Mosi-o-Tunya is the Smoke that Thunders is the Victoria Falls. Located on the border of Zambia and Zimbabawe, it is really quite special.
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| Some Smoke, definitely thundering |
There was a variety of over-priced but very enjoyable activities. My mom and I went on a game viewing walk (we saw 5 out of the 9 white rhino left in Zambia!), very cool because the animals return your curiosity and allow you a lot closer than if you were in a car. This was followed by a sunset cruise down the Zambezi sipping Gin and Tonics and the next day, a treacherous trip to the Devil’s Pool-an unholy place to swim, at the very edge of the main falls. All that keeps you from being swept over the edge is a rocky ledge about 2 metres wide...
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| Leonard, our guide, diving into Devil's Pool |
On Monday morning I hired a bike in Victoria Falls town (Zim side) and took it for a spin. Thanks to a little map provided by the bike shop I was able to find the ‘Big Tree’ a huge baobab tree in the Vic Falls National Park. I think it said it was about 1000 years old. I read later that baobabs were (are) held in high esteem partly for their fruit and partly because their flowers supposedly held the spirits of the ancestors. If anyone plucked a baobab flower off the tree, it was said that they would be eaten by a lion. I learnt this and various other interesting tid-bits back over on the Zambian side at the Livingstone Museum. What struck me about the information in the ethnography section was how folklore, myth and tradition are used for very functional purposes. The Nyami-Nyami or river god was purported to dwell in the turbulent Zambezi River and so people didn’t enter the waters or even the gorge (probably a good idea because of their incredible power and meant thriving wildlife populations in the gorge). Trees whose bark had been previously stripped for medicinal purposes were left alone because it was believed that if you too stripped bark off that same tree, you would contract the same disease as the first bark-collector (a great means for keeping trees healthy and thriving). People use mythology, folklore, ritual etc to explain, understand and perpetuate very important truths and ways of doing things, plus it’s more fun than simply telling your kids ‘don’t do that.’
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| The Big Tree |
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| A dried up Baobab flower |
One of my favourite discoveries of my cycle around town was the COMESA (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa) market. There is one in Lusaka too, where I’ve bought chitenge (fabric) but this one was especially great because of the piles of second hand clothes. From what I understand, piles of these used clothes arrive from the US and Europe and are donated as a means for income generation. You want vintage, you got vintage. Piles of flamboyantly coloured 80s men’s swimming shorts, perfect quality slacks and jeans, T-shirts with anything from “Wilson Family Reunion 1992” to lace or embroidery and even underwear. I’m a big fan of second hand shopping for various reasons and try to only buy used or South African manufactured clothing at home, so this was a real treat. For US$13 (around R100) I bought 2 pairs of shorts, a pair of black Levi’s skinny jeans, a t-shirt, a plaid button up shirt and a skirt. Feeling very pleased with myself I left the market and continued my cycle up the road into a residential area and then back down and around to the main road to marvel at Zimbabwean stone sculptures at the craft market.
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| COMESA market |
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| Piles of second-hand clothes for sale |
One night in the hotel, as my mom was preparing her conference paper, I settled in to watch some ZBC (Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation) and AfricaMagic on the TV. Offerings on ZBC included music videos with a variety of footage of Bob Mugabe in the background of dancing musicians. Then there was a programme in a series highlighting the links and friendship between China and Africa. This particular episode was about the Tan-Zam railway. And even a documentary on a Chinese pop star, imperialism round two? Africa Magic had one of it’s perennial low-budget, questionably acted, Nollywood classics: a tale of love and desperation, of kidnap and rescue and the value of family love over money. All in all, edifying viewing.
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