Visit Nambia’s Living Museums
Visit Namibia’s living museums and meet the San, Damara, and Himba people to learn traditional skills and a way of life.
The San and Damara people (often referred to as Bushmen) are believed to be among the earliest inhabitants of Namibia. They represent one of the oldest continuous cultures on Earth, with genetic links to some of the earliest Homo sapiens. It is fascinating to consider this, and because their pastoral and hunter-gatherer way of life has been passed down from generation to generation, we can gain valuable insights into how people would have survived many thousands of years ago by learning from the ethnic groups living across Namibia today.
Alongside the San and Damara, there are around eight other ethnic groups, perhaps the most well-known being the Himba. Although their ancestry doesn’t date back as far as that of the San and Damara people, they too have a long history of living among Namibia’s wildlife and desert landscapes. Each of these groups occupies different parts of the country and has its own language, traditions, and ways of adapting to its environment. Throughout your journey, you’ll notice differences in dress, language, art, music, sport, food, and religion.
As a way of sharing their culture, and as a more modern means of making a living, a variety of living museums have been established across Namibia. Here, visitors can enjoy immersive experiences that showcase aspects of daily life, such as learning how to make fire using friction and seeing a typical village setting. We’ve outlined three of the more popular living museums in Namibia, but it’s worth noting that the Damara Living Museum is the most accessible and fits easily into most itineraries. The Ovahimba Living Museum is also relatively straightforward to visit, as it can be reached on a day trip from Etosha. In contrast, the Ju/’Hoansi Living Museum is located in a much more remote area. If you’re returning to Namibia for a second visit and would like to explore some of the country’s less-visited regions, you could combine a visit there with a trip to the Caprivi Strip.
The Damara Living Museum
The Damara Living Museum is one of our favoured spots to visit, as it works particularly well with the most of the classic routes that take you through Namibia’s highlights. The Damara people’s original territory spanned the central and northwestern parts of Namibia but as other tribes expanded and encroached on their space, and colonial policies dictated ownership of land, they moved into parts of Damaraland, the Kuene Province, and the Erongo region. Whilst the San and Himba communities continued to wear their traditional garments, the Damara adapted to outside influences, wearing the Victorian-style colonial attire of the 19th-century missionary women, and later adopted the mixture of western clothing with bead jewellery that you see today.
The museum is based in a traditional village that’s been built around an enormous boulder and it’s the only place in the world where you can experience traditional Damara culture. Tours are light, fun and educational with fire making, creating tools out of animal horns, playing games, making jewellery, dancing and traditional medicine. Not far from the village is Twyfelfontein (another UNESCO site), where you can see one of the largest concentrations of rock engravings in Africa; visits to both these places will give everyone memories to last a lifetime.
The Ovahimba Living Museum
The Himba people have a very distinctive look because they coat their dreadlocked-hair, and their skin, with a mixture of red ochre and butterfat. Because water was so scarce, they use the aromatic paste to repel dirt and insects, and to act as a sunscreen. The limited water is reserved for cooking and drinking, and they use herb-infused coal fires as a smoke bath, the sweat out any dirt and encourage a nice aroma! They tend to wear only a small covering calf and goatskin clothing and are mostly topless. They lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle in the isolated and arid Kunene Region, relying on keeping livestock, mainly cattle and goats, for survival. Another traditional amongst the Himba is their sacred central fire, known as a Okuruwo. The fires used amongst roaming groups could be used to signal areas with water, and as a unifying symbol of their people.
The Ovahimba Living Museum is a Himba village just north of Opuwo, which is about a 5 to 6 hour drive from the Anderson’s gate entrance of Etosha. The experiences here are all managed by the Himba community themselves and there are a range of experiences to choose from.
The open-air museum of the Ju/’Hoansi San
The San people traditionally occupied parts of the Kalahari desert and they are famous known for the clicking sounds used when forming words. Their language is also the most complex of all the tribes. Perhaps their most well know survival method is their highly-honed tracking abilities. They wear very minimal clothing, the men wearing loin cloths and the women would wearing leather pieces fashioned into a skirt or dress, often topless. Both wear intricated jewellery made from beads and shells.
Today, most San people live in the Kalahari Desert across Botswana and Namibia, although they once inhabited a much larger area of southern Africa. A visit to the open-air museum of the Ju/’Hoansi San offers a fascinating insight into their traditional way of life. However, it’s pretty remote, in the very eastern part of Namiba, near the Khaudum National Park and with the closest town being Tsumkwe. This means it doesn’t tend to work well with a short visit but if you’re planning a three week trip and want to visit the Caprivi strip, you could combine the two, perhaps breaking up the journey with a stay at Rundu, famous for its the wood carving skills of the Kavango tribes. There’s a market, workshop, and roadside stalls where you can learn about this tradition.
If you do make the remote journey to the San open air museum, you can go on a bush walk with them and learn about how they survive in such an arid environment, including the hunting techniques they have used for generations. You’ll have the chance to try some of their skills for yourself, such as shooting a bow and arrow, playing traditional games like skipping rope, and learning their traditional songs and dances. As the villagers speak their native language, your guide will be on hand to translate throughout the experience. You can also browse and purchase beautiful handmade crafts created by the San people, providing a meaningful souvenir while supporting the local community.
Why we recommend the Damara Living Museum
The Damara Living Museum works well with Namibia’s major highlights. A popular route is to travel from Windhoek to Etosha National Park, breaking up the journey with a stay at Okonjima Nature Reserve, one of the most important sites for free-roaming leopards. From Etosha, you travel to Damaraland before travelling down the skeleton coast, giving you the perfect opportunity to visit the Damara Living Museum and the rock carvings at Twelfelfontein.
