Covid-19 eats away Ovahimba livelihoods at Swakop

MEMBERS of Swakopmund’s small Ovahimba community say they are worse off at the town than back home at their villages.

The community describes urban life as being “stuck between God and the devil” as it is not what they expected.

Many have left their homesteads in the Kunene region, mostly near Opuwo, and settled at Swakopmund to find jobs and benefit from the tourism industry, but have been disappointed.

Katjinounongo Mbimbo, who represents a community of about 80 members, says a large group of Ovahimba have migrated to the town, but Covid-19 has forced them to retire to their homes for the time being.

“Life at the villages in the Kunene is simpler. Here it is complicated because there are more demands that need to be met to be comfortable. It is more expensive to survive here,” he says.

Mbimbo says mostly young people leave for towns looking for greener pastures, although a few elders, like him, have done so too.

Many Ovahimba try to sell tourists traditional items at stalls, and cultural groups perform for tourists.

Others try the more conventional job-hunt, but are not always successful and either become security guards, caretakers, or domestic workers for minimal wages.

“Many, especially the young men, do not find jobs,” Mbimbo says.

“But there is nothing they can do, because there is nothing back home either.”

Anita Tjiposa says she left Opuwo about two years ago to sell curios at Swakopmund.

It was “okay” in the beginning, she says.

At the time, she earned a few dollars to take care of herself and her baby, but once Covid-19 hit, her only income, tourists, vanished.

“In the Kunene the drought killed all the cattle, and there is no water to grow maize. There is no rain, there is nothing. The youth cannot just sit around and do nothing, so we come here, but now we are struggling very much. It is like being stuck between God and the devil. We are here, but there is no use going back either,” she says.

Ngorera Tjitjesako says she heard the tourism business at the coast was lucrative, but it did not turn out that way.

Other Ovahimba, who live mostly in tents and shacks in the DRC informal settlement, can testify to this.

Tjitjesako is still, however, hopeful and intends to stay at Swakopmund.

“We will go back home once we have some money to share with our family, but when we go, we will come back again,” she says.

Kavari Mbujuanja says the biggest struggle is food.

She says the emergency support from the municipality and the regional government was appreciated, but was not enough.

There is no more support, while tourism is still not what it used to be.

“We need help, we need food. We also need help with our children. Some need to go to school, but they are hungry, and they do not have school clothes,” she says.

Recent infighting among Ovahimba leaders managing the now-defunct Ovahimba cultural village at Swakopmund has resulted in the municipality recently pulling the plug on the project.

This caused many community members to lose a lifeline through cultural performances and selling traditional items.

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