Lesedi Cultural Village

Zulu man

Man from South Sotho tribe

Highlander tribe

A young tribal dancer

Oct 1

Lesedi village is a cultural center depicting all the traditional tribes of south africa. On the tour they take you through actual examples of tribe living including the types of home (mostly huts) and how they live and hunt. At one village they just finished taking off the hide of a buffalo and the hide was hanging on their wooden fence. It was the most foul smell, like fresh cow dung but worse! Even our guide couldn't stand it and had to give her tour of that village standing on the outside!

At one village there was an offering of the Mopani worms to the group and some people took a sample. No thanks! It was so interesting but I couldn't keep up with all the tribal names. THere are 11 national languages in south africa. 1 is english, 2nd is afrikan which has some dutch origins. The remaining 9 are tribal languages including zulu. Our tour ended with a wonderful song and dance from different tribes. It was wonderful, so energetic. I took so many pictures. At the end they invited us to get up to dance with them. I'm usually the last person to do something like that but it was fun.

One common custom among the tribes was the way a dowry was paid. If a man wants to marry a girl he must pay the father of the girl at least 11 cows. Some tribes are more expensive and it could go as high as 26 cows for a chief's daughter. Nowadays they still practice this in a way. So if a cow is worth 5,000 rand then the man must pay 55,000 rands. Each village usually has its own place that holds it cattle. This is usually placed in front of the hut of the chief - supposedly the first thing the chief wants to see when he wakes up is not his wife or his children, but his cattle because this is a sign of his wealth!

Some of the huts are built out of dry and hardened cow dung, yuck!

With each different village the guide tried to teach us how to greet the village chief in the local language. Some we could repeat but some it was impossible especially if it involves some weird noises in the back of the throat. One spear they named it after the sound it makes when it goes into the enemy's midsection and breaking his ribs!

It was a really interesting day, everything is so colorful! I wanted to get some culture in while I can. My week of holiday after this audit will all be safari, cant wait!