The Northern Escapade

When Namibians say that they are going to 'The North' it is sometimes seen as a foreign country within Namibia. This is because of the redline border that separates 'The North' from the rest of the country. This border was constructed in hopes of containing a rinderpest outbreak when the country was formally known as Southwest Africa. It is now used as a veterinary cordon fence which is a stock disease control mechanism that protects Namibia's beef supply.

I went to the north for a holiday and a wedding. Our village is in Okaku and that is where I stayed for most part of my holiday. The drive there was tiring, we drove from Swakopmund to Okaku for about 9 hours. When we arrived home, we greeted my grandmother, had dinner, and slept. The real adventure started the following day when the sun rose.

Over my stay in the north, I had fun playing Owela. I describe Owela as Aawambo chess so that there is global relation to it, so people understand it best even though it is entirely different. Owela, to my understanding, is a game based on cows, you try to take your opponent's cows and herd them with yours so that. The winner is the one with the most cows in the end. Click here for a link on how to play.

Besides playing Owela until sunset, in the mornings my cousins and I woke up to tuta uhoho. That translates to carrying dung. We carried the dung from the cow kraals and dumped it onto the field. This is done so that when the field is ploughed for planting season, the soil will be mixed with the dung fertilizer.

This is a generic list of other things I did at the village. I cooked in the cooking hut, during the rain. I made Ontaku, which is a home-brewed drink made from mahangu and iilyalyaka. Click here for a video explanation of it. Lastly, I ate countless mangoes. It is common for homesteads in the north to have fruit trees in their houses and more common for at least one of those trees to be a mango. So, imagine, little old me visiting my neighbours and family, they gave me mangoes and I ate my fool.

I was a guest at my uncle's wedding, and I had so much fun there. My mom and I left Okaku to go to Onamuluga, which is another village. We stayed for the night of singing but drive early morning to get to Tsumeb because the bride is from there. The wedding ceremony and reception were held at La Rochelle Lodge. It was a pink princess wonderland and a Pinterest board come to life. I got to dance to Angolan classics and a Tia taught me the basics of Angolan Kizomba. 

After the day after the reception, we drove back to Onamulunga to bring our bride home. It was so emotional to see my family embrace my new aunty with open arms, dance, and sing. We then had the nuptial party sit under a tree for the ceremonial gift-giving. When that finished, we all sat in our respective tents to eat and dance as the wedding is now over and we can fully enjoy every moment after that.

This was my northern escapade and I hope you enjoyed my blog on it. I have left parts out of it, and you can fill in the gaps by looking at my Instagram highlight here; the highlight is saved as 'The North'. Let me know if you all would like more blogs on my travel adventures so that I plan to include them next year in my blog.