All Hail the Chief (or how I ended up being a chauffeur in Swaziland) Part 2

In case you missed the first installment of this blog, here is the link.
https://runnerquest.blogspot.com/2018/02/all-hail-chief-or-how-i-ended-up-being.html

“So I know a great hotel” says the Swazi Chief.  “This hotel has covered private parking.  If you are driving a car with plates from Gauteng Province in South Africa, you don’t want your car sitting outside.”  So after a brief detour to visit another one of his four sisters, we head to the Park Hotel in Manzini.
True to his word, after a few twists and turns we were in the underground parking of the hotel.  After slogging up 2 flights of stairs with our luggage we arrived at reception.  I should have known we were in trouble when the receptionist flipped a few pages on her clipboard to locate a grid and took a pencil and made an X on two rooms.  I invite you to go on Trip Advisor and read the 9 reviews for this gem of a hotel.  TA does indicate that online booking is not available.  THAT IS BECAUSE THEY DO NOT HAVE A COMPUTER!  Ntombi, the Chief and I slog up a couple more flights of stairs and locate our rooms.  I quickly locate the window unit, crank up the AC and start shutting all the open windows.  Our luxurious room has a balcony, but unfortunately, the door will not close, much less lock.  After meeting with our Security specialist on the first day in the South Africa office, I have become super paranoid and this non-closing / non-locking balcony door seemed like the perfect set up for Ms. Reception to call her thug friends to come scale the balcony and slit our throats in the middle of the night.  Ntombi heads down to reception to discuss the situation.  She comes back to a key to a new room which we go to inspect.  The first thing I notice after checking to make sure the balcony door closes and locks is that the air conditioner is missing a knob.  I made a mental note to steal the knob off the AC in our old room.  We make the room switch and try to get some sleep so we are well rested for our big day of sightseeing.

Unfortunately, the AC does not work well in this room so we toss and turn all night until we finally get up at 6am.  Ntombi heads to the shower first.  Now when you are paying $35USD for a hotel room it is probably a bit too much to ask for all of your doors to lock AND for the shower to work.  This is how we found ourselves hunched over the tub faucet splashing our bits and pieces while trying to wash up with the random bar of soap we found laying on the bathroom counter (see photo of soap in trip adviser photos).  There we find ourselves at 6:30am all dressed up with no place to go.  Ntombi marches to the Chiefs room to instruct him that we will be leaving at 7:00am.  She knocks and bangs on his door but the Chief is nowhere to be found.  She ventures down to the lobby and finds the Chief sitting there in full Swazi regalia.  When she finally gets back to the room I am in a near state of panic.  Every time she is gone for more than 15 minutes I am convinced that she has been kidnapped (Thanks, Chris, the security specialist).  We pile into the car around 7:30 to begin our big day of sightseeing.
Swaziland is a beautiful country.  It reminds me a lot of Scotland with the beautiful green mountains and rolling hills.  One thing I learned is that Swaziland has one cell carrier.  When you enter Swaziland, if you don’t have MTN cell service, you go into a dead zone.  We had no way to google anything, Waze up some maps, nothing.  In this respect, we were very lucky we had the Chief with us.  He was our human GPS.  He knew exactly where everything was.  Granted many times his directions included “Go up” and “Go down” or “At the stop sign turn. . . .”  when I had no stop sign, but he got us where we needed to go.
Sightseeing in Swazi was a mixed bag.  We went to a safari park where they had about 10 animals.  We did see some cute warthogs laying by the fire in the camp getting warmed up.  We went to the Memorial Park but it was closed with a big lock on the doors.  We went to the Swaziland museum but the employee at the museum basically talked us out of paying the entrance fee.  I will admit, the one display case I could see from the entrance looked pretty sparse.  We did go to the Swazi Cultural Village.  Normally I tend to avoid these kind of things because I think they are a tourist trap and are just going to try to sell me a bunch of stuff made in China.  This one was really cool!  We started with  a traditional song and dance performance then went on a tour of the grounds that had traditional huts. Our guide explained to us where the different wives would live and the mother in law.  We saw the Swazi version of the “man cave” - the cow enclosure and how the women would have to bow and lay the food at the entrance of the close since women are subservient and are not allowed in the man cave.  This reinforced the impression we had gotten from the Chief.  We visited a couple of craft markets and met some lovely Swazi people.  Night 2 was at a much nicer hotel with working air conditioning and a buffet dinner.
The trip back Sunday was uneventful.  We took a different border entry back to Swaziland which was about an hour shorter (we didn’t have to detour to the Cheif’s home for him to get his iPad like we did on Friday.)  The crazy thing was about 1/2 mile after crossing into South Africa, the pavement ended and we ended up driving on a dirt highway for about 45 minutes.  They had signs and everything, just like a real highway, just no pavement.
We dropped the Chief off at his rental and went back to Ntombi’s sister to tell her about our hilarious adventure.
We never did get to the Palace in Swaziland.  Our Chief slightly exaggerated his position.  it seems the real connection to the Palace was through his sister who is a nurse for the 14 wives.  She informed Ntombi that there are no guests received on the weekend.  Oh, well, I have a cute olive bowl now!
I had a wonderful time on my Swaziland adventure.  I have a cute Christmas tree ornament to remember the trip by and Ntombi’s sister made me a beautiful skirt that I cannot wait to wear this spring.
Sorry for the lack of photos in this blog, but I am writing it on my iPad and can’t seem to access my photo gallery. So this is how I ended up being a chauffeur in Swaziland!

