The Ovahimba Years

The Ovahimba, a community of cattle farmers, live on both sides of the Kunene River that forms the border between Namibia and Angola. From 1997 to 2004, the ethnographer, filmmaker and photographer Rina Sherman shared the life of an extended family during a fieldwork study of seven years. During this time, she created in-depth documentation of some aspects of their everyday and ritual lives. The archival collection “The Ovahimba Years – Les années Ovahimba”, consisting of several hundred hours of video and sound, thousands of photographs and many notes, composes a unique ensemble of this community, both of universal interest and innovative as an ethnography. Rina Sherman donated it to the BNF in 2014.