ANGOLA: Hidden Tribes of the South

ANGOLA PHOTOGRAPHY TOURS WITH WILD IMAGES

In 2018 Wild Images proudly pioneered tribal photography tours in Angola when principal photographer Inger Vandyke spent three weeks in the country walking with Kuvale nomads and spending extended time travelling solo around remote southern Angola, exploring some of the country’s last remaining traditional cultures.  As a result the Wild Images tribal photography tour of Angola is now the most ethnographically extensive, offering an in-depth exploration of the rugged south-west corner of Angola alongside the most experienced support team in the country.

We will explore the incredible ethnic diversity of southern Angola, a region that is home to a wide variety of tribal people and also some of its most spectacular landscapes.

For decades this beautiful country was effectively shut off from the outside world due to a long-standing civil war. After the war ended in 2002, access to the country was still very restricted, but nowadays tourism is encouraged and the recent arrival of an E-visa system has made it easier for travellers from all corners of the globe to visit. Nonetheless, Angola photography tours to the remote tribal areas are still in their exciting, pioneering days.

In comparison to developed Namibia over the border, Angola remains another world. The towns and cities are filled with buildings that are remnants of the country’s Portuguese past. Crumbling facades and street plazas characterise urban Angola. Examples of avant-garde architecture lie everywhere from space-ship looking cinemas to gigantic public monuments that were erected to honour former colonial leaders and the ‘conquerors’ of this vast and beautiful country.

Outside of the urban centres, Angola is wild, unruly and magnificent. Characterised by jagged mountain ranges, rocky deserts, eroded landscapes and remarkable coastal scenery, the breath-taking beauty of south-west Angola feels untouched and unexplored.

Living in this vast wilderness are some of the most beautiful and gentle tribal people in southern Africa including the Ovamwila, Ovahimba, Ovatwa, Ovandimba, Ovakuvale, Ovahakaona, Nguendelengo and Ovahanda (Nyaneke). Since the “opening” of Angola, some of these tribal people have changed at an alarming rate forcing many of them to move to more remote areas to keep their cultures, and in some cases, their livelihoods alive. Many of them reside in the vast Iona National Park in southern Angola or in similarly wild locations like Virei, Oncocua and Cunene.

Unlike the somewhat curated experiences you might have with tribal people just over the border in northern Namibia, in Angola many of the semi-nomadic tribal people of the south-west live in fairly wild areas and visiting them requires a sense of adventure, excellent guides and the ability to camp independently. Where they live has no lodges and in many areas, there are only small tracks leading to their tiny communities that are dotted around this magnificent region.

The Wild Images Angola photography tour is the most comprehensive cultural photography tour offered in the country. As we explore the south-west we will visit both settled communities near small towns and camps of tribal people moving across the countryside. We will trace the paths of nomads, camp alongside them in their villages, join their children in their morning livestock herding and share visits to wells with them. As is customary on our Wild Images tours to tribal areas, we will also take gifts of food as a thank you for the families we will stay with during our trip. We will explore ancient and unexplained rock petroglyphs that date back 4000 years and we will drive the spectacular Serra de Leba pass from Lubango down to the coastal town of Moçamedes.

We also explore the wild beauty of Angola’s southern coastline and enjoy stunning landscape photography opportunities in the eroded formations of Arco and Curoca at sunrise and sunset.

It is on this wild southern coast that two tiny fishing communities north of Tombwa where the local Kwepe (or Curoca) tribal fishermen take tiny wooden boats out to fish each day. Returning home, they unload their catch and sell some of it fresh, while the remainder is dried on large racks in the sun or salted through tiny factories. These villages provide a wonderful glimpse into the lives of Kwepe fishing folk in Angola and the way in which they survive in their incredibly harsh environments.

Our special Angola photography tour is for photographers who are able to respond spontaneously to situations when they arise, whether it be capturing a street scene in a lively market or a subtle change in light across a wondrous landscape. Unlike other parts of Africa, Angola is not a place that is easily posed or orchestrated. If you are passionate about capturing a truly beautiful corner of the continent with some of Africa’s most beautifully decorated tribal people we look forward to travelling with you.

ANGOLA’S HIDDEN TRIBES

The anthropological treasure chest of southern Angola is home to around eleven different tribal groups. During our Angola photography tour, we hope to introduce you to at least eight of them. Some of these tribes are semi-nomadic, following the paths of the wind and rain across the seasons. Others are more settled, choosing to stay in small towns and villages that we will travel through on our tour.

