Mumuila Tribe Ladies - socio-economic inclusion of dispersed indigenous people in Angolan territory
Mwila people are of Bantu origin and are said to be one of the earliest Bantu people to undertake the Great Bantu migration to domicile in their present location in Angola.
About the initiative
This initiative enables us to have a better understanding of the Angolan situation of indigenous peoples, the common issues that we face and common actions we must undertake. It will help us to underpin our positions in the defense of the rights of indigenous peoples. It also advocates the necessity for geared toward the promotion of cultural expressions emerging from indigenous communities.
We continue to highlight the lack of social and economic inclusion of the indigenous people, the expropriation of their land, and their discriminatory labour and social relationships with neighbouring groups. Through community mobilization, indigenous groups tackle issues relevant to their respective regions, in particular those relating to their livelihood, social economic wellbeing and ecological health.
We developed a platform for the successful implementation of poverty reduction strategies impacting displaced indigenous people in Angola so that we can help create a more equal society.
These women are cattle breeders and it is from them that they draw their source of income, where in addition to this business, within the city, they are often also known for marketing natural teas, mupeke oil and ngundi to nourish the hair (oil manufactured by them manually), a dark oil with a strong burning odor, which is extracted by adult women from a fruit of a typical shrub of the region (the Mupeque) of Namibe, which is used in the treatment of hair with also skin. In addition to mupeque oil, they sell roots of plants considered medicinal, maungo an edible larva, known as Catato in other regions of the country, pieces of local crafts, such as wooden cutlery, azagaias with their arrows and many other articles, many of which are produced by men of the same ethnicity.
The Mumuila Tribe Ladies constitute the indigenous peoples of Angola. Although the government of Angola has adopted the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Peoples continue to face challenges in terms of lack of social and economic inclusion, and a number of core human rights remain unrealised to them.
Mwila people are semi-nomadic people who engage in subsistence agriculture and some form of livestock keeping. They grow mostly maize and as well as other staples. They keep animals such as fowls, goat and cattle.
The Mwila people are also noted for bee-keeping to extract honey which is major part of their diet. Mwila or Mumuhuila rarely eat meat, they rather eat porridge, corn, chicken, honey and milk. They kill their cattle only on special occasions.
Living conditions are tough as women sometimes walk for 50 kilometers to reach Huila market to sell goods. They trade their livestock and crops for mostly things like cloth, blankets, sugar, cornmeal, salt, and wine.
MAIN CHALLENGES FOR THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF ANGOLA
One challenge for Angola’s Indigenous Peoples is Angola’s economic downturn. There is a reduction in funding of smaller organizations and NGOs working with Indigenous Peoples, and some closed as a result. Another challenge relates to land expropriations. Several land expropriations for tourism development, commercial logging, and national projects affected Indigenous Peoples’ settlements. The drought has seriously affected all rural communities in southern Angola.
Southern and central Angola are facing one of the worst climate shocks in recent years, including alternating droughts and floods. Vulnerable populations use untreated wastewater for consumption, such as stagnant and unprotected pond water, where animals drink and defecate, and rural populations seek water that is dangerous to drink, cook and feed their animals.
Culture
Mwila are not allowed to mention people’s name in public. But Mumuhuila women are especially famous for their very special hairstyles. Indeed hairstyles are very important and meaningful in Mwila culture.Women coat their hair with a red paste called, oncula, which is made of crushed red stone. They also put a mix of oil, crushed tree bark, dried cow dung and herbs on their hair. Besides they decorate their hair with beads, cauri shells (real or plastic ones) and even dried food.
Having their forehead shaved is considered as a sign of beauty. The plaits, which look like dreadlocks, are called nontombi and have a precise meaning. Women or girls usually have four or six nontombi, but when they only have three it means that someone died in their family.
Mumuhuila Women are also famous for their mud necklaces, which are important as for each period of their life corresponds a specific type of necklace. When they are young, girls wear heavy red necklaces, made with beads covered with a mix of soil and latex.
Later girls start to wear a set of yellow necklaces called, Vikeka, made of wicker covered with earth. They keep it until their wedding, which can last 4 years.
Once married they start to wear a set of stacked up bead necklaces, called Vilanda. Women never take their necklace off and have to sleep with it.
They also use headrests to protect their hairstyles. However, more and more men and women dress in a western way, because people use to make fun of them when they go to markets.
About us
This is an women-led organization created by Egineer Sofonie Dala in 2020. It started as a campaign that celebrates women's stories and the impact of covid-19 in their academic life, and showcases the lesser-known successes of women and girls, in order to support and encourage the next generation.
In 2020 and 2021, our organization began its most ambitious and ground-breaking research to date, to explore why, after decades of legislation, gender equality in education, control over fertility and massive shifts in gender norms, women have still not achieved equal pay and progression in the workplace.
