ACTIVITIES FOR VISITORS

When you visit ICE's workshop, you may see the sewing group working in their rondavel (hut), the beaders on the mats in the courtyard, or any of the members tending to the community garden. As per tradition, ICE's members will welcome you to their home with food and drink. (photo 10) Staple foods include corn meal, greens, cabbage, and meat. (photo 11) ICE's members and their children would also be happy to share their cultures with you through a traditional dance and music presentation. (photo 12)

With prior notice, visitors may be able to attend a village khekhapa, women's traditional dance. (photos 13, 14) In Ga-Modjadji most villages have their own women's traditional dance troupe. On Saturdays and Sundays these troupes perform in their villages and travel to other villages. The purpose of the troupe is threefold: to practice and maintain traditional customs, entertain the community, and earn money from the sale of homebrew at the performances.

The different dance troupes can be identified by their matching costumes. The dancers usually wear western-style blouses with morina (black cloth with multicolored trim) wrapped around their waists. Usually the morina is covered by melasa (lightly colored cloth with black trim). The women also adorn themselves with intricate beadwork.

After forming a circle behind the Malokwane (troupe leader), the dancers move to the rhythm of the Malokwane's whistle blows. The dancers move around the dance grounds several times, pausing to allow individual members to shine, and to praise different members. Dance troupes attend khekapa in different villages in order to compete for bragging rights to being the community's best singer or best dancer.

After a few hours of dancing, the dancers and audience enjoy drinking the traditional homebrew. The women brew usually 3 - 4 types of beer, including mageu (made of mielie meal, sugar, and malt or flour), bjalwa (made of malt and mielie meal), and makgope (made of mielie meal and malt). In Madumane, as in many villages, only one member of the women's dance troupe is allowed to sell traditional homebrew per week. The profits from her sales and the sales at the khekgapa are given to this one woman.

Visits to local schools, the nearby Modjadji Nature Reserve, and the Queen's compound may also be arranged. If you would like to spend the night in Ga-Modjadji, you may wish to stay with the family of one of ICE's members in Madumane or at the newly opened African Ivory Route camp inside the Modjadji Nature Reserve.

As the majority of ICE's members are Lobedu, most of ICE's activities focus upon Lobedu customs. For an overview of Tsonga traditions, you may wish to visit the Tsonga Kraal Museum in the Hans Merensky Nature Reserve, just 30 minutes from Ga-Modjadji.