Ovamwila

The whimsical and elaborately decorated Ovamwila people can sometimes be seen wandering around the city streets of Lubango.  During our most recent expedition we explored some very remote communities of Ovamwila people whose body decorations were unrivalled by any Ovamwila people you might meet in towns.

While Ovamwila men have largely abandoned their traditional dress, their women are still passionate about retaining it. Much like many descendants of the Herero complex of peoples, Ovamwila women undergo significant changes to their appearance as they grow from girls to women.

Young Ovamwila girls will often braid their hair in dreadlock style strands and they colour them using a mixture of deep red ochre mixed with animal fats. They usually will also wear a simple strand of colourful beads as a necklace.

Necklaces are an important part of Ovamwila women culture, each symbolising a different phase of life. As they grow towards womanhood, they will start to remove the ochre from their hair and will wear a simple series of three braids across that is unadorned with ochre. They also begin to wear a Vikeka, or necklace made from wicker covered with clay. As a young girl passes into womanhood she will attend a ceremony called a “Fico” which involves drinking their locally fermented alcohol, music and dancing through the night.

After they are initiated and then married, young Ovamwila women wear spectacular golden braids called Nontombe, again a dreadlock style of braid that is covered with animal fats and bright yellow ochre.  This is accompanied by spectacular, many stranded necklaces called Vilandas which are worn constantly until they die. They are so large that Ovamwila women must sleep with their heads resting on a special wooden rest in order to not ruin their Nontombe or Vilanda decorations.

We will meet warm and smiling Ovamwila people in both their villages and at lively, bustling local markets. If invited we may also walk with them through their fields of corn, sorghum and millet or perhaps enjoy a visit to a well with them during our tour.

Ovakuvale

The ethereal beauty of the Ovakuvale tribe is almost difficult to describe in words. Their stunning culture is being kept alive by both men and women across their nomadic range in southern Angola.

On our Angola tribal photography tour, we will visit ornate Ovakuvale villages that feature beautifully sculpted clay huts, rings of thorny bush livestock enclosures and a central courtyard.

Both men and women in Ovakuvale culture engage in teeth filing for beauty. This involves filing the inside edge of the two front teeth and is very visible when they smile and laugh!

They both choose vibrant and beautifully patterned cloth to wear either as a sarong style dress or a covering for the hairstyles in women.

Driving around the tracks of southern Angola it is quite possible to encounter nomadic Ovakuvale people as they move across the region from village to village or from well to well as they search for water and grazing lands for their livestock.

Ovakuvale men walk bare-chested, with sandals fashioned out of worn car tyres and a sarong made from beautiful wax cloth. They may also carry spears for hunting or machetes for cutting tracks and wood as they walk.

Perhaps the most beautiful aspect of Ovakuvale dress, however, appears in their women. Kuvale women are best known for their beautiful large ‘hats’ called Ompota. These are fashioned from wicker which is kept rigid by being filled with dried cow’s tails and they can be used to carry food. Once created Ovakuvale women cover their Ompotas with brightly coloured fabric scarves.

Ovakuvale women also wear a fascinating ‘bra’ called an Oyonduthi, effectively a piece of string tied around their breasts, to keep them from moving about as they walk.

Ovakuvale women and girls are instantly recognisable for their beauty and their large brass anklets which they wear for decoration.

When Ovakuvale children are learning to walk they are dressed in a decorated, carved bone harness which helps to keep them upright. Once they can walk on their own, the harness is removed and saved for the next child.

As a culture, Ovakuvale people have a strong belief in protective ancestral and supernatural forces. Their graves are covered in numerous cows horns if they have owned many during their lives. Amulets are worn around their necks including pretty box like pendants fashioned out of leather called Ngombe, which signifies that they are livestock owners.

Visiting traditionally sculpted Ovakuvale villages at sunrise is one of the most stunning highlights of the Wild Images Angola photography tour as it allows you to witness life unfolding for Ovakuvale as they prepare to take their livestock out to graze during the beautiful early morning light and dust of Africa.

Ovahimba

Living in both Namibia and Angola, Ovahimba people have often been described as one of the most beautiful tribal groups in Africa. Wandering freely across northern Namibia and southern Angola they are sometimes known as the Red Ochre people of the desert.

