CULTURE Africa’s Top 5 Most Resilient Tribes

AFRICA’S TOP 5 MOST RESILIENT Tribes Africa is home to an abundance of magnificent tribes rich in culture and ethnicity, brimming with history. Below are five resilient tribes that have upheld original African traditions, with a focus on the key safari regions of East and Southern Africa.

The Batwa Of Uganda

The Batwa, or Twa, commonly known as pygmies, are an enchanted group of people around Echuya Forest Reserve in Kisoro and Kabale Districts of SouthWestern Uganda. The Echuya is located in the Albertine Rift region and is recognised as an important eco-region and top birding destination. The Batwa are believed to have migrated from the Ituri Forest of the Democratic Republic of Congo in search of wild animals to hunt, hence the name Kisoro, literally meaning “the area occupied by wild animals”.

The Batwa, regarded as the “keepers of the forest, co-existed peacefully with all creatures including the mountain gorillas until their haven was gazetted as Mgahinga Gorilla National Park to conserve gorillas in 1991. The history of these small-statured people is long and rich. They survived by hunting small game using arrows or nets and gathering plants and fruit in the rainforest. They lived in huts constructed of leaves and branches, moving frequently in search of fresh supplies of food. Some anthropologists estimate that pygmy tribes such as the Batwa have existed in the equatorial forests of Africa for 60,000 years or more.

The Himba Of Namibia

They are a semi-nomadic and pastoral tribe known to breed cattle and goats in northwest Namibia’s Kunene region. They are known for their red skin and matted braids, which are made by mixing otjize, which is animal fat, ash and ground ochre, a local stone. Otjize cleanses the skin over long periods due to water scarcity and protects it from the hot and dry climate of Kaokoland.

Central to the Himba’s culture is Okuruwo, the holy fire which symbolises their connection to their ancestors, who are in direct communication with Mukuru, their god. There is a permanent fire at the centre of each village to signify this connection, tended to by a fire-keeper from each family.

The Himba are also famed for their wife-swapping tradition, which has existed for centuries. It is known as “Okujepisa omukazendu”, which simply means “offering a wife to a guest.” They believe that it strengthens friendships and reduces incidents of promiscuity. When a male visitor comes with his wife, he can reach an agreement to exchange wives for the night. A woman is allowed to decline if she doesn’t like the guest, but must share a room with him.

The San Of South Africa

They are known as the first people of South Africa. Famed for featuring in the most famous movie about Africa, The Gods Must Be Crazy, the San are the oldest inhabitants of Southern Africa, where they have lived for at least 20,000 years. They are hunter-gatherers who share historical and linguistic connections. Their territories span Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, and South Africa.

The San have no formal authority figure or chief but govern themselves by group consensus. Disputes are resolved through lengthy discussions where all involved have a chance to make their thoughts heard until some agreement is reached. Certain individuals may assume leadership in specific spheres in which they excel, such as hunting or healing rituals, but they cannot achieve positions of general influence or power. White colonialists found this very confusing when they tried to establish treaties with the San.

The Maasai Of Kenya and Tanzania

The Maasai are a tribe of warriors in Kenya and Tanzania along the Great Rift Valley. They are nomads whose culture is centred around the belief that God (called Enkai in Maa language) created cattle especially for them, and that they are the custodians of all the world’s cattle.

As well as being the tribe’s primary income source (livestock are traded for other products or cash), cows play an important role in communal life. Families and clans establish alliances through the exchange of cattle; and consuming the meat and milk of cows is considered a sacred act, one that binds them to their creator.

Lion-hunting is a traditional but no longer practised Maasai rite of passage. In decades past, young Maasai men proved themselves as warriors (morani) with the ritual killing of a lion—either single-handedly or in a group, using only their iron spears as weapons. Though ritual lion-hunting is now outlawed in East Africa, and Maasai will now only kill a lion if it is threatening their livestock, the fierce bravery of the morani is still revered today.

The Maasai are known for their physical beauty, unique attire and body ornamentation. The most iconic Maasai garment today is the shuka, a woven, thick cotton blanket usually red with a striped or checked pattern in blue or black, which is worn wrapped around the body. The famed garment has been widely reproduced by modern fashion designers like Louis Vuitton; and many jewellery designers have worked with Maasai jewellery, especially the beautifully beaded multicoloured necklaces and bracelets.

The Hamar Of Ethiopia’s Lower Omo Valley

The Lower Omo Valley is one of the most fascinating regions on the African continent, thanks to the cultural diversity of over a dozen tribes that have lived in the valley for centuries, with human remains dating back 2.5 million years.

The Hamer tribe is one of the most well-known Omo Valley tribes. They are easily recognised by their body adornment, with multitudes of colourful beads, necklaces and bracelets, and by their distinctive hairstyles mixed with ochre and butter.

They are a highly ‘superstitious’ people, and to this day they consider twins to be born outside of wedlock, while children whose upper milk teeth develop before their lower teeth are deemed to be ‘evil’ or ‘unclean’. For this reason, such children are discarded in the bush and left to die, as they would rather lose a single child than inflict any disaster upon their community.

Controversial practices include ritual flogging of women by their husbands to prove devotion, and the initiation rite of ‘bull jumping’ performed by boys to allow them to marry. Hamer women take great pride in their appearance and wear goatskin skirts adorned with dense vertical rows of red and yellow beads. Their hair is characteristically fixed in dense ringlets and oiled with butterfat and red ochre. They wear many bracelets and necklaces fashioned from beads or metal, depending on their age, wealth and marital status.