Thanksgiving

Yesterday I went to a thanksgiving celebration. Thanksgiving was for my host mothers uncle, who brought my host mother and her 5 siblings up. The idea was to have a celebration of life a chance for the whole family to get together. We drove for an hour and a half to Piggs Peak at the top of Swaziland, to get to my host family's homestead. Every Swazi family living in the cities have their family homestead in the rural areas, usually it is a peice of land given to them by the king a generation or so ago, that the whole family will them build their individual houses on. The result is a jumble of cement houses built on the land, animals walking free, chickens, cows and goats. There was a group of chicks walking in and around the outside cooking pit.

The event itself was in Swati. A lot of speeches, an MC and some dodgy music to welcome each speaker on the stage. The Zion church was in attendance as well, I am told in the rural areas that the Zion church is most prevalent. In the Zion church all men carry sticks as if they were staffs, and do they like to sing and dance! From where I was sitting, it seemed like any lull in proceedings meant a chance for the entire church to start dancing, a constant side two step move.

Any event in ones homestead is an open invitation for the entire neighbourhood to come along to share in food. There is no such thing as an invitation in Swazi culture. I noticed during the proceedings there was a host of people waiting outside the tent, and a lot of children occupying the seats in the centre of the tent. As soon as the presents were given to the Mtethwa family Uncle & Aunty, food started getting served and an instant line formed. Everyone ate their fill and got containers of food to go home with. A entire cow was slaughtered for the event, the entire animal went into those pots. It was delicious.