Where Fire Speaks: A Visit with the Himba

Karen Danielson, Ph.D., is a research consultant at Laurentian
University who specializes in leisure, textiles, family life, and Japan.

When the headman Karamata told Sandra Shields that she had no culture,
she was caught off guard by his words. A Himba woman could articulate
the meaning of her actions when she changed her village, clothing, and
hairstyle upon marriage; she also knew the goat that had become her
garment. In contrast, Shields could not define the message her trousers
relayed to others, and she did not know their source or the person who
made them. This kind of strength in the Himba people is portrayed in her
stories, which accompany the photos David Campion took during their
two-month visit to northern Namibia. The resulting book is a portrayal
of daily life that shows how difficult it must be to strike a balance
between the traditional Himba culture and the course of future
development.

Many of Campion’s images capture the beauty, kindness, curiosity,
patience, and competence of the Himba people. Viewing them, one must
respect these people and the traditions that have made them
self-sufficient in their own land. At the same time, his images of
contact points with the outside world, from a sign advising tourists on
the etiquette for taking their photographs to the impact of an X-ray,
illustrate the dilemmas faced by the Himba. As Hugh Brody notes in the
introduction, the romantic myths about tradition and progress are very
much part of the present-day reality in this country where the people
are struggling with the development of a hydro dam as well as with the
curse of AIDS.

Where Fire Speaks provides an excellent basis for wide-ranging
discussions about the status of indigenous people and the pressures they
encounter everywhere in the world.