Nageldinger Film and Video Production in Hamburg, Germany

South Africa: Sustainable Energy and our Mega-Cities

admin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:22:13 +0000

This short documentary is available in 2 languages, German and English.

South Africa: Sustainable Energy and our Mega-Cities

Synopsis

This is a short documentary film on environmental protection and alternative technology in South Africa. It is available in two languages (German and English) and illustrates in particular technologies for the poor part of our society. These technologies provide solutions to very fundamental questions, such as

Health: no carbon monoxide within the house;
Security: how to prevent fire;
Social justice: access to electricity for everybody

Introduction

Our mega cities face big challenges due to their high population density, because all people need to be supplied with energy, staple food and drinking water. About 20% of South Afrika’s population, which are about 10 Million people, live in the province Gauteng (spoken „Ateng“), containing the cities of Johannesburg, Pretoria and Ekurhuleni (spoken “Ekuleni”). Within this region about 10% of Africa’s whole gross national product is obtained.

Due to its economic attraction more and more people come. But for many, not enough living space is available. Informal settlements develop.

Setswetla, located in the Township Alexandra, is one of such informal settlements, and located on the slope of the Juskei River. The government installs water places but the hygienic conditions are very problematic.

The Right of Living Space is implemented within today’s post-apartheid constitution and the government supports with massive public housing programs the people in need. Here, within River Park, simple houses are given away to the people of Setswetla.

At the University of Johannesburg works Professor Annegarn in collaboration with the University Stuttgart in order to find solutions related to energy conservation and general improvements of the living conditions in these Townships. The project, which is partly funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, developed a variety of astonishing applications.

In model houses, which are also inhabited by students, Professor Anegarn investigates the Energy Efficiency, which can be improved by many simple measures. Houses build by the government often show in the wrong direction. The front side with the main windows, faces frequently the shady side, where as the backside, with the bathroom window, is directed to the sun. By orienting the houses to the sunny side, the inner temperature increases during the morning and evening hours. Extending the overhanging lower edge of the roof creates a shadow in order to avoid overheating during lunchtime. Black colouring of the floor provides heating during evening hours and together, with an isolation layer below the ceiling, the house isn’t required to be heated during night hours.
Bricks can also be created directly at the building side and fitted together without cement.

Professor Annegarn’s team also research on improvements related stoves and burners. Here, it is import that the pod, the flame and the fuel are treated as an integrated system. Every month about 80 houses catch fire in Setswetla. The fire spreads easily between the shanties due to their tight and simple design. The fire is often caused by cheaply and illegally imported burner, which can even explode when they knock over.

(If you want to know more then watch the film!)

Credits

Energy is one of the key issues to be addressed in order to implement sustainability. The EnerKey project, comprising German and South African participants, developed a variety of applications related to sustainable energy.

Within the project consortium participate: University of Johannesburg, IER University of Stuttgart, TÜV Rheinland Group (TIE), Inst. for Future Studies and Technology Assessment (IZT), FhG Building Physics, INEP GmbH, City of Stuttgart, German Chamber of Commerce, German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), Provinicial Government Gauteng, City of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality, City of Tshwane, Eskom, Sustainable Energy Africa (SEA), University of Cape Town, Energy Research Centre (ERC), The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), PEER Africa (Pty) Ltd, Sustainable Energy Society of Southern Africa (SESSA) and South African Energy Association (SANEA).

The project is sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany (BMBF) and South Africa’s National Energy Research Institute (SANERI).

I would like to thank the participants of the film: Mr. Vincent Molapo, Ms. Nwamaka Nnodu, Ms. Beverley Terry, Mr. David Kimemia, Prof. Harold Annegarn from the University of Johannesburg, Mr. Joe Baleka CEO, TEPRASM & Mr. Timon Wehnert, Institute for Futures Studies and Technology Assessment, Berlin, for his scientific advice.

Wildlife: Seal Pub Rescue and Release

admin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:19:58 +0000

This short documentary is available in 2 languages, German and English.

Wildlife: Seal Pub Rescue and Release

This short documentary illustrates the work of the seal pub rescue station in Norden-Norddeich. It is an environmentally educational film related to Marine Wildlife and Germanys Lower Saxony Wadden Sea National Park, which has been acknowledged since 2009 as UNESCO World Natural Heritage. This film is available in English and German language.