All Hail the Chief (or How I ended up being a chauffeur in Swaziland)

How did I find myself in the living room of someone I don't know in a country I had never been to watching the cartoon Kung Fu Panda?

It all started Friday afternoon . . . 

My weekend plans were to go explore a new country - Swaziland.  Swaziland is a landlocked country bordered by South Africa and Mozambique.  It is the only monarchy remaining in Africa.  My friend Ntombi invited me to visit with her - her family lives just outside the border on the South Africa side.  

We drove about 3 hours to a town called Mkhondo where Ntombi grew up.  Her father left Swaziland where he was employed by the King as a tailor at one of the local correctional facilities.  He was recognized as a gifted clothing designer in his youth - a born tailor - and the King sent him to London to attend formal tailoring school.  After many years in the King's service, he left Swaziland to move to South Africa because he didn't agree with the customs and cultures.  He opened his own tailor shop in South Africa where he dressed the locals until he passed away in 2013.

Prior to our trip to eMkhondo, Ntombi told me that her sister had arranged for us to have a tour guide.  The tour guide had connections at the Palace and we needed to bring a gift to present to the Royal Family.  I scratched my head as to what might be an appropriate gift to present at the Royal Palace.  I made a quick trip to Carrol Boyels - a South African designer of home goods.  I thought it would be recognized as a nice gift and if the Royal Palace didn't happen, I would have a cute bowl with a slotted spoon.

After a quick chat with Ntombi's sister and a phone call, we piled into my car and drove a few streets over in the neighborhood.  Ntombi directed me to stop and a gentleman wearing a white suit with gold trim and a black top hat climbed into my back seat.  When we arrived back at the shop I quietly asked Ntombi if this was one of her relatives.  She laughed and told me that this gentleman was our guide for the weekend.

After giving hugs to her sister, we jumped in the car and began our journey to Swaziland.  I quickly learned that this gentleman is one of the 300 chiefs personally appointed by the King.  This status helped us as we were quickly waived through at the border crossing.

Over the next three hours I was both entertained and slightly horrified by the stories I heard.  This gentleman has 4 wives.  I asked if all the wives lived in an area together, like the Brown Family in "Sister Wives".  He responded "the right hand did not need to know what the left hand does."

We stopped by the chief's home just across the border for him to pick up his iPad and briefly met his son.  As our journey continued, I asked if his son would be chief.  He explained to me that he has twin boys and this son is left handed.  It is forbidden for people that are left handed to be chiefs (or King!) so he was preparing his other son to be the next chief.

I asked what kind of work being a chief involves.  A quick google search on Sunday told me  that "While chiefs in other countries in Africa have been marginalised in the wake of democratic political systems, and now serve largely honourary functions, Swazi chiefs had their powers vastly increased with a Swaziland Administration Order decreed by King Mswati last year (1999).  .Chiefs in Swaziland have the power to try cases and even evict troublesome subjects.

He told a tale of a couple that came to him because they wanted to get divorced.  He didn't love her, she didn't love him.  Divorce is forbidden in Swaziland.  The chief asked if the couple had children - they had 3.  He pulled out a knife and laid it on the table.  He said "take this knife and go kill your children because it will be better for them than for you to get divorced".  According to him the couple is now happily married. 

I asked if being a chief is a paid position.  He said that it is not paid, it is up to the chief to figure out how to use the position to make money.  I took this as a sign that favoritism and corruption is probably alive and well in the chiefdoms.

He definitely liked to gossip about the king and the king's 14 wives, showing his inside knowledge of the royal family.  Each year the Palace holds the Reed Dance where young women from around the kingdom perform and sometimes the king selects a wife from the dancers.  One of the young dancers that was selected to become one of his wives was caught having an affair a few years ago and this gentleman shared with us that the offending man was actually her boyfriend from before she was selected to be the King's wife.  The wife has been kept in isolation at the Queen Mother's house since the affair was discovered.  The road was twisty and curvy so I kind of zoned in an out of the gossipy bits since I didn't really know who they were talking about and needed to concentrate on the road.  

