The Fundudzi Cultural Camp

We are in South Africa, in the Limpopo Province, in particular in the region inhabited by the Venda, also known as Vendaland.

We have booked for this night in a Cultural Village run by the local community, we want to discover something more about this population who is not well known and who, thanks to the fact that they were one of the last to be subjugated by whites, they succeeded to preserve their cultural identity.

We arrive at Thohoyandou, the main town in the area, known as the capital of Vendaland; we try to understand where our lodge is located: Maps.me does not find it, while Tracks4Africa sees it in the middle of nowhere, thank goodness we saved the directions we found online to reach it.

The first part of the road is paved but, as we continue, it becomes narrower and then unpaved; shortly after it begins to climb the ridge of a hill and the houses and huts give way to the forest.

Here the road becomes a bit uglier, in this area it often rains, even in this season, and then it creates different valleys and holes, there are several pebbles and, moreover, the topsoil is clayey and then, with the humidity of the forest, it becomes slippery; but our Dr. Livingstone has no major problems and we easily reach the Fundudzi Cultural Village.

The cottages are built like traditional huts, there is no electricity but for the night they will give us oil lamps; we are in the middle of the forest, here electricity is not supplied.

Besides us there are two other couples, they are South Africans from Pretoria who are touring their country; they are very intrigued by us and are amazed to find us here.

We meet the manager of the Cultural Village, he tells us that this lodge was financed by the EU and the Cesvi with the aim of making guests know the culture and traditions of the Venda and also to give work to the local community.

The first impact we have is that there is not much of cultural, apart from the cottages that are made like traditional huts; but then, chatting with him, he tells us a lot of interesting information, they also organize different activities such as the excursion to the Fundudzi Lake, the sacred lake for the Venda, the traditional dances, visits to the workshops of the artisans, etc.

At the Cultural Village they have some craft items made by the local community, we ask him to see them and they are happy to know that we are interested in their culture.

They have the traditional women clothes, that are composed of two parts: a cloth that is worn as a skirt and a sort of hood, that is worn on a shoulder; they are very beautiful, colored and embroidered.

They also have very colorful traditional fabrics, with which they have also furnished the rooms, they have many rows of different colors and a brightly colored background; we buy a red cloth; we could spread it on the bed, on the sofa or on the table, we do not know yet where we will put it but it is very nice, besides we like to buy handicraft items around Africa.

They also have some jewels, some silver bracelets strike my attention: they are circles that are made using the horsehair on which a very thin silver thread is rolled.

They tell us that these bracelets are worn by boys when they reach the age in which they can get married and, when a boy falls in love with a girl, he gives her this bracelet as a token of love, from that moment they are considered betrothed; even if they are not comparable to a solitaire, they are still very beautiful, impossible not to buy them!

In the Cultural Village there is a common area with a large table where you can have dinner, but it is also the perfect place to relax while admiring the forest that surrounds us; we stay here almost all afternoon, listening to the stories about the Venda and chatting with the South Africans.

When it is time to prepare our dinner, the South Africans start the braai attack, we still have a lot to learn from them and so we watch them; in particular the two men cut the wood and light the fire, it almost seems that they celebrate a ceremony, we see that for them it is not only a habit, but almost a cultural aspect.

Meanwhile, the two women are in the kitchen and prepare the pap, polenta made with white corn flour, with a beef stew that has a delicious scent.

We also cook with braai, exploiting in part the perfect charcoal made by the South Africans, we have a beef steak, a boer sausage and vegetables marinated in a spicy tomato sauce.

We have dinner with South Africans under the oil-lamp light, there is a very nice atmosphere and, in front of us, among the branches of the trees, we see the valley illuminated by the lights; to tell the truth, it's a bit cold to dine outdoors, but the warm air coming from the braai gets to us; we really like being here!

After dinner we take advantage of having a kitchen to prepare something for tomorrow's lunch.

We stay a bit longer at the table to enjoy the silence of this place and then go to sleep in our cottage-hut.