Transcription

The seal pub rescue station in Norden-Norddeich exists since 40 years, we have our 40th anniversary this year – a couple of hunters, especially Winhold Schuhmann and Erwin Manninger, were looking for a solution on how to deal with these small seal pubs during the summer months, which are washed up here at our beaches and the idea came up to create this seal pub rescue station.
This went very well and in 1980, the station relocated here to Norddeich – here we are very close to the North Sea, and we can utilize sea water for our basins. Since 1980 this station grew very well and four years ago we have again enhanced our basins to meet our requirements as well those of the veterinarians.
I am 44 years old, and had studied science of forestry in Göttingen with a focus on Wildlife Biology and I always wanted to conduct research about marine mammals. I am working here since 12 years and since then we support and help our see pubs.
This station is responsible for the complete cost line of lower Saxony with the Lower Saxony Wadden Sea National Park as the biggest component, which has been acknowledged since 2009 as UNESCO World Natural Heritage. In this area we have coastal islands, the mud flat area and the dykes on the mainland. Seal pubs have adopted this area and have managed to accommodate these difficult conditions related to the tides – and every summer the young animals are borne on these temporarily dried up sandbanks. Already 6 hours later they need to swim behind the mother. During the lactation period of 4 to 6 weeks they are only parented by the mother and need to triple their weight. There are many reasons why these young animals have problems. Common problems are thunder storms, heavy storms, in particular the once from northwest, because they create big floods, which decreases the available for lactation. A big problem and focus of our work is the human being. Many people like to visit this wadden sea, such as vacationers, surfer and boat lovers and this causes unfortunately many disturbances in the wadden sea . During lactation a seal mother needs to lie on its side and during a disturbance changes the position to its stomach in order to raise the head. This means lactation is interrupted. If the disturbance is severe the seal mother needs to escape and during the worst case scenario, the seal baby needs to escape as well and loses energy instead of gaining energy. These animals are at risk to become a howling seal pub because during the next stronger storm the energy required to follow the mother is missing. Seal milk consists of 50% grease, which demonstrates that during a tidal phase this energy is really necessary. We are only patrolling along the dykes on the mainland and the northern side of the islands. If we encounter a young animal, which is separated from its mother, than we observe it for some time in order to find out if the mother is close by. If this isn’t the case then our governmentally appointed supervisor check the animals at a closer distance if they are injured and how its overall condition looks like and if it is dehydrated or even apathetic than we take it to our seal rescue station here at Norddeich.
We have in our seal pub rescue station more than 60 animals, which means that they are quite hungry, and we need quite a bit of fish here, we feed herrings, which are delivered in 32 kg frozen blocks. – So the fish is frozen directly on sea, which assures that our fish is very fresh. Seals are not scavenging animals so we therefore need extremely fresh fish in order that the animals eat it. We only feed dead fish – we don’t need to feat living fish because seals have a hunting instinct – so once we release them they will grab by the use of their instinct anything what they see, the fish is probably initially not that big as our once her but they probably eat snales, crawfishes and shrimps, until they hunt for bigger fishes. We feed every day about 3 kg fish for every animal, this is quite a big amount for our seal pubs, because they are just a few weeks old – We feed much more than they need in order that they have the fat reserves necessary once they are released. Before seal pubs are released they should have a weight of about 25 – 30 kg, which is 5 to 10 kg more than wild seal pubs of similar age. They have therefore one to two weeks time to get used to their new environment before they are required to look for food.
The first few days the howling seal pubs enter the quarantine room. We conduct a medical examination, stabilize the animal with electrolytes and examine the blood – this is very important because we need to assure that we don’t catch any diseases. If everything is fine the animal is delivered to our station after 6-7 days and after 70 to 80 days it gained the same weight than its wild members of the same species – and then we can release them.
A howling seal pub is a young animal separated from its mother. Normally, many puppies swim with their mothers outside – only once it is separated from its mother it tries with a distinct sorrow scream to call its mother, and basically says I am hungry and I am looking for you. Usually these young animals look for their mother for a couple of days and the screaming become more intense. Normally, visitors become active and call us stating that there is an howling seal pub and our volunteers take care that professional support is provided.
The number of animals in our station is variable and depend on the actual stock in our Wadden Sea. In 2011 we counted 7416 animals, so this are all our seal pubs, an we conduct on a regular basis flights with the objective to count our animals, – we have approximately 1600 young animals and unfortunately some become the howling once – in our station we have between 30 and during this year 101 animals which we take care of and are going to release at the end of this season.
This station is solely funded by the entry fees and donations. We depend on these donations. We are one of the most frequented environmental education institution here at the coast line with more than 200 thousand visitors here at the seal rescue station and more than 50 thousand visitors at our Waloseum, where the quarantine station is located as well – and only with the help of our visitors we are able to finance this station.
A really nice aspect of our work is the time once the seal pubs are released. Sometimes people ask us if we are not sad if they disappear within the water. But strictly speaking we have two laughing eyes because these animals are only here for a short and limited amount of time, the fewer animals we have and the shorter the time frame here at our station, the better.
We consider us as a multiplier – every visitor is educated on how to behave once they encounter a seal. The most important thing is that they leave them alone, keep a certain distance, 300 meter is an optimum, but often people don’t realize this distance, if you are to close to a seal than the mother runs away, it is also important to inform other visitors that they maintain the distance necessary. Dogs must be kept on the leash, and then seal pubs have a chance not to become a howling seal pub, this is our massage to all of our visitors. We also conduct sea voyages in order to educate our visitors about seal and how to provide help and support. These are the main aspects about our environmental education. We look after 1200 groups every year and we hope that many of them know what to do in case they find a seal.
Seals have been chased because they can be commercially utilized. The skin had been used for clothes, the grease for oil lamps or ointments – so there are many ways on how to use seals commercially but nowadays all these items can be produced by chemical means, synthetic fiber can also be used for clothes, so there isn’t a commercial need to chase seals anymore. In particular on the islands some families made a living from seal hunting but this was during the 19th century and after the industrialization there wasn’t a need anymore.
At the end of the 60ths and the beginning of the 70th or seal stock was very unstable. So our station was build 1971 and since 1972/73 seal hunting has been prohibited. However, it had taken about 10 years until the seal stock recovered. We assume that waste dumping into the sea as well as DDT entries had been responsible for this. After this had also been prohibited and the water quality increased significantly, the amount of fish also increased, the seal population increased. In 1988 harp seals, which originated from the Polar Sea, the PDV-Virus had been introduced and about 50% of the population died. We had 2500 before and 1500 after the distemper. 2002 we counted 6500 animals but again, this time it was the Hooded Seal, also from the Polar Sea, introduced another virus and 4000 animals died. Since then the population increased and today we have 7400 animals.
We always see that these animals are perfectly adapted to our environment. One of my most beautiful experiences I had once we released a horse head seal close to Norderney, it dived close to the sandbank just once and came up with a common sole in the mouth – so we see these animals are in a good shape, they have a hunting instinct, and this was the most enjoy full experience we had.

