Herero Day — Annual August Commemoration, Okahandja

Held on the last weekend of August each year, Herero Day is one of Namibia’s most visually spectacular cultural events. Thousands of Herero men and women gather in Okahandja in traditional dress to honour their ancestors — men in military-style German colonial-era uniforms, women in the iconic Victorian-influenced long dresses with elaborate headdresses (otjikaiva). The procession from the church to the royal graves is slow, solemn and deeply moving. A genuine cultural experience unlike anything else on the African continent.