On Wednesday, October 21, 2009, Windhoek witnessed an interesting solar event...a halo around the sun. Kelly was at her preschool, and the kids went outside to look at the "rainbow circle". Students at Polytechnic were pointing at the sky.
I've seen rings around the moon, but never a ring around the sun. The photo at right is from The Namibian, which confirmed that the halo is produced by ice crystals in high cirrus clouds, which refract sunlight to form a rainbow.
That was the scientific explanation.
However, the paper also reported that the Nama people of southern Namibia held a belief that such a ring around the sun predicted the death of an important leader. Ironically, Wednesday was the day before the funeral of Rev. Hendrick Witbooi. Rev. Witbooi (1934-2009) was an important figure in Namibia's independence movement, and shared his name with the Captain Hendrick Witbooi (1825-1905), who is featured on all Namibian paper currency.
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