Iroline nous a invitées, avec mon amie Clara, à un déjeuner traditionnel Damara dans la maison de ses parents située dans un bidonville de Walvis Bay.
Au menu, il y avait les éléments suivants :
• Fabrication du pain (farine, levure, sucre, sel, eau)
• 2 têtes, pieds et abats de chèvre (poumons, trachée, etc.).
• Pap : Il s’agit d’une sorte de porridge à base de farine de maïs, c’est un plat très populaire, car bon marché et nourrissant.
• Salade de foie avec oignons et tomates
• Légumes congelés
Pour l’occasion, c’était sympa car les femmes portaient leurs robes traditionnelles.
Iroline avec la tête de chèvre
Les ingrédients pour faire du pain : la farine, la levure, le sucre, le sel et ensuite l’eau.
Préparation de l’ensemble. 1 chaudron avec les abats, les poumons, la trachée, etc. et ensuite Esther parlait du pain. Dans ce grand chaudron tapissé d’un peu d’huile, ils font cuire le pain. Avec la pâte, ils font de petites boules, pour qu’il soit plus facile ensuite de séparer les morceaux de pain…Une façon traditionnelle d’enlever les poils de la tête de la chèvre sur le feu, de peler la peau, normalement, ils se contentent de bouillir la tête…Clara, qui vient du Zimbabwe, est curieuse aussi de savoir comment on fait le pap en Namibie.
La cuisson de la chèvre et l’ajout d’eau. Parfois, ils boivent la sauce comme soupe.
Avec le reste de la pâte..ils l’ aplatissent pour la faire cuire sous le charbon,.. il faut la tourner très souvent, et ensuite, on déguste le pain.
Préparer le Pap 1ère étape . Ingrédients : eau bouillante avec du sel, ajouter 2 boîtes de maïs, de la farine de maïs, un peu d’huile. Iroline a dit qu’au lieu du maïs, ils le font aussi avec du lait.
Le Pap 2eme étape. De plus près. Il cuit en quelques minutes.
Chèvre en train de finir de cuire et ensuite réchauffée sur la cuisinière.
Salade de foie. Le foie est finement coupé, probablement salé, Flexida ajoute un oignon et une tomate en concassé et fait cuire l’ensemble dans l’huile, laisse refroidir, puis elle ajoute du poivre blanc et ajoute de la mayonnaise.
Iroline explique avec sa sœur Divine, qu’elles ont des tabliers conçus pour les grandes occasions. Par exemple, si elles sont invitées qu’elles veulent aider, elles le prennent avec elles. Parfois, elles y cousent même l’inscription “mariage” dessus.
Pendant ce temps, le pain cuit.
Assemblage
La belle Claudia, une des filles d’Iroline.
Iroline tenant fièrement les assiettes, et Clara avec son assiette sur ses genoux.
On se lave les mains avant de manger.
Clara mange avec ses doigts, fourchette naturelle
Juste avant nos adieux à la famille.
J’espère que vous avez également aimé ce voyage avec nous.
Je vous souhaite un merveilleux été européen et reprendrai probablement le blog en octobre.
D’ici là, portez-vous bien et soyez heureux.
Cordialement
Murielle
Iroline invited us with my friend Clara, to a Sunday traditional Damara lunch at her parents’ house located in a Walvis Bay ghetto area.
On the menu there was the following:
• Bread making (flour, yeast, sugar, salt, water)
• 2 goats’ head, feet and offal (lungs, trachea, etc.).
• Pap: It is a kind of porridge, made from maize meal, served in many homes, as it is cheap and filling.
• Liver salad with onion and tomatoes
• Frozen vegetables
For the occasion, it was very nice as the women wore their traditional dresses.
Iroline with the goat’s head
Ingredients for making bread: flour, yeast, sugar, salt and then adding water.
Set up preparation. 1 pot with the offal such as lungs, trachea, etc., and then Esther was talking about the bread. They are cooking the bread in that big caldron lined with a bit of oil. With the dough, they made little balls, so that it is easier afterward to break the bread into separate pieces…one traditional way of removing the goat’s head hair is to burn it on the fire, to peel off the skin although normally they would boil it… Clara who is from Zimbabwe is also intrigued by how they make the pap here in Namibia.
Goat cooking and adding water sometimes they drink the sauce as a soup.
With the rest of the dough that they flatten and cook under the coal…you need to turn it very frequently, it rises and you just eat it.
Make Pap step 1. Ingredients: boiling water with salt, adding 2 tins of corn, maize flour, a bit of oil. Iroline said that instead of corn they also do it with milk instead.
Pap step 2. A closer look. It cooks in a few minutes.
Goat finishing to cook and then being kept warm on the stove top.
Liver salad. Liver shopped finely, presumably adding salt then Flexida cooks it in oil, add a chopped onion and tomato, let it cool, then she adds white pepper and mayonnaise.
Iroline explains with her sister Divine, that they have designed aprons made for special occasions. Like if they are invited out and want to help they would bring it along to the function Sometimes they even have the inscription like wedding sewn on it.
