Local traditions and culture in Africa

I first really noticed this on the island of Zanzibar. During my stay in Jambiani Village I kept seeing kids playing with old bicycle tire rims. They would use a good stick and propel the tire along the road at great speed with the stick pushing along the groove. Not only is this not easy to do – these kids were amazing fast. If you think its easy – give it a try.

I have also seen children across Africa using larger tires, even car tires in a slighly differnet fashion. This is a game where children with little or nothing, find perfectly fun toys using what is to hand and some imagination.

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THE REILLY FAMILY

The Reilly Family created Mlilwane Game Sanctuary in Swazialnad to help restore the wildlife that was depleted in Swaziland in the past. James Reilly settled at Mlilwane in 1906 and began to mine tin. He became the largest employer of industrial labour in the country and introduced electricity to Swaziland. He was known the locals as “Machobane”. His son, Ted Reilly was born at Mlilwane in 1938 and still runs the sanctuary today.

The Reilly’s saw the demise of Swaziland’s wildlife which included the rinderpest (or cattle plague) in 1896, excessive & illegal hunting, the ‘wildebeest plague’ in the 1930’s, poison, traps, herbicides, pesticides, and wholesale depletion of Swaziland’s game and flora over decades. Ted Reilly decided to turn the family farm into a sanctuary for indigenous wildlife in 1963. Mlilwane, which means Little Fire, became Swaziland's first organised conservation area. Since its opening wildlife of all kinds including fish and reptiles have been ‘hunted’ in Swaziland to be brought here to increase their numbers. It is now 10 times its original size due to support from the Royal Family and private donations. It is now a National Park and you can actually stay overnight. In fact you can take advantage on 'Night Trails' as there are no animals in teh park that will eat you and and companions.

Thanks to this remarkable family, much of Swaziland’s wildlife still flourishes.

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African art is more than wooden masks and sculptures alone. The local youth is trying to express themselves with a western art form such as tattooing. They have very basic instruments but the results sometimes are fascinating.

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What is the sink Experiment? Scientifically water going down a sink will rotate counter clockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere. I set out to conduct this experiment for Virtual Tourist here in Zimbabwe, which is in the Southern hemisphere. This is due to the Coriolis Effect, a force caused by the rotation of the Earth. Guess what? IT’s A MYTH! I found that I could get the water to go in either direction just by diverting the water slightly. Often it ran in the ‘wrong’ direction. Don’t believe it? Come for a visit and try it for yourself!

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If you really want to see and understand the real Africa, you need to get up early and get onto the road. Many people live in homes without running water. So every mooring you have to get up early and take a large plastic container and walk to the village well. Then you have to carry this now very heavy container back to the house. OK, that’s the morning bath. What about dishes? Laundry? Baths for other? Children learn this endless daily routine and literally carry this lesson through life. It’s not easy. So get out on that road and appreciate how life is not easy, but you can still always get a smile and a wave.

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You are looking at a crime. This is both against the law and an environmental disaster. Slash & Burn agriculture is just like it sounds. It happens all over Africa, but my pictures and story are from Madagascar (Photo 5 is in Burundi). In Madagascar this traditional way of clearing land is called ‘Tavy’. Local farmers mark of a few acres of, often rain forest, and literally burn it all to the ground. They do this to plant rice field mostly. Rice is harvested for 1-2 year from the now cleared land and then left alone, or fallow, for 4-6 years. The process is repeated through 2-3 more cycles until the soils nutrients are destroyed. Then little can grow on it except scrub and rains bring erosion and further damage to the land. As poor farmers exhaust the flatter land, they then move up increasingly steep slopes over the years and this causes even worse environmental disaster. Why do they do it? It is illegal and poor land management. Unfortunately this quick & easy process has been handed down for generations. The government has stopped this in some areas through education of more productive methods, but not very area has gotten the message.

Dancing is a common activity in Sub- Saharan Africa, there are so different African dances as there are cultural differences. Many dances have a social connection they dance to learn patterns in life, to praise and pray, they use it to celebrate weddings and maturation,….. Most of the dances are accompanied with African drums and music.
The modern city youth also dance in discos with a western character.

Anno 2011 the internet is widespread around Africa. The first time I visited the African continent they didn’t have any connections with the WWW. These days you can find the internet almost everywhere in the larger cities. Prices vary from place to place, but never pay more than 5€ for an hour.
Connections arn't always that fast as at home!!!