A note on the recent violence (and a Zulu field trip)

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Hi all,
I wanted to do a quick post on the recent violence in South Africa and include some pictures from a recent Zulu field trip (they don't exactly go together, but oh well)(on second thought, I'll let you make your own comparison between the peacefulness in traditional life and the violence occurring in the urban areas).

Firstly, some of you may have heard in the news about the violence going on in South Africa. If you haven't, a quick catch up: starting a week or two ago, there have been numerous attacks on immigrants. Mobs of South Africans, angry over lack of jobs, housing, and education, have found scapegoats in the millions of immigrants from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, etc. So far the death toll is somewhere around 30-40 people, include a man who was burned to death in the street. The riots started in the township of Alexandra, outside of Joburg, spread to other townships, and most recently there was trouble in Durban. Joburg is about 8 hours from me, durban is 45 minutes. Zuma, the to-be-president has already called troops for joburg to help the police, though the last few days have been much quieter.

I have heard from a lot people and read a few articles- everyone points a finger elsewhere. A South African woman in one of my classes said that South Africans are just a violent people, some say its related to Mbeki (the current president)'s lack of action against the violence in Zimbabwe coming to back to bite him in the ass. I've heard rumors that the riots in Durban were started by IFP members, IFP is a Zulu-dominated political party with a shady history of starting fights. Others say, and I agree with this most, that there is a lot of frustration because people believed that once the apartheid gov't was overthrown, life would be better and it isn't. Things dont change that way and some people say its worse now. Anyway, I don't think the violence will continue and it definitely won't spread to my area, its just not a 'riot' kind of area.

On a lighter note, last weekend my Zulu class had a field trip to Icabazini (anyone who remembers my Zulu lessons in the beginning of these posts will know that the 'c' is not the English 'c', its a click sound- its akin to the sound you make with the tip of your long on the front roof of your mouth, when someone does something wrong- you make the sound and shake your head at them). Icabazini is not 100% a real Zulu homestead, it is an educational center with a real Zulu homestead on it. so its based on authenticity, not tourism, but its still not as 'real' as the homestead i went to with my ceramics course. Anyway, we got a tour, got info on traditional Zulu huts and how they have changed over the years, we got to sample Zulu food, go to see Zulu dancing (and some people got to try... I sat that one out).
It was really fun and I got some good pictures, too.

Classes are over tomorrow, then a week of free time. No big trips plans, I need to save my funds for my month of traveling that comes after 2 weeks of finals (I only 3 exams in those 2 weeks, they are just spread out).

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Photos

Zulu man and girl
In a Zulu hut, a Zulu man and girl tell us about some traditions

Using cow dung to fix the floor
Every week, a zulu woman must use cow dung to reseal the floor. She shows us how and some people tried it out, I stuck with my camera for this one.

Cow dung > methane > cooking gas
This homestead had a state-of-the-art biofuel set up, they use all their cow dung (from 11 cows) to create methane and cook of it all year round. They never run out, never need firewood, or to buy gas in town.