Air Partner Magazine A/W 25 - Magazine - Page 76
I N D I G E N O U S C U STO D I A N S
Communities shaping and being
shaped by the land they inhabit.
THROUGHOUT AFRICA
Land, lineage, and living practice
Throughout Africa, Indigenous communities
continue to live in close relationship with
their environments, shaping and being
shaped by the land they inhabit. These are
not marginal worlds, but are living systems of
knowledge, re昀椀ned over millennia and held in
daily practice.
In Kenya and Tanzania, the Maasai have
long sustained a semi-nomadic pastoralist
way of life. Their social structures, dress,
and rituals re昀氀ect a deep understanding
of ecological balance. Families travelling
with Based On A True Story have joined the
Maasai to walk across the savannah, learning
how to read tracks, identify medicinal plants,
and understand the rhythm of herding life.
Evenings in the boma are 昀椀lled with song,
dance and stories, where children discover
how closely their hosts’ world is bound to
land and lineage.
Further south, Namibia’s Himba people live
in the arid expanse of Kaokoland, where
survival depends on adaptation. Using a
paste of ochre and butterfat to protect their
skin, Himba women maintain a distinctive
tradition that also signals identity, status and
beauty. Their villages, or kraal, function as
intimate spaces of cultural continuity, where
guests are welcomed into conversations
about ancestry, resilience, and life in one of
Africa’s most demanding terrains.
