Otjize

Otjize is a mixture of butterfat and ochre pigment used by the Himba people of Namibia to protect themselves from the harsh desert climate.

[3] Other documented uses of otjize include initiation ceremonies, the burial of human corpses, and as a mosquito repellent.

[citation needed] In Nnedi Okorafor's Hugo Award–winning novella Binti (2015), the protagonist's use of otjize represents an "animist spirituality [that] radically decenters human exceptionality while simultaneously imbricating people thoroughly with their material world".

[6] For scholar S. R. Toliver, Binti's success in creating otjize on a planet away from her home planet "symbolizes a metaphorical rebirth of the Himba culture in a new land" and "is a lasting remnant of home and healing in a land that was initially defined by surveillance and control".

[7] In 2022 a team of South African and French scientists published a study of otjize's physical properties, concluding that "such a red ochre exhibits an exceptional UV filtration and a significant IR reflectivity substantiating its effectiveness as an effective UV-blocking and solar heat IR reflector in support of the low skin cancer rate within the Namibian Himba community".