42
Anthropos 92.1997
Michael Bollig
Fig. 5: Orumbango omihi
(Photo M. Bollig)
called okureka or okunyomoka. Then the upper part
of the skull was cut away and the dead animal was
left for members of other ethnic groups who did
not adhere to Himba burial customs, for dogs or,
nowadays, for traders who make a profit on selling
the meat of these burial oxen as an ox with a
liveweight of 600 kilograms may easily be bartered
for a box of cheap alcohol. Later the skulls were
carefully prepared and then taken to the grave.
Then they were either put on carved poles (omihi),
preferably cut from the leadwood tree (Combre
tum imberbe), or put up in nearby trees (Fig. 4).
The graves of popular senior men were sometimes
fitted with forked poles (orumbango) onto which
the skulls were carefully placed (Fig. 5). Whereas
the graves of rich men would usually have more
than 20 skulls, for a poor man there would only
be three or four skulls. Women had even fewer
skulls at their graves and frequently none at all. At
women’s graves the skulls were only put on nearby
trees and not on carved poles. The graves of rich
men were additionally decorated with the “Himba
trumpet” (Gibson 1962) (ondjembo yozongombe)
which was pierced on a pole of the fence or put
into a nearby tree. The trumpet was intentionally
broken before being put up at the grave. Infor
mants emphasized that a trumpet would only be
fitted to the grave of a senior man who had owned
many cattle camps.
Graves after 1940
In the 1940s and 1950s the style of graves
changed. Then the corpse was buried in a prone
position. The corpse was preferably laid on its left
side. The body was still orientated in a west-east
direction (the head towards the west and the feet
towards the east), repeating the traditional pattern
of orientating the dead to the east towards the
rising sun and the land of the ancestors, Mbandwa.
A niche is still carved in the bottom of the grave
in many cases. Of course the niche has to be larger
than before as it has to provide room for a corpse
in a stretched position. However, some rich people
are nowadays buried in a coffin and they no longer
need that sort of protection as earth does not fall on
them anyhow. Dead people are no longer wrapped
in skins but in blankets and, since the 1980s, rich
men are buried in coffins. However, according to
informants they are still stripped of their clothing
and other belongings worn on the body.
Instead of three or four ozondongo stones, a
rectangular heap of stones is now erected on the
grave. Whitish quartz stones may still be integrated
at the head of the grave to show wealth and sta
tus. However, at many grave sites the ozondongo
stones (and also whitish quartz stones) are still
incorporated. Although they are sometimes hardly
recognizable amongst the other stones of the rect
angular stone heap put onto the grave, they still
form part of many graves. Ozondongo stones were
incorporated into graves for another twenty to thir
ty years but nowadays the custom of placing three
or four stones at the head of the grave is no longer
practised. As symbols of status and wealth they
lost their communicative function. The method of
expressing these dimensions in mortuary display
is now symbolized by other assets. Sometimes an
ox’s skull is dug in at the head of the grave in