Edyn's African Adventure: Night in a Tribal Village

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Night in a Tribal Village

As part of the Kruger Park game Safari Kenz and I did (more about that later), we spent a night in a tribal village up in Mphumalanga province. Very Cool!! It is an educational village that was developed by the chief of the tribe and is basically managed by the chief's 20 year old son. As it is an educational village, only a few people actually live there, while their families live in a township somewhere reasonably close by. he chief's son said he goes home to see his family on Sundays.The visit included a tour of the small village (generally, only one family, made up of one chief and his numerous wives and their children would have inhabited a village, so the idea is that there would be tons of these villages all over the place back in the day) and demonstrations of various activities. Here is one of the women demonstrating crushing meilie or corn, into cornmeal to make "pap" which is is like very very bland cream of wheat or southern US grits. She is using a rock as the "table" and another rock as the rolling pin to crush the kernals into a fine powder. (CLICK ON PICTURE TO ENLARGE)

Here is Kenz eating dinner, that "delicious" pap. (no, I said 'pap', not 'crap'). Dinner at the village was a challenge to our Western palates, and kudos to Kenz for sucking it up and being willing to try it. Dinner was traditional South Africa...then and now, I guess. Chicken, pap with tomato sauce, and creamed spinach (okay, for me, spinach by itself is gross, and creamed is just so much more so, but I ate it and am proud of myself for also being willing to experience it). (CLICK PIC TO ENLARGE)

Here, the Chief's son guide is showing us how the villagers would make woven mats. These mats are still very common and can be found at markets around South Africa:

The really traditional thing the villagers showed us was traditional tribal dancing. Very cool! It was dark when we got there so a bit difficult to see it in these shots, but trust me, it was neat. )CLICK TO ENLARGE)

Sleeping arrangements were also very different. The village living quarters are made up of a large single room rondovals ('round house' in Afrikaans I think). Basically, it's a round hut made from mud with a thatch roof and a wooden dowel door with no hinges. The floor is made from cow dung because it keeps the snakes away! Before you go "ewwwww", there is absolutely no smell at all and the floor is very hard and dry and so not at all dung-like. Here is the rondoval Kenz and I stayed in with some other guy from Holland on our tour named Eric. God love Kenz...when the guide said there would be 2, 2 and 3 to a rondoval, Kenz was totally happy to invite Eric so he wouldn't feel stupid or excluded. This shows the hut at night, in the day and then what the inside looked like. Inside was a fire centre where the lantern is now, and then there were mats on the floor and we slept in sleeping bags. (The picture shows my mat on the far end in the middle with my sleeping bag still rolled up on top and my purple bag next to it).