In the meantime the bread is cooking.
Food assembly
Beautiful Claudia, one of Iroline’s daughers.
Iroline proudly holding the plates, and Clara with the food on her lap.
Hand wash before eating.
Clara eats with her fingers, natural fork.
Just before our farewell to the family.
I hope you have also enjoyed this journey with us.
I wish you a wonderful European summer and will probably resume the blog in October.
Until then, keep well and happy.
Kind regards.
Murielle
Good evening everybody.
Today we are visiting Iroline’s place at work, she is running a small Biltong Shop in Walvis Bay within the gallery of Pick & Pay supermarket.
Biltong, in Namibia like in South Africa is a delicacy.
It is Easter time, and people like having hampers as part of the celebration.
People also offer biltong for birthdays, weddings, at Christmas and also as a way to say thank you.
For the beef biltong and probably also for the game as well, they slice long pieces off the flesh (average 30cm), soak in spices for 1 day and hang it with fans for 3 days.
There are probably many other recipes.
On the farm, to dry the meat, they just hang it in the wind with a mesh or a fine net to protect the meat from the flies.
They can be made of beef, or game (leaner), and with various spices, size and shapes and also adding some extra fat.
At the end of the video, the lady is asking Iroline to put beer in the 2 hampers as a present for her sons.
Iroline said that sometimes it is the client’s choice instead of putting say chocolates or sweets if people are diabetic (or not) they would put beer, or add a couple of bottles of wine.
Droewors (dried sausage) they mince the meat, put spices, make in in a sausage form and dry it.
You also have chili patties (they flatten the mincemeat with spices, make them round, dry them), …they also have dried sausage twisted with fat. In general here, people like fat and some enjoy to eat it raw like this.
The price for the 2 hampers is $250 which is about 12 euros.
They have also sausages mixed with pork and next to it smoked beef.
Fat rollitjies. Pieces of biltong in a round form with fat in the middle ; beef sticks. ; Meat balls, with chilli and plain.
Iroline said that her favourite biltong is sweet chilli and chilli bites as she likes to bite it together with the fat. Iroline said that biltong makes you feel relaxed. They have a slogan. Keep calm and eat biltong.
Elaboration of the hampers
Iroline said that what she liked most about her job is to make hampers and talking to the customers.
Some are regular customers and when she sees them even if they are going to another shop she knows what they will want and already prepare the biltong ahead of time for them.
She runs the shops on her own from opening in the morning to closing the shop at night.
Iroline’s picture with finished hampers.
I hope you enjoyed our Biltong episode
Our next and final episode with Iroline will be in the shanty town where she and her family invite us to share a traditional meal from her Damara Nama tribe.
Good evening to all
Kind regards.
Murielle
Hello everybody
Today we are going to speak about an unusual subject: death, which is also part of our life cycle.
Ester, who is Iroline’s sister, gives us on overview of the Damara tribe funeral tradition.
Most people take funeral insurance. It is not just in Namibia, Ester said in the whole of Africa. Especially from middle to lower income people. Many people take family funeral insurance for their parents, brothers, sisters, aunties…It is common practice.
Depending on the tradition/tribe, they will bury the deceased within a week. For the Damara tribe, to which Ester belongs, it can take up to 2 weeks’ mourning period between when the person dies and the funeral ceremony. In general, the funeral ceremony is on Saturdays.
During the mourning period, the family gets together, the neighbours come, they sing, etc.
And then, the day before, on Friday, they bring the casket of their beloved back home, in the living room, they open the casket so that people can view the body, if they wish, until the funeral day. They all sleep in the house. Ester said that sometimes they also have old people sleeping next to the casket, while it is opened. In the Damara tradition, it is a way to show their last respect to the deceased person.
With Iroline, as we were driving through the Shanty town, she pointed out the house with the black flag with a white cross, which indicates that there has been a recent death in the family.
The flag indicates to show respect and to keep quiet in the area close to the house.
Iroline told me that if the flag were white with a black cross, it means that there is a wedding in the family.
Thereafter, we briefly visited the cemetery in the shanty town of Kuisebmond.
Iroline said that it may be a picture of a freshly buried person.
Mostly, afterwards, the body is placed in a tomb.
Depending on the funeral insurance payment and design for the tomb, it may even take a couple of years before transferring the remains of the person into the tomb.
I was quite surprised when I saw some atypical tombs…Like Paulus Felitas may have had a car business, and Engelbrecht Benedick presumably was working or had his own truck company.
As you can see from these few tombs, people die quite young. Looking at the statistics, life expectancy in Namibia in 2021 was 62 years’ old for women and 55 years’ old for men.
But, surprisingly, apparently, the average life expectancy in the Himba community is 80-85 years, and some members of the tribe live up to 100 years ‘old.
Have a nice evening.
Until next time.
Kind regards
Murielle
Good evening to you
If you are new on this blog or wish to look at the previous episodes, you can find them by clicking on blog.
So as promised, we are going to talk with Iroline about African hair, with her daughters Shirley and Claudia, and her cousin Ester.
