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Published: February 25th 2016
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Saobona! That’s “hello” in Siswati, the most spoken language in The Kingdom of Swaziland.
We left Hazyview and drove towards the south through stunning landscape and views we encountered on our way. The last town we passed by was Barberton and then we drove though some hills to reach Bulembu border-post. This was the quietest border-post I’ve ever been to and we were the only two people crossing at that time. The crossing went smooth and easy on both the South African side and the Swazi side.
The Kingdom of Swaziland is the 70
th country I laid foot on and we spent 4 days here, a little less than I initially planned. It’s a small country, landlocked between South Africa and Mozambique and has just over a million people. To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect of Swaziland. Once in Swaziland and driving through the town of Bulembu the roads were in terrible condition and we were afraid that most of the other roads were going to be similar. When we reached the town of Piggs Peak, the roads became better and better. The motorway leading towards
Mbabane, the capital city, was excellent. Then I
realized that the country seemed more advanced than I originally thought it would be. We stayed at a hostel in Ezulwini, just about 10km out of the capital city. Mbabane has about 100 000 people and it’s pretty small. We had a short walk around, strolled along the market near the bus-station where we bought a huge avocado and some other food. There isn’t much to see and do in Mbabane so we didn’t stay very long there.
We went to the Swazi Cultural Village which was a very interesting place to visit! First we witnessed a Swazi traditional dance show, which included several dances. I wrote some of the names of the dances down, but I don’t know if I’m spelling them correctly. “Umsinba” is danced during a wedding and “Inklawa” was the warrior’s dance. There was also a dance for unmarried girls called “Umlaga” during which the girls kick high up in the air. It was amazing to see how high they’re able to kick! Before the end they were picking spectators to dance too and they picked Nydia which was funny! We had a tour through a Swazi village located there, where some of the
dancers live. The visit taught us a lot about the Swazi culture and way of life. For example, Swazi men are allowed to have more than one wife. Every wife you get married to, you have to pay her family with a certain amount of cows. The current king (ngwenyama), Mswati III, has fifteen wives and apparently he can choose any woman to become his wife! The village has various huts, each designated for something or someone. Boys and girls sleep in separate huts for example and the boys will be considered “boys” as long as they don’t find a wife. Many other details were given about the several parts of the village, including one hut only for the elderly (grandparents), and about the structure of the huts.
After the visit, we drove a little bit further into the Mantenga Nature Reserve which was beautifully green with a small river and a small waterfall and it has options for hiking. It was a nice and peaceful place where you would like to hang around for some time. We did not stay too long here and I would have loved to hike, but Nydia isn’t much into hiking. Besides, we
didn’t have too much time to spend in the country so we moved on.
We visited the Ezulwini Craft Market where many locals sell all kind of souvenirs in their wooden shacks. Both Nydia and I, together with a German girl from the hostel, took advantage to stroll around and buy a few things here.
For the next day we booked a walking-tour at the hostel. Our guide picked us up and we took a public bus to
Lobamba. The bus was similar to the small buses in Curaçao. Lobamba is the seat of the Parliament and is a town with roughly 15 000 people. The Swaziland National Museum (Umsamo Wesive) is located here, which was our first stop. It was a small museum but definitely worth a visit. Our guide told us a lot about what was exposed in the museum: the traditional clothing, the colonial history, traditional objects and artefacts, photos displaying local celebrations etc. One interesting thing we learnt was about the “Reed Dance event” during which people from all around the country come together to dance for the king. It’s the biggest and most popular event in the kingdom.
After the museum
we had a walk through the village and we walked past a school. Just behind the school there are a couple of houses where the teachers are able to live for free, which isn’t bad at all but you wouldn’t have much privacy. There is some poverty in the village but it wasn’t too bad, since I’ve seen much worse than that. We saw the king’s residence from a distance and then continued to walk near some ruins. The ruins were property of the former king and a new king would never use anything the former king used. The new king gets a new house, new furniture, new everything! The properties of the old king will remain there as ruins and it’s forbidden for others to go inside. There is no fence or anything preventing people from going into the ruins, but the people just don’t do it! Near the ruins we stopped to try some “umcombotsi”, which is a Swazi home-made, fermented beer made of sorghum and maize. They drink it out of a calabash and both Nydia and I tried it but we didn’t like the taste too much. Another interesting thing I saw in the village was
the wall of some houses, made several loose rocks and kept together by strains and branches. We ended up having a nice meal in the village at a place where everyone brings their own meat and they grill it for you. The tour included the lunch, so our guide took care of everything. The lunch consisted of meat, pap (like “funchi blanku” in Curaçao or “sadza” in Zimbabwe), some salad and beans and we ate with our hands. After lunch we returned to the hostel where Nydia decided to stay and relax by the pool, but I wanted to see a little bit more. I took the car and drove towards the nice and green Pine Valley, making a couple of photograph stops, including where I had a nice view of the Sibebe Rock. It’s a big, free-standing granite rock bearing the name of the local Swazi beer “Sibebe”. It’s like a small version of Uluru or Ayers Rock in central Australia. Just a little further I did a short hike, starting at a point where you could start to go up Sibebe Rock. I crossed through a few small houses and walked up a hill. The landscape is nice
and peculiar with several stones and rocks lying everywhere. The next day we left Swaziland in the southwest and re-entered South Africa to continue with our visit in that country.
I would have loved to spend at least twice the amount of days we spent in Swaziland to see more, but I knew we would want more time to spend in South Africa and we had to return the car a certain date. Therefore staying much longer wasn’t an option.
More in the next blog-entry, from South Africa!
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Swaziland
It is sometimes nice when a country isn't exactly what you expected- you need surprises from time to time. Congratulations on 70...well on your way to 100. We certainly need to see a video of you dancing. Too bad you couldn't stay longer...another time.