Herero Woman Dressed In Traditional Victorian Style In Opuwo, Namibia On August 19, 2010 -

NAMIBIA - AUGUST 19: Herero Woman Dressed In Traditional Victorian Style in Opuwo, Namibia on August 19, 2010 - The Hereros are an ethnic group belonging to the Bantu speaking group. The 320,000 Herero people mainly live in Namibia (representing about 7 per cent of the namibian population), but some of them live in Botswana and Angola. They mostly earn their money as workers on big farms or in the cities as merchants and tradesmen. They are famous for dressing in a victorian style with full length coloured dresses and hats. Origins (history) According to their oral history, Hereros have come from Betschanaland (the current Botswana) with Himbas in the 15th and 16th centuries, and maybe formerly from eastern Africa from Tanganikya Lake area. Both ethnic groups used to be a unique one. Hereros belong to the bantu linguistic group, and as all Bantus, are sedentary farmers and pastoral people. Himbas and Hereros got different and went separate ways. At the end of the 18th century Herero people settled in the area of Okahandja (nearby the current capital city : Windhoek). During the 19th century Hereros have been in perpetual conflict with the neighbouring tribes, in particular with the Oorlams and the Namas. At the Berlin conference in 1884, which is the climax of the Scramble for Africa, western powers decided that South West Africa (current Namibia) would become a german protectorate, meant to protect Hereros from the neighbouring tribes (especially from the Namas who didn't sign any treaty with the Germans) in exchange of lands for German settlers. Numerous German settlers arrived on Hereros lands in addition to the missionaries that were already there for a few decades. In the beginning Samuel Maharero (who succeeded his father as chief in 1890) sold good lands and farms to German settlers for money. Soon after, conflicts between the German colonists and the Herero herdsmen began. (Photo by Eric LAFFORGUE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)