My pride issue 1 2017

Page 1

Cooking up an African storm

Taking it easy in the Kruger

Tiveka Limpopo’s hidden treasure

Hiking for joy & health King of Africa: An elephant takes a sand bath at the Mapungubwe National Park which is a Unesco World Heritage Site: Photo: Lucas Ledwaba\Mukurukuru Media

Why Mapungubwe is Africa's pride By Lucas Ledwaba

WE reached the summit of Mapungubwe Hill in the late afternoon. As we stood in awe surveying our surroundings, a gentle breeze swept through the serene mountain top probably as a welcome gesture from the gods. The flat mountain top offers a panoramic view of the awe-inspiring landscape around the Mapungubwe National Park. The park is located some 80km west of the town of Musina in Limpopo province. It is a Unesco World Heritage site owing to its historical and archeological significance to Africa, its people and mankind in general. To the north west of the Mapungubwe

Hill, the awesome beauty of the wide Limpoporiver, on its way to meet with the Shashe begs to be viewed, stared at and appreciated. It is one of those sights of nature that bring an involuntary smile to one’s face. To the east, north and south of the hill, imposing curiously shaped sandstone hills tower over the dry open plains where giant baobabs stretch congruently into the skies like abstract artworks of the gods. In fact, legend has it that baobabs were planted upside down by the gods as an expression of their wrath long before our ancestors set foot on this land. It felt good, proud to be standing at the spot which dispel the myths perpetrated by colonialist that Africans have since time immemorial been a dumb and hopelessly stupid people who owe the

development of their land and enlightenment to European settlers. Yet, standing there left one with a deep-seated pain of curiosity, the one often induced by history. What did they talk about? What did they do when the sun set? Did they sing? If so, what did they sing about? Did they foresee and talk about such a time, when Mapungubwe would be deserted and reduced from the capital of an old African civilization, to a Unesco World Heritage Site that remains the intrigue of scholars, researchers, travelers and historians? How sad that history doesn’t always provide all the answers, but brings up many more which also remain unanswered. It felt good to be standing at the very spot where over 800 years ago, Africans ruled over vast stretches

of land, kept gold artefacts mined and designed by themselves and traded with nations and tribes from across the seas. Our deeply knowledgeable and passionate guides Johannes Masalesa and Cedric Setlhako took us back 800 years, to a time when this hilltop was home to royalty, when earth built huts were perched right here where we now stood. The area was already inhabited by a growing Iron Age community from 900 AD and became rich through trade with faraway places like Egypt, India and China. They say Mapungub-we was a thriving capital of a kingdom that stretched across the Limpopo and Shashe rivers, and that its rulers traded with people from the Orient and from the Arab world. They traded in gold, mined just across the.. continued on page 5.


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