ANGOLA is one of Africa’s hidden secrets and the last great travel mysteries. Angola is an incredibly special country, virtually untouched by foreigners because it was closed off to most outsiders for decades due to stringent visa policies, high prices, and the travel warnings that usually keeps away all, but the most adventurous travelers. In return, in such a fast modern progressing world, most of the country is still a land of unspoiled wildernesses and a lost treasure of African anthropology. Angola has beautiful tribes that follow the time-honored traditions and ways of life living in well-designed beautiful thatched roofed huts.
After nearly four years of research, I finally found the most amazing guide with a very experienced team equipped for a proper bush expedition in search of these beautiful tribes. The intoxicating experience stirred my soul back to my adventurous days in the Omo before the tarmac roads, cell towers, and the effects of mass tourism.
As is my nature of providing incredible once in a lifetime experiences to adventurous photographers I am very excited to extend an invitation to join this awe-inspiring nomadic expedition through Southern Angola; a chance to see a world rarely photographed and before it is forever changed. Accompanied by our expert team, we will travel sensitively through these remote communities and settlements.
Macubal: Beautifully dressed in multiple layers of strikingly vibrant colorful African fabrics that are becoming scarcely visible in modern day life. They are still living a traditional semi-nomadic lifestyle. Lush in livestock, due to excellent water access, mornings are magical witnessing them separate out the babies, pushing out the main herd to graze, milking, and going about all their morning activities.
Himba: Known as MoHimba in Angola. Unlike the more commercialized Himba in Namibia, the men are still dressed traditionally proudly sporting their traditional hairstyle. The Himba women are striking, covered in a mixture of ochre and fat, called Otijize. They spend as many as three hours a day maintaining their beautiful appearance. First, she bathes over the smoke of a fire that is laced with natural perfumes made from herbs. Then, she anoints herself with the Otijize, which protects her skin from the harsh desert sun and keeps away insects. She uses another mixture of butter fats, fresh herbs, and black coal to rub on her hair and steams her clothes regularly over the permanent fire.
Mohacahona: Is actually unexplainable in words; one can only experience this community to understand! The women’s haircut is made with a mix of cow dungs, fat, coal, and herbs for the fragrance. Their traditional headdress is called kapapo decorated with colorful barrettes, beads, leather, and jewelry.
Muwila: They are said to be one of the earliest Bantu people to undertake the migration to domicile in their present in Angola. The women are famous for keeping their traditional African culture with some of the most astonishing hairstyles, coated with oncula and decorated with very fancy beadwork and their heaving beadwork around their necks is extraordinary. Their necklaces change as they grow into women, each that are central and meaningful for each period of their life.
Lost tribes: Perhaps not the best description, but several other tribes throughout this region live way up into the hills. It is highly likely that we may come across of few of them when they come down for a mark or are nomadically relocating.
The expedition is backed by a very experienced team using custom air-conditioned 4X4 Lancruisers that are immaculately maintained for the harsh environment; two vehicles will be used solely as support vehicles. The team will erect mobile-tented camps near the villages, as there is no accommodation throughout the entire remote southern region. Our team will provide us with a dinning cabana and home-cooked meals, stand-up tents with camp beds, mattresses with bedding, a charging station for our gear, and 4-star service. Our camps will support the local communities along with food donations and installation of a solar pump in one of the villages.
Our main guide spent his time growing up between Angola and South Africa. He has spent many years leading expeditions from South Africa all the way through Angola. We will also be traveling with a guide who fluently knows all the languages of the tribes we will be visiting. This team has become trusted friends who understand precisely the kind of opportunities that photographers crave. I will be traveling with you at all times, offering as much photographic advice as you can absorb.