AMBO, OVAMBO (RHODESIA; ANGOLA; NAMIBIA)

 

 

Index → Africa→ Ambo (see also Owambo of Namibia)

 

 

Stefaniszyn (1964:p99)[1] observed that Ambo “children and adolescents gain their sexual experience only occasionally and furtively. There is extensive phallo- and andropoetic pharmacology (p98), but the age of application is unclear (probably at pubescence). Hahn (1928 [1966:p32])[2] states that girls are married “when quite young”, but not until after the ohango ceremony. “Courtship often commences long before a marriageable age is reached. Headmen of quite advanced age frequently train young girls, generally maidens in their employ, in their habits and ways with a view to ultimately marrying them”. “Homosexual behaviour in children is referred to as oulai, but adults accused of this would regard it as a great insult (Estermann 1976:67)”[3] (cited by Davies, 1994:p33)[4].

 

 

Continued:Owambo of Namibia

 

 

 

 

 

Janssen, D. F., Growing Up Sexually. Volume I. World Reference Atlas. 0.2 ed. 2004. Berlin: Magnus Hirschfeld Archive for Sexology

Last revised: Oct. 2004

 


[1] Stefaniszyn, D. (1964) Social and Ritual Life of the Ambo of Northern Rhodesia. London: International African Institute

[2] Hahn, C. H. L. (1928) The Ovambo, in Hahn, C. H. L., Vedder, H. & Fourie, L. (Eds.) The Native Tribes of South West Africa. London: Frank Cass & Co., p1-36

[3]Estermann, C. (1976) The Ethnography of Southwest Angola Vol. 1: The Non-Bantu Peoples, the Ambo Ethnic Group, (English translation by G. Gibson). LondonLondon African Pub. Co.

[4]Davies, G. (1994) The Medical Culture of the Ovambo of Southern Angola and Northern Namibia. PhD Thesis, University of Kent at Canterbury [http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/csacpub/Davies_thesis]