Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
GREETINGS
The Namibia greeting is practically an art form and goes something like this:
Did you get up well? Yes. Are you
fine? Yes. Did you get up well? Yes. Are you fine? Yes.
This is an example of just the most minimal greeting; in some cases greetings can continue at great length with
repeated inquiries about your health, your crops and your family, which will demand great patience if you are in a
hurry.
However, it is absolutely essential that you greet everyone you meet, from the most casual encounter in the
corner store, to an important first meeting with a business associate. Failure to greet people is considered ex-
tremely rude, and it is without a doubt the most common mistake made by outsiders.
Learn the local words for 'hello' and 'goodbye', and use them unsparingly. If you have the time and inclination,
consider broadening your lexicon to include longer and more complex phrases.
Even if you find yourself tongue-tied, handshakes are also a crucial ice-breaker. The African handshake con-
sists of three parts: the normal Western handshake, followed by the linking of bent fingers while touching the ends
of upward-pointing thumbs, and then a repeat of the conventional handshake.
Music
Namibia's earliest musicians were the San, whose music probably emulated the sounds of
animals, and was sung to accompany dances and storytelling. The early Nama, who had a
more developed musical technique, used drums, flutes and basic stringed instruments, also
to accompany dances. Some of these were adopted and adapted by the later-arriving
Bantu, who added marimbas, gourd rattles and animal-horn trumpets to the range.
Nowadays, drums, marimbas and rattles are still popular, and it isn't unusual to see dan-
cers wearing belts of soft-drink (soda) cans filled with pebbles to provide rhythmic ac-
companiment to their steps.
A prominent European contribution to Namibian music is the choir. Early in the coloni-
al period, missionaries established religious choral groups among local people, and both
school and church choirs still perform regularly. Namibia's most renowned ensembles are
the Cantare Audire Choir and the
Mascato Coastal Youth Choir
(
www.mascatoyouthchoir.com
)
, the country's national youth choir. The German colonists
also introduced their traditional 'oompah' bands, which feature mainly at Oktoberfest and
at other German-oriented festivals.
If you need some music to keep you company on those long, lonely Namibian roads,
check out the soulful tunes of Hishishi Papa, a storyteller musician whose
Aantu Aantu
al-
bum is perfect driving music.
