, taste typical local food, learn about traditional dress and participate in a Nama wedding. In the very south is Warmbad Hotsprings Lodge, an interesting historical and cultural stop if you’ve already visited the Fish River Canyon and are exploring other areas of Namibia. The attractive reception area in the renovated officers’ barracks consists of a restaurant that serves light meals, and a conference room. Further down the road are the newly built accommodation facilities comprising three family bungalows, each with two bedrooms and an en-suite bathroom, two bungalows with five separate rooms, each containing a bedroom and ensuite bathroom, four small slate and thatch beehive rondawels (circular thatched rooms) and a small camp ground. A short distance away is the hot spring after
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well as Basters, and are sold by vendors along the main tarred road leading south.
Dancing, sewing and embroidery In the Naukluft environs an insight can be gained into the lifestyle of the Nama people by visiting the small community at Nabasib, halfway between Mariental and Maltahöhe. To help alleviate poverty, the guest farms and the community have formed the Naukluft Foundation. A Nama man with a Kudu horn, used traditionally as a musical instrument. The Foundation supports the Nabasib School Choir and dance group by of sewing and embroidery in the providing material for the Nabasib south, local entrepreneurs have women to make the waistcoats initiated several projects, including and traditional dresses they wear Gibeon Folk Art. A craft typical when they perform. The Nabasib of southern Namibia is the kaross, kindergarten, pre-primary and a rug or blanket made from skins school is also supported by the sewn together, formerly worn by Foundation. Khoesan people, and nowadays To preserve the art and tradition used as bed coverings or on the RON SWILLING
Nama people have a natural talent for music, poetry and prose. An example of a traditional dance is the well-known Nama stap. Numerous proverbs, riddles, tales and poems have been handed down orally from generation to generation. Nama praise poems range from impromptu love songs and formalised praise of heroic figures, to songs of the animals and plants in their environment. Nama women are highly skilled in needlework. Their embroidery and appliqué work, regarded as a traditional art form, consists of brightly coloured motifs inspired by the rural environment and lifestyles of the Nama people. The content of the work is often expressive and humorous. The traditional patchwork dresses that the Nama women wear are especially typical. Two projects in the south which coordinate these talents and market the products are anin, situated on a farm between Uhlenhorst and Hoachanas, and Gibeon Folk Art in the village of Gibeon. Kaross floor rugs or blankets made with skins of domestic animals or antelope are a speciality of the area. They are produced by Namas as
which Warmbad was named. The Warmbad area is inhabited by the Bondelswarts or !Gami-nun, one of the 13 Nama groups living in Namibia. The small museum in Warmbad, housed in the renovated German jail, displays information on the guerrilla wars fought between the Bondelswarts and the Germans based there in the early 1900s. A number of new community campsites and information centres have been built over the past three years. The following campsites have basic facilities: Snyfontein Camp with eight sites overlooking an appealing section of the Fish River; ≠Nudi Campsite with seven sites amongst quiver trees and dolerite rocks; Ganigobes Campsite, situated north-east of Tses; Goamus Campsite, situated in the striking mountain landscape of Gibeon; //Hai-Sores Campsite, with six sites and several demonstration Nama huts; and Hoachanas Campsite, 53 km from Kalkrand on the C21. The Asab Tourist Centre, positioned on the side of the B1 road in Asab, 36 km south of Gibeon, provides more information.