South Africa HIV/AIDS
The History and Culture of Lesotho
Thanks to K. Limakatso Kendall, traveller and writer, for this piece on Lesotho
Geography and Dinosaurs
First there was the land. Fifty million years before the Alps thrust skyward, sheets of golden yellow sandstone were heaved, tossed, and capped by volcanic spew that hardened into basalt. Dinosaurs slapped their tails in the muck and left footprints in hardening rock. (Looking for the plentiful three-toed dinosaur footprints is a great excuse to explore the hillsides now.) Lesotho had its own cute little vegetarian dinosaur called Lesothosaurus. Forests rose and fell. Great beasts competed, and a few survived.
The First People and Livestock
Around 8000 BCE the Baroa, or San—a small-bodied hunter-gatherer people with golden skin like the sandstone around them, traveled the lowlands in winter and the peaks in summer, and named the land in a language of many clicks. A few thousand years after the San, the Khoi, another nomadic group with a language based on click-sounds, arrived from the north. Some of the San and Khoi people mingled, apparently with relatively few conflicts, in a time when Britons prayed to be delivered from the fury of the Norsemen. The Khoi brought goats and sheep to Southern Africa around 600 CE, and in about 1000 CE, cattle.
Then darker-skinned peoples from the north and the south moved into the fertile valleys on both sides of the Maluti and established agriculture next to the Khoi and the San. The concept of land ownership was unknown, and the Khoi and San continued walking, herding, hunting and gathering while the newcomers planted millet and hemp. There was room for everyone, and the people who came to be called the Basotho lived in harmony with the land from the south banks of what is now called the Vaal river to the peaks of the Maluti Mountains, across the other side, into the valleys of Zululand that tilt down toward the Indian Ocean.
The complex societies that developed were probably decentralized, communal, and relatively egalitarian. Despite the considerable cultural diversity of the people on the land, there seems to have been little or no “tribal strife” among southern African peoples. Yet this land was no primordial paradise. Droughts or floods could be devastating; plagues of insects appeared and disappeared; wind storms, lightning, and hail troubled hunters and gatherers as well as farmers; wild animals and snakes terrorized small holdings.
Date: August 4th, 2008 |
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South African folklore: The tiny terror that is the “Tokoloshe”
I love hearing strange traditional tales from foreign lands, so I thought I might introduce you to some eccentric South African stories that people grow up with here.
I distinctly remember a time swimming at Muizenberg when some swimmers started screaming and shouting that there was a Tokoloshe in the water.
Date: December 9th, 2006 |
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Toronto AIDS Conference Gives Activists Boost - Help Them Out
The recent International AIDS Conference in Toronto has given a boost to South Africans in the fight against the disease - a fight in which their own government, as the conference made clear, numbers among the enemies.
The South African government’s position on AIDS has been eccentric at the very best, and deeply harmful at worst. President Thabo Mbeki is an AIDS fence-sitter (some would say “denialist”), while the Health Minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, is so far out in left field that she has achieved unique status as both an internal and international pariah. (She advocates a diet of garlic, beetroot, olive oil and other foodstuffs as a replacement for medicinal regimens like anti-retrovirals; she supports a crank vitamin peddler who says his pills can cure AIDS; and so on.)
Now the activists are getting tough - the Treatment Action Campaign in particular, which has embarked on civil disobediance in hopes of ruffling some feathers at the Health Ministry and getting Tshabalala-Msimang fired.
Date: August 25th, 2006 |
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Khumbulani Children’s Home
In 2000, nine women in Khayelitsha, Cape Town’s biggest township, sat together and asked themselves a number of questions regarding what needed to be done in order to combat HIV and AIDS in their community. They were looking for a gap they could help fill.
One question was - Who is doing something about the orphans created by South Africa’s AIDS pandemic? No one had an answer, so they decided to start a project that would focus on children affected by AIDS.
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Khumbulani Children’s Home
Date: July 7th, 2006 |
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Sibanye, Khayelitsha, Cape Town: Shop Review
Sibanye
Cnr. Lwandle & Spine Roads, Khayelitsha
Cape Town | Map
Sibanye Flowers
Specialty: Beautiful township crafts, in support of HIV/AIDS-affected communities
Tel: +27 (0) 21 364 1187 / (0) 83 522 2271, Fax: +27 (0) 21 364 1149
jo-sibanye@mweb.co.za
www.sibanye.org.za
SA Blog recommends a look inside? Don’t miss it!
Date: April 10th, 2006 |
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Sangomas: The South African Shamen
In the ancestor worshipping traditions held by the majority (80%) of South Africans (Zulu, Xhosa, Ndabele and Swazi) the Sangoma is the primary and sometimes exclusive healer and counsellor.
There is no governing body to control who is, and who is not, a sangoma, anyone can claim to be one (there are over 200,000!). Traditionally a new sangoma is called by an initiation illness, often psychosis, headache, stomach pain, shoulder or neck complaints. After which they will undergo “Thwasa”, a period of training including learning humility to the ancestors, purification through steaming, washing in the blood of sacrificed animals, and the use of Muti, medicines with spiritual significance. At the end of Thwasa, an animal is sacrificed to appease the ancestors.
Date: September 5th, 2007 |
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World AIDS day 1st Decemeber, 2 lovely adverts
December 1st was World AIDS Day and no country needs to be more aware of this than South Africa.
To put you in the picture.
Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, our reverend health minister’s public disdain for Anti retroviral drugs and her promotion of beetroot, garlic and lemons instead, makes me worry a little.
Former deputy president and head South Africa’s national AIDS council and Moral Regeneration Movement, Jacob Zuma, caused havoc when during his rape trial he disclosed that he knew the girl was HIV
…
Date: December 3rd, 2006 |
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A Stitch in Time Does a Lot of Good at The Backpack
The bar at The Backpack is one of the best chill-out spots in Cape Town. It’s well-stocked, has a broad patio and a great vibe - and is the home of the “Vallies Stitch and Bitch” project, which backpackers across South Africa are taking to heart.
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Backpacking South Africa at Work
The project is named in comemmoration of The Backpack owner’s mother, Vallie. Hostel guests who belly up to the bar are invited to “stitch” - crochet - a length of yarn into a small square. When they’re done, the squares are collected and eventually knitted together to make blankets for HIV-positive babies.
Date: July 12th, 2006 |
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My First Day at the Star
“Want to go to the Zuma trial?” asked Yvonne, a news editor at The Star, who I had just met. “Go with Demian but hurry up.”
I had been reading about former deputy president Jacob Zuma since the start of my 10-week prep course for my internship. I had seen pictures of, and read editorials and countless political cartoons about the man who was rumored to be the leading candidate for South Africa’s next president, but who is now taking the stand to defend himself against charges of raping an HIV-positive 31-year-old woman in his home last November.
This was the man who had been in charge of the South African National AIDS council, and who had exhorted the country to stand up and fight against the epidemic. The same man who now claims he took a shower to cleanse himself of HIV… what!?
Date: April 12th, 2006 |
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HIV/AIDS Tax for Flights to South Africa
A week and a half ago, the French government mooted a new tax on air tickets - ranging between one and forty euros, depending on the type of flight - to create a special development fund for poor countries that need help fighting health scourges like HIV/AIDS and malaria, among other challenges. In France, the tax will take effect from 1 July.
The initiative garnered support from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and eleven other countries, which have promised to start taxing flights soon. The countries are: Brazil, Britain, Chile, Congo, Cyprus, France, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mauritius, Nicaragua, and Norway. …
Date: March 10th, 2006 |
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