Iroline says that she plaits Shirley’s hair to go to school, so that it’s easier to control, especially if it’s windy. Iroline also mentions that it’s a form of respect for the school, as it shows she’s well-groomed.
Shirley also prefers her hair to be plaited, otherwise she says it’s difficult to manage.
Ester said that can keep the hairstyle for 2 months, washing it frequently, without any problem. Unless the person is putting pressure while doing their hair, it doesn’t give you a headache.
Iroline. Wigs
When they don’t have time to do their hair in the morning, they usually wear wigs and change their style according to their mood. Iroline says that when she’s invited to parties, she always wears wigs.
In general, African women are very feminine and often have elaborate hairstyles in different styles and colours. They generally help each other for doing their hair or go to the hairdresser. It can take 3 to 4 hours when it comes to extensions, but at least they don’t have to touch it for a couple of months.
Have a very nice evening. Until next time.
Kind regards
Murielle
As I am currently not travelling in Namibia, I am glad that I came up with a new idea for our blog. We will be doing a new series, with Iroline.
Very often, we live in our bubble without appreciating how other people live.
Around Walvis Bay, there are 2 shanty towns: Naraville and Kuisebmond.
Iroline, who used to work for us, lives in Kuisebmond.
Iroline kindly accepted the challenge to take me to her home, to her parents’ place and to introduce me to all her family.
So for today, we drive through Kuisebmond and visit Iroline’s home, her parents’ home and we meet Iroline’s family.
In the video Iroline talks about her father being a striked fisherman. To start with I did not understand what Iroline meant, but in December 2019, there was the Fishrot scandal in Namibia where 6 prominent politicians and businessmen (Fishrot Six) were arrested as they were accused of running schemes to get control of valuable fish quotas. The allegations are that the Six acquired about 8 million euros in bribes from an Icelandic fishing company. The Six politicians and businessmen are still in jail, awaiting trial.
After the scandal, Iroline’s father, was out of work as his fishing factory closed down. The fishermen got together and went on strike. Today, I understand that the Namibian government is addressing the situation of fishing quotas and the striked fishermen are now being allocated work in new and existing fisheries.
In Namibia, there is no unemployment benefit and her father Peter survived economically by the financial support of his family.
It happens very often in Namibia where a few working members of the family share their income with the family who cannot work.
The street where Iroline lives.
Iroline is giving us a tour of her shack and introduces us to her daughter Shirley.
Her main bedroom. Iroline explains that her boyfriend who stays with them was retrenched and is now doing the odd jobs in Kuisebmond, doing plumbing, welding, brick work for building houses. He was not at home during my visit.
Iroline has 3 daughters. In the master bed , Iroline and her boyfriend sleep with their 2 years old baby daughter Toska. The other 2 daughters (Shirley and Claudia) sleep in the single bed, head to toe, and the toilets are outside.
Driving in the location. Generally there is the main house, and behind the owners’house they have a ghetto that they rent out.
Arriving at the family house where her Mom and Dad stay. I apologise about the rotating camera. The Chef is Cedric, Iroline’s brother, cooking a fish head, presumably to make soup. They dry the fish on newspaper first to absorb the moisture before putting flour and frying it in oil.
Iroline’s mother name is Flexida. Flexida was saying that she prefers to take a picture indoors as with the colour of her skin, with the sun, the picture would not come out nice, outside.
Flexida has 4 children. 2 daughters Iroline, Divine and 2 sons, 1 being the Chef on the video Cedric and another son working at sea. Ester is an adopted daughter from Flexida’s sister who passed away and she was raised and part of the family since she was little.
Ester with her new born baby boy, Yeshua, who is 2 months old and Iroline’s daughter Shirley.
Iroline’s father Peter, who is holding his grandchiledren, Toska and Zoe.
Picture of Iroline’s parents Peter and Felixa.
Iroline with her 3 children Claudia, Shirley and the 2 years’ old daughter Toska.
Family picture. Starting with Iroline and the front row… Iroline, Ester, Toska, Felixa, New Born son of Ester , Zoe, Vasco (son of Ester), Cedric, Claudia, Shirley, Alicia, Divine (Felixia’s daughter) with her boyfriend Revaldo.
Next time, with Iroline, we will be talking about African women’s hair.
Goeie nag (Bonne nuit/Good night in Afrikaans).
Murielle
As promised, this evening, I’m sending you some photos (I’ve resisted sending you more), thanks to Christophe Salti and his family (Alacarte Travels client), who has given me permission to share his photos with you.
Christophe shares his beautiful photos for free on flickr. His address is cristofe71 and you can download for free, the pictures Christophe took during his first trip in Namibia.
I’m also sending you 2 videos I took this morning while walking along the lagoon in Walvis Bay, with my friend Clara.
Enjoy your evening.
Kind regards
Murielle
Namibia: +264 811 240 500 France: +33 764 48 3232
murielle@alacartetravels.com | 12 Ocean View | 13 Bramwell Street | PO Box 935 | Walvis Bay | Namibia