Credits

A short documentary by Guido Nageldinger. A Production by Nageldinger Film ( http://www.nageldinger-film.de/ ) in collaboration with Seal Sanctuary in Norden-Norddeich, Germany ( http://www.seehundstation-norddeich.de/ )

Released Seal Pubs
Vreni
initial weight 10,2 kg
weight on release 30,2 kg
Niko
initial weight 9,8 kg
weight on release 28,4 kg
Nele
initial weight t 9,2 kg
weight on release 29,6 kg
Imke
initial weight 12 kg
weight on release 28,2 kg

Camera, Postproduction & English VO
Guido Nageldinger PhD

Head of Seal Sanctuary/Whale Museum
Dr. Peter Lienau, Dipl.-Forstwirt

Animal Caretakers
Fritz Rabenstein
Tim Fetting

Music
“Calm Piano and Guitar Instrumental”
by Salem De Bezenac
Publisher iStockphoto

SFX
“Seashore – waves and gulls” by Erik Normark
“Whale Song” by Micky Wiswedel
Publisher iStockphoto

Production
Nageldinger Film
in collaboration with
Seal Sanctuary in Norden-Norddeich, Germany

#02 DOF Depth of field, part 1

admin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:39:44 +0000

DOF Depth of field, part 1

In our last episode we defined the aperture. That’s a prerequisite for many thinks – such as the DOF (depth of field), which I would like to explain in this episode. Let’s have another look at our leaves.
The leaves recorded with an aperture of 1.2 look a bit blurry – at least behind and in front of a very small area. The leaves, which are pretty crisp are at the point of focus, which has here about 2 m distance to the camera, let’s call it the ” videographers point of view”. The other picture, which had been taken with an f-number of 22 is significantly sharper in comparison to the one with an aperture of 1.2. However, distance and point of focus were kept the same.

