Vacation to Angola

​Angola´s tribal groups

Vast, unexplored and kept off of the tourist map by numerous civil conflict, Angola is usually a hidden world; an utterly wild component of Southern Africa measuring only just examining to tourism. Not many travelers allow it to become here and those that do don’t come with the wildlife; that has been mostly eaten or poached through the civil war. Instead, they come for your people. 

There are some 90 ethnic groups in Angola, many  following traditional lifestyles barely changed in centuries, and residing in remote landscapes, defined by desert and mountain.

Specialist, organised tours to Angola - and then there aren’t many - are likely to focus around the culturally rich south from the country. The war that lasted from 1975 until 2002 didn’t impact this region, a land devoid on the oil and mineral resources that had been so furiously battled over. This prolonged the isolated existence from the tribes living here, preventing any connection with the wider world, and inadvertently preserving their lifestyles and ancient traditions. A tour will need you to meet these tribes - of their villages, at markets - and you'll often camp outside villages that rarely receive visitors.

• The Handa

The Handa live mainly from the provinces of Huila and Namibe, and older Handa women are famous because of their intricate hairstyles and necklaces. They wear huge white beaded necklaces and beaded headdresses, and frequently weave white beads within their long hair, too.

• The Himba

​This ethnic group has a considerable territory and is particularly something of your icon of Southern Africa. In Angola, the Himba live inside the culturally rich region around Oncocua and lead your life even less ‘modernised’ than their counterparts in neighbouring Namibia. In common with plenty of Angola’s tribes, it may be the women who maintain traditional dress with a greater degree than men, and check utterly unique. They wear skirts created from animal skins, with long chains and beads hanging down, and treat their hair and bodies that has a mix of butter fat and ochre, offering them a rich red tone and protecting their skin in the dry climate and from insect bites. Hairstyles denote a woman’s age and whether she’s married or otherwise not, and have a tendency to feature thick dreadlocks coated in fat and ochre, ending in a very frizzy pompom of hair. When girls reach puberty they can be given a Himba crown, the erembe, crafted from cow or goat leather.

• The Mucubal

​​​Few are familiar with or visited this fascinating ethnic group. The lives in the Mucubal use cattle and agriculture and so they preserve many interesting traditions, including teeth sharpening. Girls their very own upper teeth sharpened minimizing teeth removed. Elders persuade the women to do this by convincing them that their teeth leave their mouth each night to travel to a hole where people defecate and go back to their mouths covered in excrement. Women also wear large headdresses, called ompota. These are created from a wicker framework, covered in fabric and containing tied cow tails. It’s decorated with beads, buttons and shells. They wear an oyonduthi string around their breasts, too, currently in use as a bra, and numerous iron anklets and armlets.

The Mucubal believe within a god called Huku as well as worship the spirits of these ancestors. Divination can also be important and in addition they use amulets and talismans many different purposes, including protecting their cattle or preventing adultery.
The Mucuroca undoubtedly are a sub group on the Mucubal, and were probably certainly one of the first Bantu groups to arrive within the desert of southern Angola inside 18th century. 

They met the Mucuis people here - another tribal group - and intermarried.

• The Muila

The Muila (also Mwela, Mumuila or Mumuhuila) are semi nomadic tribe, living for the Huila Plateau. The women are famous for ornate hairstyles, featuring thick nontombi mud-coated dreadlocks. They use a red stone call oncula to generate a paste, combined with oil, butter, tree bark and herbs; incidents where use dung. This is then embellished with shells, beads and in some cases dried foods. The number of nontombi which a woman has is significant. Girls have four or six, but three denotes someone has died within the family. Muila women also wear mud necklaces, produced in various styles, each one of these corresponding to an existence stage. Young girls wear heavy red necklaces encrusted with beads; older girls wear yellow necklaces crafted from wicker covered with earth, called vikeka; and girls that are married wear a collection of stacked up necklaces encased in difficult mud, called vilanda. They never take this off and also have to sleep in it.

• The Mutua

Another tribal group living inside the remote lands near Oncocua, the Mutua are in small settlements and instead of owning livestock, depend on honey and fruit gathering. They are considered lower caste by other neighbouring tribes and, while resembling the Himba, usually have less elaborate hairstyles and dress.

• The Mucawana

The colourful Mucawana people inhabit the remote regions near Oncocua. They are subsistence farmers that has a lively culture of partying, music and clapping. Women dress their hair having a mix of cow dung, fat and herbs for fragrance, with beads, shells and coloured bands woven through. Women also wear bright fabrics, and beaded necklaces and bracelets, which sometimes feature Teutonic looking crosses.

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