In Angola, the Ovahimba people are distinctly more traditional than their  brothers and sisters over the border in Namibia. In stark contrast to the curated experiences you might have with Himba people in Namibia, encounters with the Ovahimba in Angola are more spontaneous and traditional.

Unlike northern Namibia where their tribal traditions are slowly being encroached upon by modernity, in Angola traditional Ovahimba tribal culture is alive and well. The men’s hairstyles that symbolise their marriage status, Ondatu and Ondumba are freely worn by men. Angolan Ovahimba women not only wear a crown of Erembe, made from goatskin like they do in Namibia, they sometimes make their Erembes from a chainmail-style metal backed by leather or simply opt for triple braided hairstyles that are never seen on Himbas in Namibia. Young Ovahimba girls in Angola have longer Ozondatu (front hair plaits) than their sisters in Namibia.

Dictated more heavily by tradition than the laws of modern society, the Ovahimba people of Angola are perhaps the purest representatives of their tribal culture in the world.

Ovahakaona

In the dryer region of Cunene in southern Angola, we will meet the stunningly beautiful Ovahakaona tribe. Although Hakaona men have mostly abandoned their traditional dress, their women keep it very much alive. The most noticeable aspect of Ovahakaona women is their headdress called a Kapopo, which is fashioned out of colourful beads, leather and twirled paper batons. It sits on top of her crown of hair, which is styled using charcoal, animal dung and fats.

If we are fortunate on our tour we may meet younger Ovahakaona girls wearing an Ena, or wig made from multiple strands of colourful beads, indicating they have reached puberty and are ready to marry.

During times of celebration, Ovahakaona tribal women dance in groups with individual women breaking away to perform athletic twirls which celebrate their beauty.

Ovahakaona women maintain their appearance through treating their skin regularly with animal fats, allowing them to retain an ethereal beauty, even in old age.

Ovatwa

The beautiful Ovatwa people are representative of one of Angola’s most impoverished ethnic groups.  Also called Batwa, the Ovatwa are actually one of the best-known of the many Pygmy groups scattered across equatorial Africa.  In Namibia and Angola,Ovatwa people live in close economic symbiosis with the tribes among which they are scattered including the Ovahakaona and Ovahimba, where they are often employed as livestock herders, blacksmiths or harvesters.

Physically they resemble Ovahimba and Ovahakaona people but it is in their homesteads that the differences between these cultures is most prominent.  Twa huts are fashioned out of a patchwork of sapling timber, sheet iron, tarpaulins and hessian sacks.  They typically live deep in the bush and their homes blend beautifully with these surrounds.  During our tour we will visit at least two remote communities of these fascinating people including one of a blacksmith where we can learn about items that are fashioned from discarded military rockets and missiles remnant from the Angolan war.

Ovandimba

One of the lesser known tribal groups in southern Angola, the Ovandimba people are rarely, if ever, visited by anyone from the outside world. It took a lot of searching by Wild Images to discover their villages hidden deep in the south and once we found them, we were embraced warmly by Ovandimba people who live in spectacular hand-painted huts in remote southern Angola.

Living in some of the most spectacular examples of African vernacular architecture we will see on our tour, Ndimba homes are covered in clay and hand painted with motifs that represent their daily life.

These beautiful homes are only rivalled by the beauty of Ovandimba women who fashion their hair into a singular beehive style which they decorate with colourful beads.  They may also cover their hair with beautifully coloured scarves.

Wild Images has discovered some of the most beautiful and difficult to reach Ovandimba villages in all of Angola.  Camped out nearby the photography inside these remote communities at sunrise and sunset is truly a sublime experience.

Ovanguendelengo

Classified as anthropologically extinct, yet related to the larger ethnic group of Ovakuvale people, the beautiful Ovanguendelengo tribe live in the foothills of the spectacular Serra de Chela mountain range that separates Lubango from the coastal town of Moçamedes. Numbering only around 300 to 400 individuals, the culture of the Ovanguendelengo people is being kept alive mostly by their women, who braid their hair in three-stranded beehive formations which they often cover with scarves. Ovanguendelengo women carry their babies in beautiful papooses fashioned out of goatskin. In celebrations, they are known for their athletically wild dancing.

