Sunday 28 January 2007
Another message from Clarens and Golden Gate
The last days have been a bit quieter in terms of research, at least compared with the first weeks. And of course still very interesting!!
On Friday after interviewing the Community Facilitator of the MDTP for the Free State (which was very revealing), he took us to a local school for Hotel and Agriculture. Faster than I realised I was standing in front of 30 schoolchildren roundabout 14 years starring at me!!!! (For those who know me a bit they can imagine how I felt). And then most surprisingly for me, it was not as frightening as it presented itself at the beginning. After answering our questions, the kids had of course lots of questions for us. Some of them made us struggling, as e.g. How do we think about our ancestors? Can I come with you to Holland? And then of course explaining the flatness of Holland here in about 2000m above sea level in a mountainous area J It was fun after all.
Later we drove with the Community Facilitator and some of his friends of the Bluegum-Bush Conservancy to Phuthaditjhaba which is a huge city (counted 450k and estimated 600k people) in the former homeland of QwaQwa. I experienced it as one big township and we were taken local there to a braai place (open air barbecuing on a fully cemented place in the city after having bought the meat at the butcher next door). Being a vegetarian I had my problems in finding something to eat but then could buy a sandwich (the preparation of which took longer than the barbecuing of the meat!!) in a nearby pub-style restaurant. A township is one of those places where you realise that ‘going local’ as an anthropologist can be blocked by the very fact of your skin colour. Everybody we met saw that we were not part and would never be. This makes you of course as well realise that ‘going local’ is always an ideal state non-reachable in a social environment that is not the one you grew up with. On the other hand, this gives one the opportunity to talk to people in a different manner, because they will approach you for not being part and having an outsider perspective on their lives and an insight perspective into a life that is not theirs but yours.
On Saturday a visit to the tourist attraction ‘Basotho Cultural Village’ in the Golden Gate/QwaQwa National Park was our only program point, and a fairly entertaining one. I had the chance to dress in an old style Basotho dress: being unmarried the girls only wore a skirt made out of grass haulms, after initiation school (roundabout 16) a second layer of animal skin was bound around the hips. Being married the woman would then finally wear another skin around her shoulders. It was interesting to compare the cultural village with Ha Machefo. Most of the things were done very authentic, only small things like a house that should show how the Basotho live now was very far from the reality I had seen. Instead of the pink painted rectangular house with 4 rooms, most of the people I met lived in one or several huts or combined huts with one-room rectangular homes.
Today we are heading back to Butha Buthe, there we hope to be able to speak to some more local communities. Especially interesting is Thursday when Bram and myself can attend a meeting in Liqobong between the local protesters, the Ombudsman and the MDTP. The protests are targeted against the erection of a new protected area in Liqobong. This area would protect the sources of the Caledon (to be confirmed) river. The protesters are mainly local cattle owners, while other local interest groups are in favour as the erection of the new PA would bring new job opportunities through tourism.
As I know now that Lesotho and Internet are two words that are still struggling with each other I hope to be back with the next report in a week from Pretoria again.
On Friday after interviewing the Community Facilitator of the MDTP for the Free State (which was very revealing), he took us to a local school for Hotel and Agriculture. Faster than I realised I was standing in front of 30 schoolchildren roundabout 14 years starring at me!!!! (For those who know me a bit they can imagine how I felt). And then most surprisingly for me, it was not as frightening as it presented itself at the beginning. After answering our questions, the kids had of course lots of questions for us. Some of them made us struggling, as e.g. How do we think about our ancestors? Can I come with you to Holland? And then of course explaining the flatness of Holland here in about 2000m above sea level in a mountainous area J It was fun after all.
Later we drove with the Community Facilitator and some of his friends of the Bluegum-Bush Conservancy to Phuthaditjhaba which is a huge city (counted 450k and estimated 600k people) in the former homeland of QwaQwa. I experienced it as one big township and we were taken local there to a braai place (open air barbecuing on a fully cemented place in the city after having bought the meat at the butcher next door). Being a vegetarian I had my problems in finding something to eat but then could buy a sandwich (the preparation of which took longer than the barbecuing of the meat!!) in a nearby pub-style restaurant. A township is one of those places where you realise that ‘going local’ as an anthropologist can be blocked by the very fact of your skin colour. Everybody we met saw that we were not part and would never be. This makes you of course as well realise that ‘going local’ is always an ideal state non-reachable in a social environment that is not the one you grew up with. On the other hand, this gives one the opportunity to talk to people in a different manner, because they will approach you for not being part and having an outsider perspective on their lives and an insight perspective into a life that is not theirs but yours.
