Durban!

 

     We flew into Durban and rented a car that looked the exact same as our other one (I will take the liberty to dub it James II) and drove off to Kloof to stay with some friends of my dad. On the way there we got stuck in rush hour traffic and saw a phenomena that would never be allowed on a free-way in the US: vendors on the free-way!

It was a bit scary, but the vendors were great at dodging cars and scooting along once the traffic started flowing again. 

        

     We stayed with some of my dad's friends in Kloof and had a fantastic time with them! On our first day there we went to a museum sort of thing called pheZulu. It had a model of a Zulu household (kraal?), tribal dances, and a very patient guide that we questioned nearly to death. Learning more about traditional  Zulu culture explained a lot about the issues that South Africa is having right now with switching from being very grounded in tradition to a more modern, globalized culture. 

       I felt bad for our guide because we had so many questions concerning Zulu culture that couldn't be answered simply, or at all. Modern Zulu culture is difficult to describe because it is always shifting due to globalization. Nowadays it is extremely hard to retain a pure tribal culture with so much modernity and now necessary interaction with other people that are not of the Zulu tribe.       Traditionally (according to the guide), a group of people are governed by a chief-- and later his decedents--who grants his subjects enough land for his means and sorts out arguments, crimes, etc. A Zulu household is started by a man finding a woman he is interested in and paying lobola for her. Paying lobola seems to be a fairly strong tradition still and has created some very interesting situations. Eleven cows is normal payment and each cow costs 5,000 R--so 5,000R divided by 7 = $714 and some change x 11= around $7, 857--that is quite a bit of money! Now it is a bit more common for people to just give the cash instead of going out and finding cows, but for someone who makes a living polishing shoes or selling coat-hangers on the side of the road it would take forever! There are also several meetings the man has to go through with the woman's family and then finally they can marry.

         Because of how long it would take to get married many people abandon the lobola tradition and just live with each other as if they were married because they don't think the payment will ever be possible to make. If the lady ends up getting pregnant the guy has to fork over another two cows (I think) for the first pregnancy and another cow for every one after that (if her family is traditional). 

       Having a family is a quite an ordeal as you can see! Also, traditionally, a man will have several wives--in fact, someone isn't really looked at as a man until he has a couple of wives. Each of the wives require their own hut and so a family can end up with several rondavels: one for the man, one for each wife, a separate cooking hut for each wife, one for boy children, one for girl children, and one for guests...and a couple others I can't remember. Then the women and children subsistence farm while young men hunt and the older men drink beer and plan out how much food their family will need. 

      However, from my observations (ignorant as they are) there are very few people who live a traditional life style. Most pick and choose which traditions they keep and adapt their lifestyle to suit modern times. Living traditionally seems to be super difficult, there are many traditional practices that the government has had to outlaw because it is not accepted in modern society ie: smoking marijuana for council meetings. So the result is people move away from the traditional places and go to the city to work and end up living in a tin lean-to with chickens and tyres outside it, drink cream soda, have t.v., but still have to pay lobola. Think of the Native Americans, but instead of them becoming a minority, being a majority... in a similar situation.

         I would really love to talk some more with some Zulu people and discuss how these changes have effected them and what they think will happen in the future. I feel like the easiest thing to happen would for people to join the global culture and just remember the tribal ways. The reason I feel this way is that even though a death of a traditional way is tragic, it really would make running the country much easier. Politically, it seems like things get a bit sticky because the government is trying to include the chiefs in decisions, which works sometimes, but often just goes ahead without them and that makes people angry. 

Disclaimer: these are my ignorant guesses, and opinions gathered from hear-say so I am super sorry if I have guessed incorrectly or made some gross misjudgment. If you want the whole story go do some researching that your's truly was too lazy to do. 

        After learning all sorts of interesting Zulu stuff there was a "traditional" Zulu courting dance, which was interesting, but I felt really bad the entire time that the performers had to act out something that used to be very important and now has turned into a tourist attraction. 

       Attached to the Zulu village part of pheZulu was a reptile park that was surprisingly awesome (I say surprisingly because from the outside it was pretty old and tacky looking). They had about 100 large crocodiles and 50 babies, a tortoise petting-zoo, and a snakes of South Africa exhibit. 

A crocodile was asleep with its tail out of the enclosure...so we did a silly tourist thing and touched it.

       

        Later we went into the city of Durban, and it was absolutely fantastic! We went to a flea market, ate delicious Indian food (Durban has a high concentration of Indian people), and people watched.

People really do carry things on their head!

    

We got some yummy curry powder!

I think the safety codes in the U.S. are different than in S.A.

       The next day we went to a creche (daycare)/orphanage...but ended up feeling really bad because although we brought sweets and food with us we didn't end up really helping with anything and didn't want to stick around and mess up the daycare lesson plan so we were just...awkward. Anyway, the moral of the story is to stay for a while and really find out what needs to be done. The kids were super cute though!

       Then we went to uShaka which was one of the most amazing aquariums I have ever seen!

The aquariums were massive, the specimens were top notch, and it was super new and shiny, we could have spent at least five hours there! There was also a water park that we didn't make it to, but I would say that uShaka is a must see. 

Then we had some more curry....which may be one of the best parts of Durban--I loooove Indian food!

        One night the maid of the family we stayed with made some Zulu food: milli pap (corn meal) as well as samp (it's kinda like hominy) and beans. It was yummy, but I think Indian food still wins.

Samp and beans and milli pap

      I really enjoyed going to Durban and wished I could have spent longer people watching, the city was so interesting.

P.S. While we were there, June 15 to be exact, we got to watch a total lunar eclipse! It was sooooo cool!