The Ovimbundu, who live high on the plateau of central Angola in West Africa, are called the 14 People of the Fog” because of the fog that covers their hills early in the morning. The men are great travelers. In the old days they journeyed on foot in caravans sometimes 4000 miles, carrying with them to other tribes wax, cotton cloth, tobacco, and brass wire for jewelry and returning home with cattle, oxen, and heifers. Even today they take many short trading trips and often talk of far places.
In trading they measure very carefully everything they sell, but their measurements are not like ours. They stretch cotton cloth to the width of a man’s arms from one hand to the other and then cut it with a knife. Palm oil they measure in a gourd. They take along rations for their trips, and each man’s food is measured in a basket with a line woven into it to show just how much he is allowed. Sometimes on long journeys the leader keeps account of the days by cutting a notch in a stick each day.
The Ovimbundu, like good travelers, make things as easy for themselves as possible on their journeys. Each man carries a burden of sixty pounds on his head. The load is tied to a long, forked stick so that, when he stops to rest, he can put the stick upright in the ground. After a rest the leader calls, “Up with your loads and give us a song,” and, without bending, the carriers lift their forked sticks and swing into line. One of them starts a chant, “Red ant that creeps along, you who are in the way, get out!” and they all take up the song. As he walks each man limps, not because he is lame or tired but because in this way he can rest his leg muscles with every step he takes.
On the return journey they are very proud if they can drive home many cows, for cattle are their measure of importance and wealth. They do not eat them, except at a funeral or a great feast, and they seldom use milk and never eat butter or cheese. Yet they have a saying, “Without cattle a man is a nobody.” Naturally their greatest ambition is to own large herds of cattle.
There are professional hunters who procure most of the meat for the village. These men must have training from an older professional hunter before they are qualified. They use bows and arrows, but sometimes a hunter may own an old-fashioned muzzle-loading gun. Though the Ovimbundu eat meat when they can get it, vegetables are their chief food. The men clear the land and the women raise the crops of maize, oats, barley, beans, and sweet potatoes.
The women pound the corn into flour on a pounding rock that has been in use in the village for years. They get up at five o’clock in the morning to pound the corn, and all day long until the sun sets the pounding rock is in use. It is back-breaking work, but the women laugh and sing and chatter together at the pounding rock. It is a cheerful meeting place. Though grit from the rock gets into the flour, no one seems to mind.
The women prepare two meals a day. The first one, between five and six in the morning, is corn-meal mush eaten with sweet potatoes. For dinner at night there is a mush of beans, about three pounds for each person. The men do not eat with the family, but their wives take their food to the men’s house. Then the women go back home and eat alone or with their young children.
These people have professions. There are blacksmiths, hunters, and leaders of caravans. Life is changing for the People of the Fog as foreign influences come in, but they cling as much as possible to the old beliefs and customs. Edith Fleming.
