CULTURAL VISITS  

Meeting the local community

As part of our community project, I invite guests at Amakhosi to visit my village where many of the lodge's staff live. The income from the cultural visits helps to pay school fees and it's a good opportunity for tourists to learn about our Zulu culture as it is today, and not as a living museum with people dressed up in animal skins.

- Phume - local Zulu guide
When I take tourists to our village, they enjoy visiting the Izindlu or Traditional houses. Where the actual building is the man's responsibility, it is the woman who harvests the thatching grass to cover the circular structure. The grass is harvested when the stems are long and still fairly pliable. Young saplings are also used to weave doors, fences, mats and ropes.

Traditionally there are no windows in the home and the only door used to be low. Oral tradition suggests that doorways were low to ward off intruders, who would have to stoop, placing them at a disadvantage.

As with many things, the ‘izindlu' also undergo changes. Depending on income, the houses have become rectangular and thatch roofs have been replaced by corrugated galvanized roofing.