It's not just about the Malijuana or the 3rd largest fresh water lake!


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Africa » Malawi » Lake Malawi
August 24th 2007
Published: August 24th 2007
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Apart from the common sitings of butt naked tourists lying on the golden beaches or sitting on the large rocks in the fresh water lake, smoking hemp and eating spice cakes while braiing fresh fish and meat on the shores, Malawi has got an interesting and rich cultural heritage that's just longing to be explored.
I went to Dedza in the central region of Malawi where i was flabagusted at the Rock paintings made the 'Bantu' people (Midgits). Their paintings do speak for themselves. They are mainly about witchcraft beliefs and sex education taught in camps in caves on top of mountains. For such very short people they could draw very massive drawings on extremely large rock surfaces that are several times their height.
How did they do it, i asked..and what did they use to put these permanent marks that have lasted over 100's of years? Was witchcrafting and shagging the only things they did? Does witchcraft really exist..? The sex part i can understand, but witchcrafting has always been like Santa's to me.
A great tour of the near by villages was an even more fascinating one. For starters, most of the people here are between the ages of 6 and 23 years old. There's barely any old people. Most of them are drunk and even the few grannies in sight are also too pissed to walk. Surprisingly they're still very humble and peaceful. From the looks of things, the guys here farm very early in the morning, sell their produce in mid-morning to midday, and booze and shag the rest of the day. This lifestyle and that depicted on the early and later rock paintings seem to match. Could this also be the reason why the population here consists of mainly kids. More was to be revealed when i took another 200km journey to Salima, not the beach, but some old cultural place in Chipoka. Believe me it wasn't about the place at all. It's some European gizza who behaves as a local and is definately more local than the locals them selves! He's been around for donkey's years, a great artist who both paints and makes wood carvings. Guess what, he's apparently joined some witches club and hit the local news when he apparently opened his eyes in the middle of a night flight and fell off the 'plane'(basket! not broomstick we've heard of) only to be found in the morning butt naked with a broken leg and arms, on the backgarden of a local man's house!! Some flight this was, i guess curiosity did kill the cat hey!!
There's no way i could try this sort of thing, but really this country's got too many of these original cultural practices. Its also got over 400 archaeological and historical sites that you could explore make your own opinions!! I've seen Madonna's orphanage and David Banda's real dad too. Word is Madonna is kabbalah faith and the faith wants to turn lake Malawi which is the 3rd largest fresh water lake into a holy Lake by dumping a few hundred gallons of blessed water into the lake. How?... hell knows! That's if its really true in the first place. There's a Gizza called Matheus who guided me throughout all these different places, it was a 3 day tour. Frankly, you want the likes of him for guide because only then do you really get to see the real thing, you get more than your moneys worth!!


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