MUCABAL PEOPLE
Mucabal live in the southwest of Angola and are a semi-nomadic pastoral community in the Namibe province.
They have developed remarkable survival techniques due to their arid and dry environment, where they have improved water sources and managed supplies for their survival, combining these survival skills with ceremonial traditions. Sacred sites have been passed down through generations as ancestral water sources, specific mountain routes, valleys, etc.
One of the things that stands out the most visually about the Mucabal is the ompota – a headdress worn by women made of fiber and leather decorated with shells, beads and metals. It can even represent how many children a woman has. Personal pride and social status are shown in the size, width and condition of the ompota. One item of a woman's clothing is a goat-skin coat, made for the arid climate.
The cattle serve as a link between humans and the spiritual world.
The ompota is usually tied and filled with cow tails. The Oyodunthi is a string tied around the chest, worn as a bra since some women don't cover their chest, and also serves as an adornament. Metal bracelets and anklets, connected to family lineage and the ancestral world, are worn on different arms depending on family origin, and the colours reflect beauty, purity, and how they approach spirituality.
In everyday wear, they have simple leather skirts, cloths, and decorations related to cattle.
