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.
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