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NAMIBIA – In Africa, it is a popular tradition to welcome visitors with warm hospitality such as treating them to delicious meals and entertainment just to make sure they enjoy their visit.
For the people of the OvaHimba and Ovazimba tribes in Namibia, this hospitality for visitors seems to have gone beyond bounds.
In this native Namibia tribes located in the Kunene Region of Namibia, when a visitor comes for a visit, the man of the house performs his duties of being a good host by offering the guest the Okujepisa Omukazendu treatment.
This rather awkward practice means that he offers his wife to his guest to spend the night while he, the husband sleeps in another room or outside as the case may be.
This practice strictly fences a lot on patriarchy and female coercion as the woman has little or no say in the decision making. The husband is lord and the wife’s submission to him is not negotiable. Though she may decide not to have intimacy with the guest, she still has to sleep in the same room with him.
This practice, however, has another face; besides being practiced for the motive of spoiling visitors with care, it is also done in the form of wife swapping.
It is interesting to note that wife swapping is a regular practice among the Namibia’s nomadic tribes which has been practiced for generations but a legislator’s demand to make it legal in the Constitution has instigated controversy about women’s rights and tradition in modern society.
Submitting his opinion on the practice, the legislator, Mr. Kazereongere Tjeundo argued that “it is a culture that gives us unity and friendship, it’s up to you to select (among) your friends who you like the most. . . to allow him to sleep with your wife, we just need to research more on how the practice can be regulated”.
His opinion has, since raised global curiosity and awareness as more people are concerned about the hazards associated with the practice.
This funny practice is little known outside these solitary, isolated tribes, many of who still reside in pole – and – mud huts, and both men and women go bare – chested. As at now, there are currently about 50, 000 natives of this tribe living in the Kunene Region of Namibia.
