Namibia is a colonial fantasy (in NY Times Style Magazine)

The opening lines of the cover story of the most recent issue of the New York Times Style Magazine:

“… I began perhaps the most fantastic single day in all my years of travel by riding up to a traditional Himba ‘‘village’’ — a small clutch of domed mud-and-thatch huts surrounding a pen for livestock, improbably sited in a wide desert valley — on a Honda A.T.V., pulling off my helmet and questioning a bare-breasted and intricately coiffed octogenarian about the changing nature of her world.”

If you still have the stomach, the whole thing is here. [After reading the article, a friend of mine with more than a glancing interest in Namibia, its people and history, responded: "Wow, nice example of colonial nostalgia and a striking consistency in how white visitors have perceived the country through the centuries. A high-end fashion shoot at Sossusvlei accompanying a story of a "traditional" people living in considerable poverty with no reflection whatsoever - it really makes you wonder."] And I just checked out the magazine’s Flickr page. There are hardly any people in the pictures. I am tired.