During my month in Swaziland my team and I were able to visit a traditional Swazi village. See it’s only recently (last 50 years) that Swaziland has become more modern and industrialized….before then life looked a bit different than today.
Here is what a traditional cultural village looked like as seen at the Mantenga Cultural Center:
Where I lived this month was actually quite similar in some ways to what we saw in the village. We had a separate sleeping hut, kitchen and bathroom area….mind you the bathrooms had no doors and were like pot-a-potties – HA!
Sleeping hut has the thatched roof in the middle, kitchen to the right
We lived with a family on their property in which the grandmother, GoGo, also lived and worked. She would mill about doing various things on the property – feeding the chickens, tend to her goats, clean/sweep the area out front of her hut with some branches, and always be smiling!
My interview with GoGo & our translator, her grandson’s wife
I was able to interview her and ask her about her life growing up in Swaziland and how things have changed…here are some things she shared that actually were similar to what we learned at the Mantenga Cultural center:
–She doesn’t know how old she is because her parents weren’t educated and they didn’t have a calendar. Gogo herself only completed school up through 3rd grade…and so she has only the knowledge of what major events happened during her years to mark her time….she honestly was UNPHASED by not knowing her age!!! HA!
–When she wasn’t in school, she would help with chores around the house along with learning the ways of a mother and wife around the homestead
–Growing up the men and women had separate huts to live in – she had 6 sisters and 1 brother so he got his own hut!
–When she got married (young she thinks) after meeting her husband in the forest – she called it “forest love”!
*Side note when marriages happen here there is a dowry involved including a payment of cows to the bride’s family…I myself was offered cows to be given to my parents in order for my hand in marriage – HA!!!
–Her husband has since died and she came to live on this current piece of property before that happened. Her family (grandchildren) live here with her now. She owned goats and chickens and cultivated the land with her husband and children
–Her typical day is tending to the goats and chickens, cooking sweeping, and doing arts and crafts.
–When asked how she has seen Swaziland change over the years she mentioned that:
-the rain is not the same – the weather has changed,
-more violence among the youth,
-there is electricity and more roads now (she used to walk to Manzini
the town which took a LONG time!), AND
-that diseases have increased – in particular HIV/AIDS.
One aspect of this race I have really enjoyed is just what I wrote about – experiencing NEW cultures…what a GREAT opportunity for me!! I’m so thankful!
While our time in Swaziland is over, my squad and I head to Botswana, our last country in Africa.
Cheers!
Lauren