On Saturday a visit to the tourist attraction ‘Basotho Cultural Village’ in the Golden Gate/QwaQwa National Park was our only program point, and a fairly entertaining one. I had the chance to dress in an old style Basotho dress: being unmarried the girls only wore a skirt made out of grass haulms, after initiation school (roundabout 16) a second layer of animal skin was bound around the hips. Being married the woman would then finally wear another skin around her shoulders. It was interesting to compare the cultural village with Ha Machefo. Most of the things were done very authentic, only small things like a house that should show how the Basotho live now was very far from the reality I had seen. Instead of the pink painted rectangular house with 4 rooms, most of the people I met lived in one or several huts or combined huts with one-room rectangular homes.
Today we are heading back to Butha Buthe, there we hope to be able to speak to some more local communities. Especially interesting is Thursday when Bram and myself can attend a meeting in Liqobong between the local protesters, the Ombudsman and the MDTP. The protests are targeted against the erection of a new protected area in Liqobong. This area would protect the sources of the Caledon (to be confirmed) river. The protesters are mainly local cattle owners, while other local interest groups are in favour as the erection of the new PA would bring new job opportunities through tourism.
As I know now that Lesotho and Internet are two words that are still struggling with each other I hope to be back with the next report in a week from Pretoria again.
Wednesday 24 January 2007
... and again in Clarens
Hello there,
I am again in Clarens, RSA easily to see, because I can enter the internet and even the blogger site :-)
The last three days were great, finally we went "local". We stayed in the "first and only Basotho owned backpackers" in the village of Ha Machefo (Ha always means "place of" and then follows the name of some Chief or headman) in Lesotho. The backpackers is not a real backpackers witg dorms, but the three brothers rent out a real Basotho hut. No running water, no electricity... living like the rural Basotho, that is what we did. Owned by three brothers, Mamohase (name of their mum and of the hostel) is a community based concept - development out of own initiative without any government help. This made the place the more interesting for me.
Staying three days there we gathered around 12 small interviews by which we were guided by one of the three brothers. They helped us with the translation, because the people all speak Sesotho and only when they went to Highschool,they know some English. These interviews helped me a lot in trying to find out how the people lived, because we visited them in their houses/huts and asked about the composition of household, their knowledge on the MDTP and their relation to RSA.
What one can extracts, without extensively studying my notes again is the ambivalence between being proud of the "Basotho way", meaning being able to live from the land (that is what they claim but which is doubtable because there was at least one of the family members living in RSA so far) and their thinking that "everything" is better in RSA because there are jobs (thus the dependence on wage labour). I am looking forward to going back to Ha Machefo again to speak more to the people. Due to the focus on the MDTP and the focus of our translator (yes, he is influencing the data, of course) we talked to lots of people that I think were fairly "rich" (in rural Basotho terms) and had some post in one of the endless committees. When going back at the beginning of February I want to do sort of a household survey and then do more extensive interviews with a representative portion of these households. Slowly slowly I am dropping the idea of research both sides of the border, from the RSA side there will only be case studies involved I guess. And what I want to do more is just hanging out and observing a bit more. Getting the grip on it.
The planning for the next days here in Clarens is to go local for some short interviews in the Phutabidshaba area (I hope this is spelt right, town in the QwaQwa homelands area). Thus I will be for a bit online at least until Sunday.
What is very clearly observable, having crossed the border now several times already is the difference in population density. In Lesotho, you see villages everywhere, while in South Africa you can drive and drive and only see farmland....
I am again in Clarens, RSA easily to see, because I can enter the internet and even the blogger site :-)
The last three days were great, finally we went "local". We stayed in the "first and only Basotho owned backpackers" in the village of Ha Machefo (Ha always means "place of" and then follows the name of some Chief or headman) in Lesotho. The backpackers is not a real backpackers witg dorms, but the three brothers rent out a real Basotho hut. No running water, no electricity... living like the rural Basotho, that is what we did. Owned by three brothers, Mamohase (name of their mum and of the hostel) is a community based concept - development out of own initiative without any government help. This made the place the more interesting for me.
Staying three days there we gathered around 12 small interviews by which we were guided by one of the three brothers. They helped us with the translation, because the people all speak Sesotho and only when they went to Highschool,they know some English. These interviews helped me a lot in trying to find out how the people lived, because we visited them in their houses/huts and asked about the composition of household, their knowledge on the MDTP and their relation to RSA.
