Mukuri Village, Bushmanland
Trip Start
Jul 09, 2008
1
4
20
Trip End
Jul 30, 2008
Bushmanland,
Namibia
Saturday, July 12, 2008
The road to Tsumkwe was straight and dazzling white and you couldn't drive for more than half an hour at a time before feeling tired, so we took it in turn taking short stints at a time. The drive was not particularly interesting but the highlights were the livestock gates that appeared every so often. Here very small children ran out of nowhere to wave and open them for us.
Finding Mukuri village was not as easy as we had anticipated it was situated 23 kms west of Tsumkwe on the road to the border, but we ended up missing the sign and going too far. Even once we found the signpost it was difficult to follow the tracks. Eventually we spotted something in the trees that turned out to be the village well and from there located the village. We were to meet a Bushman by the name of N!aici (pronounced Naychi - Khoisan languages are known for their use of click consonants and these are written with letters such as ǃ and ǂ) but unfortunately he was out collecting firewood.
Bushmen singing around the fire
Luckily another young man spoke good English and suggested we wait for N!aichi's return as he wouldn't be long. Mukuri Village is part of the Nyae Nyae Conservancy and home to the San originally nomadic hunter/gatherers who travelled in family units within undefined territories. Now their future is uncertain as with many minorities. It is difficult to see what the future holds and whether they will be able to keep hold of their lifestyle and traditions. They have an amazing natural understanding of the importance of preserving the land, the plants, the birds and animals and staying with them as we did proved to be an amazing experience.
Eventually N!aici returned and took us to the campsite situated under the shade of a huge baobab tree. Already there were a family from Scotland who were also travelling with Safari Drive. They were happy to share the site with us and it was nice to swap experiences. The campsite has no facilities (and that does not mean no restaurant) so a new experience was borne - the bush toilet. This literally means digging a hole in a secluded spot being incredibly careful not to incur the wrath of snakes or insects in the process. Of course when we arrived we all thought that we would last until our next stop but one by one each family member meekly picked up the spade and walked off alone into the bush.
That evening we went to watch the villagers singing and dancing. We were to walk to the village on our own down a dark, sandy track and were happy to trot behind the Scottish family who had had an extra day to familiarise themselves with their surroundings. We walked in single file with head and hand torches flicking nervously into the bushes whenever there was a rustle.
Bushmen
Leopards were common here and although I wanted to see one this was neither the time nor the place. Eventually we reached the village where a small group were sat around an open fire. They consisted of around eight children, five women, N!iachi, his father the chief and the young man we had met earlier. The children danced around the fire as the women sang traditional songs. One of the women a young girl had an incredible voice. The chief was dressed in a ceremonial skin adorned with patterns made from turquoise coloured beads; he seemed incredibly old and used a walking stick but was determined to dance until the end. The children seemed to really enjoy the traditional dancing; particularly one who was determined to be at the front of all the dancers and when he caught the children at the back ran around to the front again much to all our amusement. Eventually they finished as the chief was looking as though he might keel over at any moment. We thanked them and made our way back along the sandy path to the campsite.It is amazing how when you have no street lights or other artificial lighting how incredible the stars are. All of a sudden there are literally millions of stars and strange clouds that you never see at home. I regretted not picking up a star map before we left just so that I could identify some of them.