Visiting a group of Ovanguendelengo tribal people is truly a privileged glimpse into a world which is fast disappearing. Their refusal to intermarry, even with their culturally similar Kuvale relatives, means that we may not long live in a world where these people exist.

Ovahanda (Nyaneka)

Another extremely endangered tribe of people, the Ovahanda tribe have traditions that are only being kept alive by one small group of jolly, good-humoured elderly women in a small, remote town. Finding them involves asking around a local market and suddenly they will emerge.

Despite their advancing years, this small group of elderly women refuse to surrender to our modern world. They still dress up with their beautiful, elaborate strands of white beads which they wear in multi-layered necklaces and spectacular headdresses that fall down their backs. These days their beads are made from glass but it is thought that original Ovahanda decoration was fashioned from mother of pearl.

Meeting them is a joyous occasion as they laugh and giggle while you photograph them. They are gracious hostesses who are the last remaining carriers of an obscure yet beautiful culture of Angola.

Kwepe

Angola’s Kwepe people may have lost their traditional dress during the Portuguese era, but they have largely kept their ancient traditions of fishing and living from the coastal seas of soutehrn Angola for centuries.  These friendly people reside in some of the harshest coastal environments on the continent.  There are no roads, no trees and their villages are connected by sandy tracks caked with salt – tracks that local Kwepe children use to walk to school, that salt workers travel along to the industrial salt pans or that local Kwepe people navigate expertly between the ramshackle villages built just behind the high tide mark.  Wandering around these villages is a paradise for street photography where you can capture the gritty, raw nature of these communities while chatting to some of the friendliest people you will meet on our tour.  We will visit several of these villages, learning how Kwepe people dry fish, haul in their catch and process it in this wild, remote space.  We will also visit a local salt works where the majority of Angola’s salt production takes place.  This part of the tour is extremely drone friendly and from the air you can capture both the tiny wooden boats of these communities as they sit alone on the beach or the beautiful colours of the salt works which can only really be appreciated in full with an aerial view.

EXPLORING ANGOLA’S RUGGED  LANDSCAPES

The beauty of Angola’s tribal people is perhaps only rivalled by the country’s stunning scenery. The coastal fringe of south-west Angola is separated by a natural barrier of rugged mountains called the Serra de Chela. Driving over these breathtaking mountains via the snakelike Serra da Leba pass transports you into another world. The wild coast of Angola is characterised by shifting sand dunes, eroded landscapes and charismatic fishing villages.

Tchitundu Hulo

One of the most difficult facts to comprehend about this region of Angola is how little it has been studied from an anthropological and historical perspective. In comparison to other regions of Africa, this remote part of Angola offers very little in terms of a documented past.

The most striking evidence of this is the spectacular galleries of rock petroglyphs at Tchitundu Hulo. It is home to rock art galleries that are thought to date back 20,000 years. Not a lot is known about the original artists who created these works but they are thought to be from some of the original inhabitants of southern Africa, the Ovatwa. Yet academics who have visited this site have been unable, to date, to decipher exactly what they mean and why there are so many of them.

In the 1950’s when they were discovered the region around Tchitundu Hulo was largely occupied by Ovatwa people but they were eventually driven out by the more powerful Ovahakaona people of the area.

There are two main galleries of art here. One is a small gallery at Opeleva which is easily accessed by a short walk on flat ground. For the more adventurous we offer a walk up the granite hillside to the incredible Upper House galleries of Mulume and Pedra das Zebras. This walk is optional but should you decide to join us, the views over the surrounding countryside and its pretty Kuvale villages are definitely worth the effort!

In 2017 the Angolan government submitted the rock art sites at Tchitundu Hulo for UNESCO World Heritage status but this is yet to be confirmed.

Arco

A short drive on a dirt road in what looks like a desert actually plunges you into the beautiful oasis called Arco. After we park our vehicles under large shady trees, we will enjoy a short walk over sandy terrain to visit the spectacular rock arch of Arco. It is possible to view this place from several different angles including one incredible spot where we can look through a spectacular rock arch to the surrounding landscapes.  If the rains have been kind to Angola, a lagoon that often has wading flamingos and other birds in it can be seen from Arco.

Tombua

The port town of Tombua is Angola’s southernmost large town. It sits at the edge of a stretch of coast that resembles Namibia’s Skeleton Coast with its wild sand dunes, colonies of Cape Fur Seals and shipwrecks.