What one can extracts, without extensively studying my notes again is the ambivalence between being proud of the "Basotho way", meaning being able to live from the land (that is what they claim but which is doubtable because there was at least one of the family members living in RSA so far) and their thinking that "everything" is better in RSA because there are jobs (thus the dependence on wage labour). I am looking forward to going back to Ha Machefo again to speak more to the people. Due to the focus on the MDTP and the focus of our translator (yes, he is influencing the data, of course) we talked to lots of people that I think were fairly "rich" (in rural Basotho terms) and had some post in one of the endless committees. When going back at the beginning of February I want to do sort of a household survey and then do more extensive interviews with a representative portion of these households. Slowly slowly I am dropping the idea of research both sides of the border, from the RSA side there will only be case studies involved I guess. And what I want to do more is just hanging out and observing a bit more. Getting the grip on it.
The planning for the next days here in Clarens is to go local for some short interviews in the Phutabidshaba area (I hope this is spelt right, town in the QwaQwa homelands area). Thus I will be for a bit online at least until Sunday.
What is very clearly observable, having crossed the border now several times already is the difference in population density. In Lesotho, you see villages everywhere, while in South Africa you can drive and drive and only see farmland....
Saturday 20 January 2007
Clarens.... and finally Internet
Hey out there,
finally I have Internet again, that is sort of really good working. Nearly a week past by now since I posted last time and lots lots happened.
From Pretoria we drived down to Maseru, yes, I drove as well on the *wrong* side of the road and the car, that was already really exciting. But what was even more exciting is the landscape it is incredible wide wide wide and then you see the horizon, where the clouds touch the next mountains or hills I was totally amazed and took one picture after the other. I hope I can post one, but am afraid that they are to big to be uploaded.
In Maseru Bram and me were storming the MDTP office and the NES library for two days and I was basically following Bram who knows everybody and he did a very good job introducing me everywhere and giving me all the background details. And of course in repeating those Sesotho names all over and over again for me... Lucky as we are we were invited to attend the Strategic Transfrontier Workshop of the MDPT with both offices (Lesotho and South Africa) present. Thus I had the whole project team one day later in Butha Buthe available for questions. This was better than great!!! Especially because it was the team from both countries talking about the transfrontier strategy, exactly what I am interested in.
Yeah and this questioning, I mean once you are in, everything is fine, but these first minutes of small talk... I really have to get used to being a bit of a nuisance to those people, that I suspect have information I need. With others it is fine they open up because they are really open and interested anyway and are present in the same area. Just that they have much more expertise on it like for example Tony who answered to my blog last week (Thanks a lot Tony!!! I am coming back with some of my comments to you) So there is this balance that you need to strike. And I found out, one or two beers are always a good starter :-) I need to get some training in that though.
The meeting itself was taking up two days, and on Friday we went to the Butha Buthe office of the MDTP talking with Mathosi of how to get access to local communities. He is the head of the BB office and he is really in for helping us. The weekend in Clarens is dedicated to get up to date with my notes and all my thoughts about it. I hope to be able to give you some of those next time. In the end it is all about: "first people need to eat and then they can think about conservation", just to give you some illustrations of the comments I receive.
On Sunday night we really go local, in a community hostel, no electricity, no water... until Wednesday and then I hope to give you much more insight not only into politics (as I get now) but as well into the rural life.
Ok, three more minutes to go and then we are kicked out here...
ALL THE BEST TO ALL OF YOU
finally I have Internet again, that is sort of really good working. Nearly a week past by now since I posted last time and lots lots happened.
From Pretoria we drived down to Maseru, yes, I drove as well on the *wrong* side of the road and the car, that was already really exciting. But what was even more exciting is the landscape it is incredible wide wide wide and then you see the horizon, where the clouds touch the next mountains or hills I was totally amazed and took one picture after the other. I hope I can post one, but am afraid that they are to big to be uploaded.
In Maseru Bram and me were storming the MDTP office and the NES library for two days and I was basically following Bram who knows everybody and he did a very good job introducing me everywhere and giving me all the background details. And of course in repeating those Sesotho names all over and over again for me... Lucky as we are we were invited to attend the Strategic Transfrontier Workshop of the MDPT with both offices (Lesotho and South Africa) present. Thus I had the whole project team one day later in Butha Buthe available for questions. This was better than great!!! Especially because it was the team from both countries talking about the transfrontier strategy, exactly what I am interested in.
