Swaziland national cultural village
Just a few minutes from our home in Emafini, we visited the
Swazi National Cultural Village in Ezulwini. Here the country maintains a
center so that
young people can proudly carry on the traditional dances, songs, and costumes of
the Swazi clans.
|
|
(L) Our guide, Paul, tells us
about how traditional Swazi villages were constructed. 8 males would take 2 weeks to build the rounded frame. Then 8 females would take 3 weeks to weave the thatch tight enough to be waterproof but open enough to let the cooking smoke safely out. Wattle and daub have replaced thatched huts due to fire concerns, the interior remains cool compared to the outside. |
|
(L) Wedding Dance performers
wear traditional costumes. Men six and older wear antelope skins and when women marry they add goat skin aprons to their clothes. |
|
|
(L) The friends of the bride
(with pink feather) prepare her for her wedding ceremony. |
|
(L) The bride is led to her
new home. Eventually, each wife has a main hut and a separate cooking hut. Once a child is six, he or she leaves the main hut to sleep with all the other unmarried males or females in separate huts. |
|
|
(L) The prospective groom
pays the bride's family 17 cattle if she is a virgin (but negotiates a discount if she is not!).Here the groom is given household gifts to start their new home. |
|
(L) In this traditional dance
a young man fights off a lion to win the hand of his lady love. |
|
|
(L) To celebrate the
engagement, both young men and women take turns dancing. |
|
(L) The celebration ends with
the song recognized by even us Americans, "In the Jungle, the mighty Jungle, the Lion sleeps tonight..." which is finally acknowledged to be written by a Swazi. |
