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| The Drakensburg |
The traffic clears, but we have a much more serious delay. We take a wrong turn off the motorway, are misinformed, and carry on, to the Giant’s Castle. This costs us 3 hours or more, but it is so stunning that I relax. This was worthwhile coming to see, even without anything else. There are layers on layers of ancient mountains, forests, intense blue rivers and little lakes. Zulu villages, mixtures of traditional mud huts and more, little shacks or breeze block houses. Cows, goats, horses, the odd cockerel. The land looks as if it is grazed to capacity - it is very dry now. Sometimes, at this time of year, there is snow here. It is misty - pollution, I am sorry to say. South Africa’s power comes from coal, and people burn coal in there houses too. There are also magnificent farms - well-maintained, occasional bright green irrigated fields. Otherwise we pass cane, and maize.
Eventually, after 6 hours driving, in our too-small car, we get to Winterton, in the Northern Drakensberg, pass the township, Khetani, and arrive at the complex created by Sophie C , one-woman powerhouse. Here, she runs an outreach distribution centre - food to 350 families, HIV testing and advice, clinics, workshops, literacy and maths classes. Vegetable growing, Essentially, what she and her volunteers do is create and maintain relationships. They do whatever is necessary for each individual. Hold their hand whilst they are dying; counsel people who have been raped, abused, and listen - winkle out the real difficulties - why is a child not going to school? Is it the lack of the 30 Rand a month it costs? Sometimes, often not. Is it shame because there is no money for clothes or shoes? It is that the mother is an alcoholic, and the children neglected? Sophie impresses on us the need to get to the real cause in order to be effective - and she is clearly very effective indeed. She says that when she took over the food programme, there was distribution to 500 families, but they were often the wrong families - those who were coming were the most confident, pushy. Women on their way to work, whereas the most needy were silently starving. Over time, by talking to people and being proactive, they have found out who really needs what. For her, now, provisions : food, clothing, medicines, are not a problem. What she needs is “bods” : people who can come for 6 months or more, and work as counsellors; drive; cook; mentor, see a challenge and get on and sort it. What an opportunity!
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| L-R Clive, Anna, Michaela and Sophie who tells us about her project Sophie talks of traditional Zulu life, as it is still lived in the villages. Essentially, there were men’s huts and women’s huts, and then a hut (usually round) in which people come together - men women and children, to communicate with the ancestors. The Zulus believe that long life is good, and revere old people. Life continues after death, and the ancestors are a seat of wisdom, and are consulted regularly. Christianity was slow to take hold here, and it has largely merged with the traditional ideas, so that people believe in God, and consult the ancestors. Men live principally with men, and women with women. Children live with their mothers, until, if they are boys, they are old enough to join the men. The arrangements between genders are essentially practical and there is no model for nuclear families. Men and women haven’t been taught how to communicate with each other one to one in a couple - that is not how they spend their time. If a man dies, one of his brothers is obliged to marry his wife. There have always been very strictly enforced values - a girl’s brothers would ensure that no boy got too close to their sister until a dowry lobola had been agreed and a marriage carried out. And children were very respectful of their parents. Men dominate, and there is an attitude of entitlement to sex. |
It worked, but the Zulu villages are often poor, the land over-grazed, and don’t hold the attractions of the city. So people have moved, sometimes just the men, in search of work. For decades, men have worked in the mines, coming back to visit their wives maybe once a year. There is a lot of prostitution, and the man might return with disease, infecting his wife, and when he died, his wife would infect her new husband, his brother…When people move to the townships, little huts, makeshift and slap up to the neighbour, or, as in Khetani, government built and surrounded by a tiny plot, house families. So the men/women/ancestors model breaks down, and with that, and with HIV, and poverty, has come violent crime, heavy drug and alcohol use, abuse of women and children, high levels of rape and murder.
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| Government built houses in the Khentani township |
I listened to what Sophie had to say about sustenance. She has plenty of food and clothes to distribute. The (white) farmers are very generous. I have heard at story of generosity, and people doing what they feel they can, often. Wealthy south Africans may never visit a township, may have little idea of how their domestic staff live, but they do give. The difficulty arise s with distribution - how to get it out to those who really need it rather than those who will sell it for profit. The Zulus aren’t farmers in the way that other African tribes are - their traditional diet was beef, from their herds, and maize and yams. They tend not to use the plots they have for gardening - very little vegetable growing. Sophie has great vegetables, easy underground watering systems, and seedlings donated by SASOL. But her offer to install such systems free wasn’t taken up by a single person who visited her centre for vegetable growing classes. Instead, she looks out for those in the community who are trying to grow and goes in to offer them support.
A lovely young man, Mzi, takes us on a tour of the township. He lives with his grandmother as do many, when their parents have died. It is Friday afternoon, and the children have left school early. There are lots of little children wandering around, playing, in a way that they could not, in North London. There are no cars. A new church and several crèches equipped with swings and play equipment. There are a lot of people. It is clear that many people have no work, Mzi has done two computer courses, but he has never had a paid job. He prefers to volunteer with Sophie rather than to do nothing. His dream is to open an internet café. He needs a few second hand computers. KZN businesses, take note!
Although the children are lovely, their spirit intact, there is a heavy feel to this place. It is far better than many townships : water, sanitation. But there are no trees, and so little space. There may be 6 living in a tiny hut. I can’t imagine how my soul would survive in such a place - what would I DO? My own African childhood has left me with a need for space - I want to be able to see otherwise I feel claustrophobic - Africa has such big vistas, and in my childhood, as for most Africans, life was conducted largely outside. Here, there are little boxes packed together and nowhere to roam, nowhere to look uninterrupted at the sky.
We visit the township’s Sangoma, a young woman. She has a ceremonial hut in her garden, and we are invited in. There is a nylon lion skin on the wall, and the Sangoma puts on a garish garb. I am glad that no lions were killed, and it does seem to me that these accoutrements belong on a Romford market stall, rather than here. The Sangoma is very important to a community, and I wish for more gravitas.
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| L-R Michaela, Clive, the Township Sangoma, our guide Mzi, Anna |
Clive drives up into the mountains to Monk’s Cowl for more stunning beauty. He has driven much of the way here and he drives us all the way back. That is a long long drive. I could not do it. He is not getting tired in the way he was before he began this treatment. It is now a month since he stopped taking anti-retrovirals. He has stopped taking ARVs twice before, once when ill from ARV allergy, and once through lack of funds. By now, he would expect to be feeling really tired, and for his skin to be suffering. Neither of those things have happened. He has lots of energy and is now running daily.
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| Children from the township delight at seeing an image of themselves on the video camera |
For more infomation on HIVEX please see the website: http://www.hivex-treatment.org
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