Seasons of Life

EMBRACING YOUR ROOTS

Feeling a change in the air suddenly wakes me up. The suns scorching rays are penetrating from every angle of the car opening the windows only makes it worse as hot air blows in.
This is a sign that I am nearing my destination to Thohoyandou, situated in the south of Vhembe district in Venda as I was warned of the heat!

I see a sign “Welcome to Limpopo Province” and excitement consumes me as I see woman wearing Tshideka and beads around their necks which they believe has ancestral spirits guiding and protecting them and pass these from generation to generation.
As we enter Thohoyandou I cannot help but notice how all the Vendors are selling inviting fruit, Avocado’s the size of a small coconut, there’s different kinds of nuts, marula fruit and other tropical fruit. For a rural township, it is very rich in agriculture and welcoming outsiders.

Marvelous mountain views with the beauty of the peaceful lake Fundudzi-most popular and respected lake in Venda, to complete it-such beauty must be captured!
The trees are close to each another as this village is dominated with numerous plantations and a number of maize lands. I am still struggling to ignore the heat though and wonder how the inhabitants live in it.

As I stop the third guy to buy fruit, It strikes me how they all have a slight armpit smell-through my facial expression the guy selling the fruit can tell I am not used to it and informs me “we believe in natural odder and not in conventional perfumes”, intrigued I responded “as long as it works for you…. It’s no problem by me”.

This place is clothed with nature’s pure beauty and its soil is surely blessed as it produces the best fruit and vegetables, from the outer look to the juiciest, delicious taste.
Next stop at Domba cultural centre, I observe as the woman lay flat on the ground and bow their head when they greet men, this is strange to me but interesting as I am told to do the same. As they start beating the drums to a sound which sounds very familiar but I have never heard, I am hauled in, not knowing the moves I somehow managed to rhythmically move with them. There’s unity and a sense of belonging by the way they do and invite u in without using force.

Performing next was an exotic looking woman-doing poetry. Through her tone and eyes, I could sense the pain she’s going through even though I did not understand what she was saying. While saying her poem, she broke down and it’s then that I realized…. Even though I am in a foreign place, emotions and ways of connecting are through gestures and eyes-as they never lie.