Tjimba people
Encyclopedia
The Cimba tʃimba, also spelled Tjimba, are a remote, Herero-speaking
hunter-gatherer
people of the Kaokoveld
desert in northwest Namibia
and southwest Angola
, in the mountain ranges bordering the Kunene River. They continue to use stone tool
s, and use Adenium boehmianum
to poison their arrows.
Their Herero neighbors portray them as Herero who have lost their cattle and are therefore impoverished, but they are a distinct people, both culturally and physically. Indeed, physically they seem to be a remnant of an indigenous population of a southern African type—along with the Kwadi, the Kwisi
, and the Damara
—that are unlike either the San
(Bushmen) or the Bantu Herero.
Herero language
The Herero language is a language of the Bantu family . It is spoken by the Herero people in Namibia and Botswana...
hunter-gatherer
Hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...
people of the Kaokoveld
Kaokoveld
The Kaokoveld Desert is a coastal desert of northern Namibia and southern Angola.-Setting:The Kaokoveld Desert occupies a coastal strip covering , and is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Namibian savanna woodlands to the east, and the Namib Desert to the south. It includes the...
desert in northwest Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
and southwest Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
, in the mountain ranges bordering the Kunene River. They continue to use stone tool
Stone tool
A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made either partially or entirely out of stone. Although stone tool-dependent societies and cultures still exist today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric, particularly Stone Age cultures that have become extinct...
s, and use Adenium boehmianum
Adenium boehmianum
The Bushman Poison is a poisonous succulent endemic to the mostly dry regions of northern Namibia and southern Angola. The San people boil the root sap and latex to prepare arrow poison, which is sufficient for hunting large mammals, as it contains strong cardiotoxic effects. The leaves, borne only...
to poison their arrows.
Their Herero neighbors portray them as Herero who have lost their cattle and are therefore impoverished, but they are a distinct people, both culturally and physically. Indeed, physically they seem to be a remnant of an indigenous population of a southern African type—along with the Kwadi, the Kwisi
Kwisi people
The Kwisi are a seashore-fishing and hunter-gatherer people of southwest Angola that physically seem to be a remnant of an indigenous population—along with the Kwadi, the Cimba, and the Damara—that are unlike either the San or the Bantu. Culturally they have been strongly influenced by the Kuvale,...
, and the Damara
Damara people
The Damara are an ethnic group who make up 8.5% of Namibia's population...
—that are unlike either the San
Bushmen
The indigenous people of Southern Africa, whose territory spans most areas of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola, are variously referred to as Bushmen, San, Sho, Barwa, Kung, or Khwe...
(Bushmen) or the Bantu Herero.