Strictly speaking – you can only focus at one distance, let’s say at 2m and everything which is behind or in front of your focal point is going to be less focused – it doesn’t matter which aperture you chose. Now, there are many parameter in this game, which we are all going to discuss, – but there is an established area behind and in front of the focal point, which many people would consider to be acceptably focused. This is the so called depth of field (DOF). There is quite a bit of debate on what is “acceptably focused”. A term, which is frequently used is the circle of confusion, which defines this blurriness. If the blurry area is smaller than the image resolution then an area is considered “acceptably focused” .

The situation of our leaves can be translated into an illustration above. We have our videographers point of view and the point of focus. The area behind the focal point is called far distance. And the area in front of our focal point is called near distance. The near distance, towards the videographers point of view, is always shorter than the far distance.
Let’s do a small experiment. I have marked a test area in front of our camera in 2 meter intervals. Then, I focused at 2 meter and changed the aperture from 0.95 to 16. The result you probably guess.

The DOF increases with increasing f-number.
I must confess that I never found a need to calculate the depth of field because I most likely find myself going for a shallow depth of field, so the depth of field is quite short, or I go for a deep focus, with the depth of field quite long. Which aperture I use exactly is than often a bargaining between other parameters, such as motion blur and noise – we talk about this later.
In order to calculate the DOF – there are formulas available. Many of them simplify the real physical conditions quite heavily – so the results don’t match the real world. An example are lenses specifically designed to deliver a softer look, less contrast, when using an aperture of 4 or less. These are designated portrait lenses. Some technocratic people probably would rate these lenses badly – but you don’t want to have an high contrast if you take a picture of the human body or a portrait.

There are some calculator on the internet, but it is always important to know, which formulas they use. There are also some mechanical calculators available, like the one which is shown above. But the problem is always the same, which model have they used in order to get the numbers? Many photographical – or videographical equipment available allows you to visualize the DOF, so you can see it, rather than calculating it.
Photography or videography is an art and not a science. There isn’t a proper or correct exposure – you can only expose for different looks. Today, it is quite fashionable to have pictures with this shallow depth of field. In the 30th we had movements, such as the f/64 group or f/180 school, which preferred pictures of deep focus. Despite this artistic nature, physics shouldn’t be neglected because it can help us to control the outcome of our artwork.
Let’s take these simple equations, which model the depth of field in a simplistic manner.

We defined our depth of field as the difference between the near distance and the far distance. Here, dn is the near distance and df the far distance. The DOF therefore is a function of four parameter:

the focal length
the point of focus
the relative aperture and
the circle of confusion, which is a constant and depends on your sensor size.

During the old days of film, lenses had been calibrated in order to see the DOF on a scale.

The picture above shows the calibration scale of a 135mm lens. It shows us the f-number (or relative aperture) and the focus ring shows us the point of focus (POF). This little R is used for infrared photography, so if you want to take a picture with IR-Film you need to correct the distance. This is because our POF depends also on the wavelength – strictly speaking. We talk about those thinks later.

Let’s say our POF is at 7m and we use an aperture of 22 then our near distance is at about 5,75m and our far distance is at about 10m. This is only valid for 35mm film! If you use your lens on a camera with a different sensor size – which many different digital still or film cameras have, then this scale is wrong – because our DOF is a function of the circle of confusion, which is related to the sensor size. Some people complain that these new lenses don’t have this DOF scale anymore. That’s the reason. Because lenses are nowadays used on cameras with different sensor sizes. Therefore, a DOF scale in a classical manner, isn’t of any use anymore.