Yeah and this questioning, I mean once you are in, everything is fine, but these first minutes of small talk... I really have to get used to being a bit of a nuisance to those people, that I suspect have information I need. With others it is fine they open up because they are really open and interested anyway and are present in the same area. Just that they have much more expertise on it like for example Tony who answered to my blog last week (Thanks a lot Tony!!! I am coming back with some of my comments to you) So there is this balance that you need to strike. And I found out, one or two beers are always a good starter :-) I need to get some training in that though.
The meeting itself was taking up two days, and on Friday we went to the Butha Buthe office of the MDTP talking with Mathosi of how to get access to local communities. He is the head of the BB office and he is really in for helping us. The weekend in Clarens is dedicated to get up to date with my notes and all my thoughts about it. I hope to be able to give you some of those next time. In the end it is all about: "first people need to eat and then they can think about conservation", just to give you some illustrations of the comments I receive.
On Sunday night we really go local, in a community hostel, no electricity, no water... until Wednesday and then I hope to give you much more insight not only into politics (as I get now) but as well into the rural life.
Ok, three more minutes to go and then we are kicked out here...
ALL THE BEST TO ALL OF YOU
Friday 12 January 2007
Pretoria die zweite
Hallo meine Lieben,
another hello from Pretoria. I get more and more used to the city and the way "one" behaves, this really helps sharpening observation and imitation skills. Although I found it is much easier when the people think you are a tourist then when they think you are a white South African. At least for me this works better.
Apartheid is not too long over and this is what one still can observe. Today I have been to the center of town and walked all the way (1 hour there plus 1 hour back plus getting lost here and there and this all in roundabout 30 degrees...). On my way I passed a long fence behind which primary school children where playing football or sitting in the shade. There were three groups, the first I passed was a group of black children, the second was coloured and the third white... Another thing I found really shocking was the advertisement for abortion for 250R (which is with the current exchange rate around 280 Euro) and another medical center that offered circumsicion, family planning would obviously be a nice topic to research here. I hope to be able to upload some photos next time so that you can see how it looks here.
For the research I went to the Tourist Office of Pretoria, where they had only one brochure of the South African National Parks, which they could not give away and never had heard of the Maloti Drakensberg TFCA (MDTP), at least the guy I spoke to there. Yesterday I have been to the SANparks Head Quarters with Bram, where we tried to speak to one of the managers of the Golden Gate Highland National Park (GGHNP which is included in the MDTP) but we could not be open about being researchers (because you need permission) which made the whole thing a bit difficult and not really successfull in the end. For me it was very nice to observe Bram and the ways he used to get passed this reception man, I can definitely learn from this.
Yesterday I finally heard back from one of the NGOs I contacted, the most important one and they said it would be good to meet me etc.... that is sooooooooo good, now I can just pass by them in Maseru and have one chat or hopefully more with them. Will prepare for this interview a bit more in reading more about what they do etc. to get the most out of it. From them (it is the TRC-Transformation Resource Center) I hope to get links to active local groups.
Spending some days here in Pretoria before I move on is definitely very good, so I can get much better adjusted, especially to the weather, I would not have thought that it is going to be soooooooo brilliant.
Next time you will here from me from Maseru, the capital of Lesotho.
All the best
another hello from Pretoria. I get more and more used to the city and the way "one" behaves, this really helps sharpening observation and imitation skills. Although I found it is much easier when the people think you are a tourist then when they think you are a white South African. At least for me this works better.
Apartheid is not too long over and this is what one still can observe. Today I have been to the center of town and walked all the way (1 hour there plus 1 hour back plus getting lost here and there and this all in roundabout 30 degrees...). On my way I passed a long fence behind which primary school children where playing football or sitting in the shade. There were three groups, the first I passed was a group of black children, the second was coloured and the third white... Another thing I found really shocking was the advertisement for abortion for 250R (which is with the current exchange rate around 280 Euro) and another medical center that offered circumsicion, family planning would obviously be a nice topic to research here. I hope to be able to upload some photos next time so that you can see how it looks here.
For the research I went to the Tourist Office of Pretoria, where they had only one brochure of the South African National Parks, which they could not give away and never had heard of the Maloti Drakensberg TFCA (MDTP), at least the guy I spoke to there. Yesterday I have been to the SANparks Head Quarters with Bram, where we tried to speak to one of the managers of the Golden Gate Highland National Park (GGHNP which is included in the MDTP) but we could not be open about being researchers (because you need permission) which made the whole thing a bit difficult and not really successfull in the end. For me it was very nice to observe Bram and the ways he used to get passed this reception man, I can definitely learn from this.