I learned about a ritual called Incwala which is a celebration of manhood.  It takes place over a month long period of time with several different gatherings and rituals.  The culmination of the celebration is where the King is placed on top of a bull that has been treated by a local healer.  The bull's job is to pull all of the impurities and diseases out of the king so he will be healthy in the next year.  The bull is then killed at the hands of the men involved in the Incwala and slaughtered to feed the group.

Our first stop in Swaziland after getting petrol was at his sister's house.  I am not sure where his sister was but this is where I found myself sitting on a couch watching Kung Fu Panda with a chief from Swaziland and Ntombi.  After a few minutes the chief stood, said we were leaving and said, "I know a great hotel"

To Be Continued . . . 

Tour of Soweto and Jo'burg

With my time in Jo'burg running short, last weekend I organized a tour for myself and 2 other Colgate people staying at the Davinci Hotel.  Daniel from Mexico is here working with the Finance department and Michaela from Italy is here working to help make planning better at the local factories.  We went on a tour of Soweto and Jo'burg.

Soweto is a township with over 1.3 million people - about one third of Johannesburg's population.  Much like SoHo in New York indicates the area is located "South of Houston", Soweto is an abbreviated name for South Western Township.  This large township has many different neighborhoods - townships within a township.  A township is an area that the black people were moved into during Apartheid.  Soweto was originally designated for black people working in the mines and those working in white households.  All 11 of South Africa's official languages can be heard on the streets of Soweto.  Like any small town, there are areas of upper and middle class.  Winnie Mandela still lives on a quite street up on a hill.  There are also areas of horrible poverty, with people living in shacks without running water.

Slum area of Soweto

Dormitory housing built for migrant workers during Apartheid - now converted to housing for families

We visited a hawker market in Walter Sisulu Square where anything can be purchased from clothing to furniture.  We saw two guys carrying a mattress and box spring leaving the market, about 15 minutes later we saw them resting on the side of the road.  I'm impressed they made it as far as they did before they needed a break!

Walter Sisulu Sqaure is the location that the Congress of the People met to draw up the Freedom Charter.  In 1955 the ANC sent 50,000 volunteers out into the townships to gather up "Freedom Demands" from the black people of South Africa.  The result of this was the Freedom Charter - 10 principles to give all people in South Africa equal rights.  Some of them are basic rights like "All Shall Be Equal Before the Law", some seem to have their roots in Communist thinking "The Land Shall Be Shared Among Those That Work It", and some are inspirational "The Doors of Learning and Of Culture Shall Be Opened".

There is also a tribute to the residents of Soweto that lined up to vote in the South Africa General Election which saw Nelson Mandela elected as President.  It was the first election that non-white people were allowed to vote in.

Tribute to those that waited in line for hours to vote

Actual line of individuals waiting in line to vote.  

Tribute made out of sheet metal to acknowledge the many South Africans living in slums housing made out of tin

We visited Nelson Mandela's house in Soweto that he initially lived in with his first wife.  He and Winnie lived there when they were not being held in prison.  Once he was released from his life sentence and let out of prison, he lived in this same small house (less than 1000 sq feet) for 13 days until they realized this would not be safe for the future President of South Africa.  He was moved to a more secure location and never returned to live in his home in Soweto.

1956 was the 40th Anniversary of the Women's march.  We have quite a ways to go in the US!

Letter from the State of Michigan demanding that President George Bush formally apologize to Nelson Mandela for the CIA's role in the arrest of Nelson Mandela for treason.  (He didn't)

We visited Constitution Hill where there was a large prison for many years until it was closed for overcrowding.  We learned of the different standards given to blacks, whites and colored people.  White people received sheets, a pillow and 2 blankets.  Black people received only 2 blankets.  There were terrible inequalities in the diets of the prisoners as well.  Many political prisoners were held here including Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Ghandi.  Ghandi was in prison here for 7 months.

Guard tower at prison

The 27 rights from the Bill of Rights is written on the doors to the Constitutional Court in the 11 official languages of South Africa

The Flame of Democracy is housed in one of the former prison guard towers

The Constitutional Court building is a contrast of old and new with brick used from the old prison.  The judge's desk are covered in cow hide and the South African flag was hand made out of beads by South African women

We ended the day at the Top of Africa with beautiful views of the city.  This 50 story building is the tallest building in all of Africa.

It was a beautiful day for a tour of the area.  I learned so much about South Africa and its people.  I even picked up a little light reading for my flight home.

Until my next dispatch from Jo'burg.  Totsiens and mooi loop!

We were given the option to go bunge jumping between the towers - we declined