The Himba
Awie Steenkamp - photographer
Our first encounter with the Himba
I could feel a barrier and resistance in the beginning, when we arrived. There was a lot of silence,resistance and something in their eyes that made me feel completely separated from them. When Beata approached the first person to offer her touch, she refused. Others were observing the whole scene and started to laugh and talk to each other loudly, almost aggressively. There was a climate of distrust and distance.
She didn’t give up and approached another person who agreed. She sat next to her and slowly touched her hands. She was holding her, touching for a couple of minutes and I could feel that something started to shift. Their attitude started to change. They calmed down, observed in silence and then the woman who Beata was touching closed her eyes. Then others came and sat around observing, out of curiosity. Beata touched the woman’s head and chest and after 15 minutes she had a circle of people around her who wanted to be next.
Within the next couple of hours, while Beata was going from one member to another of the Himba tribe, touching them, I could notice that they became calmer, their body language was changing, they were closing their eyes while being touched.
She totally won their trust in just a couple of hours. They all were waiting for touch, to be massaged and whenever she finished, they directed her to somebody else.The climate of distance and unknown completely vanished and they treated us like they would know us for months.
They started to talk to us and they didn’t care that we could not understand… somehow they were sure we did. They invited us to sit with them. A mother with a sick baby came to Beata and with total trust requested her to touch her child. Only after one or two hours of our visit!
The day passed by and Beata continued her work going from one person to another person, touching and giving massage. Loud and aggressive laughter of the first moments, which was supposed to push us away, completely vanished.I was fascinated when Beata touched a man who just arrived in the end of our first day. He didn’t know what she was doing and was just told by his wife that Beata should touch him. So he agreed. She carefully put her hands on the head of this tall and strong warrior with a kind of cruelty and aggression on his face. Five minutes past and he completely relaxed, closed his eyes and went into a kind of trance.
I had the impression that he was like clay in her hands.
The events of the day changed also my perception on them. Surprisingly I found them warm, joyful and relaxed. The climate of trust and openness continued with the children. They were surrounding us, participating in massage.
I was amazed to witness the power of touch and how fundamental it is in communication between two human beings. I could feel that in he beginning they were surprised by their own emotions of calm and relaxation, so they tried to hide it in aggressive behaviours and laughs. It was something new for them and they didn’t know how to approach it.They were showing their power through their body and the way they dress, so they don’t help you to get to them. They rather fight against it.
And then there was this very old and very sick woman… when Beata touched her for the first time I could see that this woman was in pain… She came to Beata like a sick child is coming to her mother seeking for comfort. It was Beata and her touch, who brought her peace and comfort. She lied down on Beata’s legs in the position of an embryo with a peaceful face and closed eyes.
There was such a need for touch and comfort in her, which I am sure she even wasn’t aware of. When Beata finished, the woman was making a gesture showing that the pain left her body. Afterwards she came to Beata several times asking for more touch.
It was interesting to me to observe how through Beata’s touch their body language had changed and they were moving forward towards her body, wanting to reach her somehow. The woman chef agreed her feet to be touched and she found it so pleasant that the smile rose on her face. Then her 10 years old child came and Beata encouraged him to touch one of her mother feet. She showed him how to do it and I was witnessing something extraordinary. In the middle of nowhere was sitting a Himba woman touched by a white woman and her own child and…smiling with real content.
When the next day Beata went to them to say goodbye they didn’t want her to go, they didn’t want to understand that she was leaving. They invited her to stay and touch