I am West Uarije and I live to dance.

I started dancing around the fire with my grandmother being my only audience. My grandmother, who took care of me, didn´t have the means to reward me for my performance and she used to say, ¨I don’t have a bank account but I am a kraal account.¨ A kraal is an Afrikaans word that refers to the enclosure for cattle and other domestic animals in Southern Africa. However, as a child, I wasn’t bothered by what my grandmother said because I danced to make her happy every night before she went to bed.

My grandmother was my musician. When I danced, she sang our traditional songs from the Ovahimba and Ovaherero tribes in Namibia. She clapped her hands, chanted, and used what she had to bring music to my dance.

When my grandmother passed away, she left me with many traditional secrets and rules. She told me never to let the culture die. In honor of my grandmother, my ancestors, and our future generations, I am dedicated to the preservation of our culture and the healing of our nation. This is just the beginning of my story. Now I dance around the world with the elements from the kraal and the songs and stories passed on to me by my ancestors.