Submitted by SafariADV on Thu, 2018-11-08
This morning we left very early from the Kruger National Park in South Africa because we had to reach the Mantenga Cultural Village in Swaziland, a few km from Mbabane, by 11:00am.
We arrive at 10:30am, we have all the time to pay the entrance fee and relax a bit; immediately after us two other Italian boys arrive, they are from Bergamo; it's fun to find someone at the other side of the world who lives in Italy a few dozen kilometers away from you.
We go to the bar and have a drink waiting for the show and the dance to start; we have a chat with the people of Bergamo, obviously we talk about travel and Africa.
At 11:15am they come to call us and we go to the small amphitheater, we sit down and wait; at some point they tell us about the program of the day: first we attend traditional dances, then we visit a traditional village and finally we can take a short walk to go see a waterfall, or we can go by car.
The traditional Swazi dances are beautiful, we, as always, take pictures and videos, but we also enjoy the show; to follow they also sing two gospels, they are really good.
After the show we are accompanied by a guide to visit the reconstruction of a traditional Swazi village and he explains how the huts are built, how the structure of the village is organized and how its inhabitants live; it is very interesting and they seem happy and proud to show their culture to us visitors.
When we finish the visit is past 1pm, we decide to go and see the waterfall by car so as to save some time, with hindsight we did well to go by car, the road to reach the waterfall is all under the sun and it's hot.
We loved the Mantenga Cultural Village here in Swaziland compared to the Lesedi Cultural Center in South Africa because it seems so much more genuine and they seem proud to show us their traditions.