#01 Aperture and f-number

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:11:26 +0000

Aperture and f-number

It doesn’t matter if you call it photography or videography – as soon you start to explain one thing you can’t avoid to explain other things as well – because they are all related. Let’s start with the aperture. Every lens has an aperture. You can change on many lenses the aperture.
There are lenses, most likely to be photographic lenses, which click. This is because it gives you very defined openings. Cinematographic lenses usually don’t click – because if you tilt or pan the light setup might change and you require a gradual movement of your aperture. I often film with photographic lenses because they are significantly cheaper and sometimes even deliver superior image quality. That they click doesn’t bother me because there are often other measures to control the exposure – but I certainly have some cinematographic lenses in case I really need to control the aperture gradually.

On many lenses the aperture is controlled by electronic means. This is good and bad at the same time. Often your current aperture value is displayed within the view finder, which isn’t always that precise. Lenses for TV cameras have an electronic aperture control. You can also control it manually, but since it doesn’t click, you are most likely not to hit the desired aperture precisely. There are lenses on which you cannot control the aperture – such as telephoto lenses, which use a mirror. Some cameras simulate an aperture – which is pretty stupid. Now an aperture is something which you should see, it is pretty physical.
The aperture is important in videography as well as photography in order to control the amount of light which either hits the film or light sensitive chip. The aperture is therefore an exposure controlling parameter, and it is a creative parameter, since it allows you to control the DOF (depth of field.) Strictly speaking – you can call many parameters to be creative. But this terminology usually relates to the shutter and the aperture.

The leaves on the left picture have been recorded with a 50mm lens and an aperture of 1.2. The right picture has been shot with an aperture of 22. So you see that the aperture influences the depth of field. We are going to learn more about it within our next episodes because the aperture is not the only parameter, which controls the DOF.
If I say “I used an aperture of 1.2″ it’s a bit sloppy – but many people know what I mean. Since we conduct densitometry in our later episodes, which is essential for exposure control, I would like to step back a bit and elaborate on the term aperture. I mean these little numbers, which are written on many mechanical lenses.

Realtive Aperture vers. Effective Aperture

Let’s start with a light source. This initial diaphragm opening is just present in order to define our light. We add to our light source a diaphragm opening and a thin lens. The lens has a focal length of f. Our diaphragm opening k is called “relative aperture”. The diameter of the beam is called “effective aperture”. Between the “effective aperture D” and the “relative aperture k” we have a relationship, which is shown on the next slide.

It is important to remember that we have two apertures – the (i)effective aperture and (ii) the relative aperture. The effective aperture is related to the cross-section of the actual light beam, with the diameter d, which hits the lens. If f is the focal length of your lens than the relative aperture is defined as
(i) d = f/k
This equation assumes that our object is far away – so we focus on infinity. In the videographic or photographic world the terminology “aperture” most likely relates to the relative aperture.
The aperture is given by a series of numbers, which are often called f-numbers, because of this little f (the focal length of our lens) within the equation. An aperture of 1 or let’s say an f-number of 1 means that the diameter of our beam, which passes through the lens, matches the focal length of the lens. So your beam has on an 50mm lens with an aperture of 1, or an f-number of 1, 50mm diameter. Let’s have a look at these f-numbers.

Series of international f-numbers

This series is also called “series of international f-numbers”, because it is used worldwide. This series uses the f-number one. This series doesn’t really have a starting or end-point. But it is quite difficult to create a lens with an aperture of 0,5 or even bigger. Why do we have so crazy numbers?
If we want to control exposure, we always think in form of stops. If we decrease the amount of light by 1/2 then we say “we expose 1 stop down”. If we double the amount of light then we say “we expose 1 stop up”. The concept of stops is fundamental in densitometry, which is the discipline of exposure control. For example if you double your exposure time than you expose 1 stop up. In case you use the aperture for exposure control than people often say for example – can you go 2 f-stops down, which means that you decrease your aperture by 2 stops. People tend to become a bit sloppy with their terms and instead of saying – “…I exposed with an f-number of 8″ they probably say “I used an f-stop of 8″.
EXAMPLE: Let’s say you have an current aperture of 8 – that’s a popular f-number and you are going 1 f-stop down. You end up with an actual f-number 11. And if you go from your initial f-number 8 2-stops up then you end up at an aperture of 4. So in the last case you have quadrupled the amount of light.
You probably guess it. These crazy number arrive due to the definition of a circle’s surface, which is used to calculate the area of a cross section of the beam of light. So the amount of light transmitted is a function of the diameter squared, which is inverse proportional to our f-number.
The area of a circle A is usually defined as
(ii) A = Pi x D^2/4

On the next slide I have calculated the area of a cross section as a function of the f-number for a 50mm lens. So if we proceed within our series of f-numbers the cross sectional area of the beam halves.