Yesterday I finally heard back from one of the NGOs I contacted, the most important one and they said it would be good to meet me etc.... that is sooooooooo good, now I can just pass by them in Maseru and have one chat or hopefully more with them. Will prepare for this interview a bit more in reading more about what they do etc. to get the most out of it. From them (it is the TRC-Transformation Resource Center) I hope to get links to active local groups.
Spending some days here in Pretoria before I move on is definitely very good, so I can get much better adjusted, especially to the weather, I would not have thought that it is going to be soooooooo brilliant.
Next time you will here from me from Maseru, the capital of Lesotho.
All the best
Wednesday 10 January 2007
Pretoria
Here I am now, with 30 degrees and my winterclothing for the mountains that are going to come later. But believe me it is enjoyable nevertheless. Pretoria is a good place to get adjusted to the weather and the mentality in the sense of people are just doing everything with a bit more "Gemuetlichkeit" for those who understand German :-) What I notice with myself is some anxiety about "being a target" as being a white tourist which must have come from having read tooooo much of "take care" literature, so far people are friendly, if contact is there.
I am staying in a hostel here until Sunday and from there I go with Bram (the PhD of the VU) to Lesotho, first the capital city: Maseru and then to the research location around Butha-Buthe. I am just about making those decisions concerning renting a car or not and how all I do eventually influences my research outcomes and how people perceive me. On the other hand it is just so much handier to have a car especially in this remote area I am planning to go, as you see I just need to make some decisions...
Bram will stay with me two weeks to do his own research that he still needs to complete in the same area. It will be (and already is) of a great help to have him round, knowing some people and places.
Today I spent some hours online to contact some more NGOs, I hope to have some responses soon, otherwise I will just "fall with the door in their house" (very German expression...) and try to get contact directly when I am there. And I had a very interesting talk with a girl from Swaziland that is staying at the same hostel as I. Swaziland is as well totally surrounded by South Africa so I tried some of my interview questions on her, and I already noticed that I need to make some adjustments.
More at a later stage, all the best to all of you
I am staying in a hostel here until Sunday and from there I go with Bram (the PhD of the VU) to Lesotho, first the capital city: Maseru and then to the research location around Butha-Buthe. I am just about making those decisions concerning renting a car or not and how all I do eventually influences my research outcomes and how people perceive me. On the other hand it is just so much handier to have a car especially in this remote area I am planning to go, as you see I just need to make some decisions...
Bram will stay with me two weeks to do his own research that he still needs to complete in the same area. It will be (and already is) of a great help to have him round, knowing some people and places.
Today I spent some hours online to contact some more NGOs, I hope to have some responses soon, otherwise I will just "fall with the door in their house" (very German expression...) and try to get contact directly when I am there. And I had a very interesting talk with a girl from Swaziland that is staying at the same hostel as I. Swaziland is as well totally surrounded by South Africa so I tried some of my interview questions on her, and I already noticed that I need to make some adjustments.
More at a later stage, all the best to all of you
Sunday 7 January 2007
Still in Amsterdam
Liefste Mensen
- as the Dutch would say :-) -
This blog is for all those interested and will tell about my research journey to the Kingdom in the Sky in the far South of Africa. I aim to find out how differing parties claim and use land for differing purposes and what this all means to the Basotho, the people living there.
Just right now, I am sitting in Amsterdam on my packed backpack and after having read all the nice blogs of my mates was inspired to follow their example. Especially as I am getting more and more excited. My flight is taking off tomorrow evening and on Tuesday I will land in Johannisburg where Bram, the PhD studying as well at the VU, will pick me up from the airport. After having spent some days in Pretoria we aim to travel further South on Sunday.
to be continued...
- as the Dutch would say :-) -
This blog is for all those interested and will tell about my research journey to the Kingdom in the Sky in the far South of Africa. I aim to find out how differing parties claim and use land for differing purposes and what this all means to the Basotho, the people living there.
Just right now, I am sitting in Amsterdam on my packed backpack and after having read all the nice blogs of my mates was inspired to follow their example. Especially as I am getting more and more excited. My flight is taking off tomorrow evening and on Tuesday I will land in Johannisburg where Bram, the PhD studying as well at the VU, will pick me up from the airport. After having spent some days in Pretoria we aim to travel further South on Sunday.
to be continued...
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