The ruined cathedral of Tombua lies on top of high cliffs that skirt the Atlantic ocean. Since the end of the Portuguese colonial period, this simple cathedral has laid open to the forces of wind and ocean. It now provides a tremendous viewpoint over the surrounding area.

Lying a short distance north of Tombua, we will visit two very remote fishing villages. Walking down sandy alleys between tumbledown huts, we will learn how local Kwepe (or Curoca) tribal fishermen dry and preserve their catch using salt. It is possible we will find small children repairing nets, fishermen hauling their small wooden boats ashore to offload their catch and women cleaning fish while they carry their babies in colourful papooses.

The Colinas of Curoca

Visiting the landscapes of Curoca is a bit like exploring Mars. Layers of eroded red and yellow earth are held together by a topping of brittle clay. After centuries of wind erosion, wild Dali-esque formations have emerged. Rock pillars, caves, archways, dunes and grottoes all feature heavily here. We will explore Curoca by vehicle and on foot searching for incredible formations to photograph from different angles

Welwitschias

The world’s oldest plant, Welwitschia mirabilis, grows in the rock deserts of southern Angola and northern Namibia.  During our tour we will make a small detour off one of the main roads to visit one of the largest Welwitschia plants in the world.  Dating back thousands of years, this ancient botanical wonder is almost as large as our car and has a core that is so old and strong it can even be walked through!  It is a remarkable example of how untouched this part of southern Angola really is and a living testimony to the history of Angola, having survived a millenia of human contact, droughts, rains and even the civil wars that have raged around it.

Accommodation & Road Transport: In Luanda, Moçamedes and Lubango our acccommodation is in comfortable, tourist class hotels. In remote Angola our fully supported camps include tents that are tall enough to stand up in and beds with mattresses and bedding (sheets, douvet, pillow, pillowslip and bath towel). A shared hot water shower tent will be provided and erected by our camp crew. Seated toilet facilities will also be available.  Our meals will be prepared by our camp cook and typically consist of a cooked breakfast with fresh fresh fruit and bread, lunch is either cooked or a buffet of cheeses, meats and fruit.  Dinners are cooked single course meals. The food is fresh and delicious throughout and most diets can be catered for.  Each night a campfire is set up in our camp where we can enjoy ‘African TV’, or watching the fire, with a pre-dinner drink. Road transport is by custom built expedition 4WD vehicles as roads in southern Angola can sometimes be quite rough.  The vehicles are very comfortable and suited to the expedition style of our tour.

Walking: The walking effort is easy throughout. The only fairly demanding walk on the trip, to see the Upper House gallery of petroglyphs at Tchitundo Hulo, is optional.

Climate: Generally warm or hot, dry and sunny.

Photographic Equipment: For most photography of the people of Angola, a travel lens of around 24-105mm on a full-frame DSLR or mirrorless body will be essential. A wide-angle lens of around 16mm or smaller will be perfect for working with the people inside small huts.

If you prefer to photograph people from a distance, then please consider bringing a larger zoom or telephoto lens. It is our experience that sometimes people can feel a bit intimidated by large cameras and lenses so you may wish to bring a smaller sized zoom lens like a 70-200mm or 100-400mm which doesn’t appear as intimidating as a large fixed focal length telephoto lens. Such a lens can also be useful for any wildlife we encounter.

If you bring a good quality bridge camera instead of a DSLR or mirrorless it will be best if it has an optical zoom of 18-20x or more, combined with a reasonable wide-angle at the other end of the zoom range.

If you have a phone or tablet that can be used for photography, you may find these quite useful around people.

Similarly, if you have a Polaroid camera like the Leica Sofort or an Instax Mini, these are wonderful to have on hand when you spend time with tribal people. If you decide to bring one of these, please bring lots of film with you as the photographs you produce will be quite popular!

Be sure to bring plenty of spare battery power. On a number of nights, there will be no access to power.

For the landscapes extension, we suggest a travel lens, a wide-angle and a zoom or prime lens up to 400mm for photographing birds and other wildlife we may encounter during that part of the trip.

Drones are also a wonderful addition to your photography kit on both our main Angola tour and the tour extension, however, if you plan to bring your drone with you please contact our office.

If you would like to talk over suitable equipment, please contact our office. We will be happy to advise.