Limitations of the f-number system

The f-number system is just one way to calibrate lenses. Cinematographic lenses are sometimes calibrated with a t-number, which takes into account the transmittance of a lens. The f-number system neglects this. Some lenses would probably rate T/2.8 rather than f/2.0. The T-system didn’t really cached popularity – probably because people would probably rather buy a f/2.0 lens than getting a T/2.8 even if it is the same lens. There are further calibration methods such as the APEX system, which you might like to consider.
Many physical equations are just an idealized form. They serve us more like a model and are useful to get the relationships right and to gain an overall understanding. For many real live calculations they are a bit simple. One of these assumptions are for example that we focus into nirvana and that our lenses are very thin. These lenses are certainly not thin and I sometimes like to do close-ups as well. This is going to be another topic, which I am going to discuss later.

#19 What makes a Himba being a Himba?

admin — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:10:41 +0000

What makes a Himba being a Himba?

…

TEXT IS GOING TO BE ADDED SHORTLY

#18 How to uplift life in Namibia’s rural areas?

admin — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:07:29 +0000

How to uplift life in Namibia’s rural areas?

We have seen that the life in the surrounding area of Opuwo is quite different than in the city of Opuwo. In the surrounding area Himba and Herero have a very traditional lifestyle. And some Himba even have a nomadic or semi-nomadic existence. In Opuwo, which just has about 10.000 people, traditional lifestyles clash with contemporary once. Once I returned from Opuwo’s unusual market to my campground I thought about how to uplift people’s life in Opuwo. I shared my experience with some people who work for the COSDEC foundation. COSDEC stands for Community Skills Development Centre. In this episode I present their thoughts. In a couple of years Opuwo is going to be a different place. You will probably not see big skyscrapers in this rural area but people will increasingly use their raw products available, start their business and by this reduce their unemployment.

#17 Namibia’s Himba and Herero at Opuwo’s unusual market

admin — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:03:11 +0000

Opuwo’s unusual market

Opuwo is the main city in the northern Kunene region. About 12000 people live here – mainly Herero and Himba. People with their traditional, natural presentation, live together with modern people, which use even business clothing. I always returned to Opuwo after I have spend a couple of days in the bush – mainly to have a shower and to refill the water canister. Outside of Opuwo, clean water and a shower is something you are unlikely to get hold of. Opuwo is a safe place to be and all the villages around Opuwo are peaceful, people are incredible friendly and it is a lot of fun to be there. However, Oshakati is not safe – stay away from it. I know people who got their car stolen in front of an administrative building even though the security equipped with machine guns was requested to watch it. If you ask the local people in Opuwo they will tell you the same. Oshakati is a border city and like many other border cities to Angola it has its poverty related crime issues.
If you come to Opuwo you will certainly realize this clapping and singing at its marked, which goes from two in the afternoon until 4 in the morning – and this every day. This dance is called Otjongo and it is a Himba dance. Otjongo has nothing to do with the dances I have shown you before – Otjongo is not a children dance – it is a dance between men and women. During evening hours more and more people come, dance, drink and get into trance. I probably would characterize Otjongo as a metaphysical form of communication between men and women. To be honest with you I haven’t tried to dance Otjongo, so I don’t have any practical experience with this dance at all. It also looks like you need to have a couple of beer too – and that’s one of my rules – I will never ever try self-made beverages, which the local people call beer. This is because I tried once beer from the Zulu in South Africa and after this I nearly needed to get hospitalized due to bad stomach problems, which lasted for a couple of months. At Opuwo’s marked you can get these nicely fried Namibian bakeries – they are approved by my stomach. You can also buy meat there – so long you fry it.