We are raising global awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals and the need for accelerated action. We use our unique global platforms to raise ambition around the SDGs and reach the most vulnerable first.
Talentos Multiplus is a multifaceted start-up that will offer a myriad of services and products across trading, engineering, oil and gas, mining, consulting, education, digital media, TI, marketing, digital, social, agricultural and food solutions, human development and other services. Currently, the company is a sole proprietorship and online based with a small office where the founder develops ideas.
Our project "Ladies without plastic" - production of reusable menstrual pads in favor of the environment won the 2000 usd prize by UNDP Angola in the young innovator award competition of the municipality of cazenga.
Sofonie Dala is an African digital entrepreneur, philanthropist and activist who is founder and CEO of the startup Talentos Multiplus. It delivers business and markets ideas and video to the world, featuring non-fiction stories with strong focus on sustainable development goals.
The startup creates Community-wide awareness campaigns that generate real business results and helps its target market leap ahead of their competitors. We intend to create a community cooperative with a sustainable activity model that empowers women including indigenous people living below the poverty line.
Environmental impacts - Please describe the environmental impact that the initiative has had as a result of ecosystem protection, restoration, and/or sustainable management.
Climate change is becoming a very serious matter for the whole world. Unfortunately, many people still don't know about this, they don't know what climate change is and what causes it. Worst of all, these people who lack this knowledge are the same people who cause environmental pollution and climate change, simply because they are unaware of the consequences of their actions. Then the problem becomes even more complicated.
In Angola we continue to produce tons of garbage daily, there are a lot of plastics in every corner, people are not even aware of the damage that plastics cause to the environment.
People continue to cut the trees in their backyards and around their homes, burn the trees, without any knowledge that the trees would provide them with oxygen and protect them from global warming.
Gardeners and men are hired to cut down trees and destroy biodiversity, all of which are the result of a lack of knowledge.
To eliminate this problem, we believe that people could be educated, there is little awareness program in communities, especially families, in schools, in units, in short, very little is said about this in our country.
The government must think about this, must work with climate change activists, civil societies and people who are really interested in protecting the environment on our planet.
We advocate for behavioral change to reduce earth vulnerability to climate change and global warming from disposable sanitary pads, at the same time mobilizing women and girls to switch back to the use of reusable sanitary pads.
Our mission is to empower women who face extreme poverty to become self-sufficient and entrepreneurial by teaching them how to make the pads themselves and enabling them to turn their acquired skill into a business.
Our fronutri channel shows the involvement of vulnerable women in the economic growth of rural areas and the power they have in promoting and transforming sustainable food systems to prevent climate change,
Sustainable development impacts - Please describe the impacts for each of the sustainable development elements (SDGs)
We intend to create a community-based cooperative with a sustainable activity model that empowers women including Mumuila tribe women who live below the poverty line. By 2030, we hope to empower and transform the lives of millions illiterate girls and indigenous people who are left behind in the digital world in Angola.
Sofonie Dala is not only the founder of the Startup Multi Talents, she is also a
multi-skilled expert that has mastered and developed a large series of projects and campaigns covering about 10 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, with successful assignments in Angola.
She is an inspiring, influential person raising global awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the need for accelerated action. She uses her unique global platforms to raise ambition around the SDGs and reach the most vulnerable first. Dala reaches vulnerable out of school ladies and sustainable development practitioners seeking knowledge on goal-based development.
Resilience and adaptability - How has the initiative responded and adapted to environmental, social and economic challenges or change? How has it shown resilience in the face of external pressures?
We created multiple healthy inclusive digital spaces that enable individuals and communities to thrive. We believe that women can play a pivotal role in a more sustainable future for Africa's rural communities. On our hybrid environment, we offer non-formal training that helps individuals gain a comprehensive understanding of the societal transformations needed to achieve the SDGs.
We created "Ladies Without Plastic", the project aims to advocate for behavioural change to reduce earth vulnerability to climate change and global warming from disposable sanitary pads. Work on women liberation against harmful restrictions surrounding menstruation. It produces washable and reusable menstrual pads, which help protect the environment.
Scalability - Describe how the initiative’s actions have been scaled up nationally, or how they could be scaled up at a national level.
Our initiative to register and accommodate indigenous people dispersed in the Angolan territory is still in its early stages. For now we are working in the municipality of cazenga and neighboring communities in the city of Luanda.
Replicability - Describe how the initiative’s actions have been replicated or could be replicated in other parts of the country, or in other countries.
We believe that we will soon be expanding to cover the entire Angolan territory. Thank God our indigenous peoples different from the people of other countries did not spread out of Angola.
Unlike the other ethnic groups that fled from Angola to neighbouring country, Namibia as a result of wars, drought and invasion by powerful ethnic groups, the Mwila people and their parent ethnic group Nyaneka-Humbe did not disperse outside Angola.
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