By Wezi Tjaronda
OTJITANGA, EPUPA
A small winding road leads to the foot of the Omazoroue Mountains, which the Ovatua call their home.
A few pieces of red ochre dyed pieces of cloth and bags of maize meal, which they received from the Government as relief food, hang in trees under which women sit and make their traditional wire jewellery. A few metres away is a makeshift structure used as a bedroom by one family. Children sit and wait patiently for what may be the only meal of the day – “pap and cooking oil”.
To a foreign eye, this valley does not seem to offer any means of livelihood to this group of nomadic people. But the Ovatua, on whom the focus has fallen recently as one of the marginalised communities that seriously needs assistance and development, have lived here for as long as they can remember.
This valley is surrounded by dry rivers, which burst with life during the rainy season, natural water springs and palm trees. They are mainly hunters and gatherers, just like the San, although they also grow crops such as beans and mahangu. Most of them live in the mountains and come down to plough when the rains come.
An Ovatua village here comprises of small igloo-like structures made out of twigs and grass or palm leaves, a fireplace and a few pieces of cloth hanging in trees.
The Ovatua are spread from a few kilometres out of Opuwo Town to hundreds of kilometres close to the Epupa falls.
In Otjitanga, Jaanda Koviua an elderly woman who was born at the village said they sometimes harvest one bag of mahangu, which does not last for the whole year.
“When the food is finished we sell a goat to buy food or ask from others in the community,” she said.
Hunger is the first word visitors to these villages are greeted with.
“We are hungry, we need food. What have you brought for us,” they ask.
Although they have always lived on very little food, this year’s drought has made the situation worse. Most of them have few or no livestock from which to get milk that they mix with mealie pap. Palm juice is used in place of milk and is said to be very nutritious especially for children.
About 12 Ovatua families live in a village close to Opuwo called Oukongo. It is as dry as it can be, making the owner of the house upset when people come to ask for water to drink.
“We get water from very far close to the mountains,” said Lucia Hepute, an Omutua woman who dresses like Ovaherero women. Normally Ovatua women dress like the Ovahimba except that they have less red ochre on their skins and have a slightly different headdress.
Many others live in Okanguati where they have put up their makeshift structures.
Otjitanga headman, Tjihandura Tjisuta, has been in Okanguati for decades, having left his subjects in search for greener pastures.
Those close to him say he left during the pre-independence period when many people left the area to work as labourers and never returned home.
Media reports on the living conditions of the Ovatua, Ovatjimba and Ovazemba caught Government attention recently, after which Deputy Prime Minister, Dr Libertina Amathila, was tasked to look into their plight. The Government has made a decision to give them the same services that have been planned for the San.
Apart from hunger, they say Government services such as clinics are far and it takes more than a day to get there.
“We want a school, a clinic and a borehole to expand our gardens,” said Koviua.
The Government has earmarked four areas where the Ovatua who are scattered in the region should move to access Government services such as schools, clinics and other services.
Kunene Regional Governor, Dudu Murorua, feels this is one of the ways the Government can help the Ovatua community live a more structured life, without which it would be hard for the Government to provide basic services.
“They must live together permanently for the Government to bring its services,” he said.
With news that some areas – among them Otjitanga – will be developed, it seems all roads will now lead to Otjitanga and the other areas earmarked for development.
Many, including headman Tjisuta and his community in Okanguati, want to go back.
“I want to be there when this development starts. I want to start my own garden,” he said.
The Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare has been tasked with distribution of the relief food, which includes maize meal and cooking oil twice a month.
Chief Regional Liaison Officer in the ministry, Farris Karutjaiva, said the Government would also give the families six goats and three cattle per household. Karutjaiva said the Ovatua do not own livestock but have to herd Ovahimba cattle from which they get milk, which constitutes the main component of their diet.
He said distributing food alone would not solve the perennial problems that the communities face. Due to the condition of the roads and lack of appropriate vehicles for mountainous areas, Karutjaiva said his office would have to distribute food once a month.
He said: “We want them to tell us what the Government should do to enable them to live sustainable livelihoods,” said the liaison officer.
Said Koviua: “We need a crop field from which we can grow crops to provide us food for the whole year. We need a school, our children are not educated.”
Whether these sentiments are true or not, most Ovatua feel margianalised.
Koviua said: “It is difficult even to get Otjize (red ochre that they use on their skins). When they sell it to us, it is so expensive. They do not regard us as people but as wild animals.”
Murorua said only when the children of this community are educated will they see the need to develop their community.
“It’s impossible for one nation to change another. The Ovatua themselves must come to the fore and take knowledge to their communities.
Development work takes passion and the only people that will have passion for their communities will be the Ovatua themselves,” added Murorua.
How long this will take is not known but now, there is anticipation among the community that the Government if finally bringing in the services that other communities have.