#16 Authentic Himba dances

admin — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:00:05 +0000

Authentic Himba dances

This episode illustrates Himba dances. It is one of the few episodes, which doesn’t contain any narration. This is because there isn’t a lot to say. These dances shown are usually just performed by the children. The older children and/or the younger mothers manage or lead the dance. I have asked the wife of the headman why this dance is just performed by the children. She was laughing at me and pointed out that once a women has big breast it wouldn’t look appropriate. Therefore, if you look at the dances at the second part of the film, which are managed by the younger mothers, their movement is much more settled. Often a certain order is maintained within the group where the older kids are at one side and the younger kids at the other side. The way how Himba dress, the type of hair style and decoration follows some rules. For example, once a girl becomes a women they wear this little crown on top of their head. But not everything is decoration. The protection around the ankles should also prevent snake bites. It probably works for smaller snakes but quite a few people get killed due to the bite of a black mamba. A black mamba can erect the body up to two meter and it is also incredible fast.
Like many other African dances, these children dances follow a certain pattern. There is a very distinct melody, which is always repeated and accompanied by this clapping. Then one of the kids drop out of the group and performs a solo part. During these solo parts certain figures are performed and, depending on the song, sometimes for example the movement of certain animals are imitated. These recordings are a bit lengthy but I wanted to show some variations. Some anthropologist call these dances Otjongo – but that’s wrong. Otjongo is a dance between a group of men and women and has nothing to do with these popular children dances. Otjongo is shown in the next episode.

#15 A morning by a Himba family

admin — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 23:57:36 +0000

A morning by a Himba family

Himba in the Kunene region cannot be associated with just one lifestyle. Some have a nomadic existence and others a semi- nomadic lifestyle. Some Himba family conduct mixed farming and I know Himba with modern closing and an academic education as well. Now I would like to show you a typical morning by a Himba family which conduct mixed farming. Himba usually start their day early – at around 5 o’clock. Because during lunch time, when they prepare their corn mash, the temperature frequently reaches more than 40 degree centigrade – impossible to work.

#14 Himba shower and cosmetic

admin — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 23:54:26 +0000

How Himba make fire

This episode is about traditional fire making and Himba cosmetic. What the headman is now showing to us becomes probably very soon a forgotten cultural technique – I mean the traditional art to make fire. This because many Himba have nowadays access to small stores or markets where matches are sold. So matches become readily available and are widely used. The traditional technique is therefore only employed if matches aren’t available – or at very remote locations within the stony desert.
Here, where the bush land starts and where you find even small trees, you have a certain amount of rain – at least during the rainy season. And this is turned out to be problem because it rained during night quite heavily and it is impossible to find dry stick.
In order to make fire you need start with a dry stick, into which you cut a hole and a small access channel. If you don’t have a knife or something sharp you would need to use a stick with a little mold. Beside the stick Himba use dried dung. Then, you place another stick into the hole – together, with some dried dung powder. If you rub these sticks together, heat is created which finally sets the dung on fire. As I said, due to the rain everything was wet and we therefore haven’t had fire. Himba also use stones to create fire. But due to the recent rain they also wouldn’t work.
The living arrangement by the Himba is similar like the once by the Herero. The houses or cabins are arranged around the holy fire and the crawl. But there are some items, which are only used by the Himba. For example a distinct head dress or curtain, which is utilized only by the women during the wedding ceremony or if the family creates a big party.

Himba cosmetic

There are many different flasks and baskets, which are used for the milk. The residual fat from the goat milk is for example used by the Himba women for their dally body care. The headman’s daughter shows us how they create a particular body lotion. This body lotion is used instead of a shower. So Himba women don’t shower- but they don’t smell – because of this lotion they use.
Firstly, a red powder is created from the oak stone, which is finally mixed with the fat from the goat milk. Modern Himba women use petro jelly instead of the goat milks fat. But this cost money. If you like to make Himba women a present you probably buy them some petro jelly – which you can get at every store close to these Himba villages.
Despite the hygienic aspect, this lotion seems to be quite useful as protection against the sun and mosquitoes – some Herero women, which live close to the Himba use this lotion as well – normally just on their face. Some Himba men also use this lotion – but just a tiny bit. This intense red colorization of the body is something what only Himba women do.