Comm: "When they first told me about the dam I said I would not accept it. We get fruit from the trees and the river provides everything we need for our animals. So we will not accept a dam to be built at Epupa.

"Since 1995, Chief Kapika and the Himba people living on the Namibian and Angolan sides of the Cunene river, have been opposing the Namibian governmentís plan to build a hydropower dam at Epupa Falls - to satisfy Namibia's growing demand for electricity.

"The graves are lying side by side on both banks of the river. More than 100 graves have been left on the islands in the Kunene River and along the banks, and it's a place where for many generations the Himba have been burying their elders."

Male Speaker: "If the dam comes, we will all die."

Chief Hikuminue Kapika: "If they build the dam, our children will go and work there. Then the old people will have to look after the cattle. I don't want that to happen.

"For the people of the biggest area, who are opposed to the project, very little has been said about that. It is because people are limited to speak.
Public Hearing. Kunene Hydroelectric Dam Scheme10:05:19Super:

"Now therefore my whole group that is here, everyone will have something to say, everyone of them. Even the women who have accompanied us to this meeting they will all have something to say.

"That is the last thing that I said and let it be noted down.

"I thank you."

Festus Muharukua: "Now it is true that God created us on this earth and gave us certain things to live from, some of the things can be utilised directly, but some of them need to be developed into useful facilities before they can be helpful to mankind.

"The Cunene River, with its various falls, needs to be converted into something that will give us light, that will give us water in the inland, and that is where the problems perhaps is today."

Councilor Tjitaura, Headman under Chief Kapika: "Government, how is it that you only reckon with those who are educated like yourselves......and you don't consider those who are not? The only way out of this debacle is to understand that independence and freedom are meant for a person who wears modern garments and not for a Himba like myself.

"In terms of systems, this will mean a collapse of a pastoral system.

"All damage sustained in the course of development activity must therefore considered permanent.

"As we are aware of our world is one of the under privileged, backward and neglected areas in this country. There has been no a single great significance."

Chief Ngombe: "My heart is not well. There is a smell of blood in my heart. Other people should speak instead, because it is as if someone's baby should be cut in half and that his parents graves are to be relocated. When we hear our graves will be relocated, it makes us disturbed."

John Kinnihan Archaeologist: "It's my task to clarify one issue concerning the ancestral graves question, there is no proposal to move the graves.
Our view is that the moving of the graves is the prerogative that's entirely in the hands of the lineal and cultural descendants of people in the graves. So this is a misunderstanding, that I think we need to get pass at this stage because it doesn't seem to go away.

Councilor Tjitaura: "Those people who see the need for power and feel that it is right to relocate graves not really from that area, because it is like saying: I will kill my own off-spring.

"Is this country really free? As we go on with this issue it seems that freedom is not for everyone."

Himba Chief: "My Lord, things have become depleted from the earth.
"My God, let me not say that the mother who has died took good care of me.

"My God and the mother who is here now is denying me food.

"The bore holes drilled by the colonialists as we speak now, do not water anybody. When we were colonialists, the cattle would drink.

"What do you say mother ? Now that you are here, mother, the bore holes have been filled with snakes. These are the words I was afraid to speak. I am touching you very lightly, I could have pierced you with harsher words. Now I am rubbing you nicely because when one wants the regard of someone greater than oneself, one rubs them nicely. You have riches that make other people envious, you have fought the whole world and everyone is stepping aside for you, you cannot say that you have been harshly spoken to, as people fear you."

President Sam Nujoma: "The water is very scarce and very precious commodity in our country, so we intended to utilise it in every possible way."

Comm: "The Himba reach out for political support - to a member of the Swedish Government."

Swedish Minister: "I think it's very interesting to meet people in rural areas and also meet people who in one or another way are threatened.
I know that these group of people are divided into in favour of and against and it is very controversial, I know it because we have had the same discussion in Sweden.

"We have exploited all rivers, but four and in the north part of Sweden we have a special people called the Salmay people and they have their own language and they live with their reindeers."

Himba: "What is the language?"

Swedish Minister: "Salmay language."

Translator: "So reindeers are animals that are like ours, but they are half wild, so..."

Himba: "Cows?"

Swedish Minister: "Yes, we have lots of cows."

Super: "The language of those people, I don't understand a word of it."

Male Speaker: "I see them as wild people because they live in the bush - the first time I saw them I nearly cried because they are my people.
It will be good if they build a dam. You will be able to find all sorts of things - food, clothes.
Have you seen the Katze dam? It was just like this. There was nothing there until 1988 andÖ
now there is a huge dam, houses, shops, a post office, bottle stores, a clinic and a hospital.
Two Himba Tribesmen visiting London, on a sightseeing bus tour through London

Comm: "Chief Hikuminue Kapika takes his campaign against the dam to Europe: to Sweden and first, to London. It's different from home."

Tour Guide: "The BT tower once had a revolving restaurant on top that let you have a panoramic view of London. You spin round eating a meal."

Himba Chief: "There are many new shiny cars here. The cars we see in the Kaoko are all battered, old and do not run well. They drive into trees, what do you expect? One was hit by a branch on the windscreen!"

Tour Guide: "And you can get round Buckhingham Palace by car...we're heading down Whitehall towards the spiritual and political heart of London and indeed Britain.just coming up on your right are the horse guards every morning at 7 o'clock except on Saturdays it's at 10 o'clock."

British man interviewing the two men: "When I was in the Namibia I was there about two years ago, this project was still under discussion the Epupa Dam hydro-electric plant and quite a controversial issue as I remember then. Is the Namibian government trying to force you to accept the project."

Chief Ngombe: "They are forcing it, if they build it, it will be by force."

Interviewer: "Do you think you could actually stop it?"

Himba Tribesman: "Nobody can own the place when the owner does not want it to be developed."

Interviewer: "What will the dam mean to the Himba people?"

Himba Tribesman: "It will destroy all our culture and even ourselves as a people living in the area. Our cattle and our graves will be destroyed. On both sides Namibia and Angola."

Himba Tribesman: "The death for the people in Namibia will be the same death for the people in Angola. The only thing separating us is the river, but we are born together."

Interviewer: "Suppose the Namibian government gets the financing that it wants, feasability studies say that the project can go ahead, what do you do?"

Chief Ngome: "We gather at the graveyard of out ancestors. We pray to our great grandfather to give us goodwill. Let the rain fall, let the cattle multiply, let the crops grow. Let the women we have married give birth to beautiful children. Let it rain. Let the grass be green. Give us an answer so that our cattle can thrive and enrich us."

Cation: "The Namibian government has yet to decide whether to build the dam at Epupa Falls."