In the Kingdom of Swaziland: rabid acrobats, sexual separation and waterfalls

I entered the kingdom of Swaziland through a checkpoint in the north. Looking at the map, I was somewhat uneasy for the simple reason that the main road in Swaziland runs from west to east, passing through the capital Mbabane and the largest city of Manzini, along an imaginary line from Johannesburg to Maputo. I had to go along a secondary road from the north, and judging by the testimonies of other travelers, the roads in Swaziland did not at all promise a simple trip.

However, in practice, everything turned out to be much simpler. I quickly crossed the border (Swaziland, unlike South Africa and Lesotho, does not require a visa for my passport), the border guard with a huge smile informed me that the maximum allowed speed is 80 and wished a safe journey, and now I am driving at full speed on a new , 106th country for me.

The only thing that slightly overshadowed my path was the huge number of "speed bumps" all over the place. Since I arrived at my hotel in Mbabane after dark, on the way I repeatedly fell into a trap when in the darkness this policeman came across to me completely unexpectedly, and I jumped with bated breath, hoping for the reliability of the Japanese automotive industry.

I stayed at the Mantenga Lodge Hotel, which was very picturesquely located at the foot of the iconic mountain for Swaziland, about which further. I all liked the lodge, except that, as it turned out later, they had twice charged my credit card for the night. We must pay tribute to them that as soon as I wrote them a letter, threatening to sort through the bank, they answered literally an hour later and even sent a scan confirmation that the money was returned.

Having slept well, I went to the key attraction of Swaziland, the cultural village of Mantenga, located very close to the Mantenga Lodge (2 kilometers). On the way you go past a small river. Announcement: "Watch out for the crocodile." Yes, don’t go, children, to Africa for a walk.

A visit to Mantengu begins with a guided tour of the exemplary Swazian village. In which, it’s true, people live for themselves who immediately work as guides and dancers. Already in this overview photo you can see two types of huts and two types of barriers. The whole life here is divided into two halves - male and female - and this design is designed to emphasize these differences.

Our guide invites us to first visit the women's huts.

The principle here is that every member of the leader’s family has three huts — the leader himself, his mother and his wives.

Huts are made of such complex material. There is a base of strong branches and a coating of small fibers. These huts are portable - in the old days the whole village could be quickly moved from one place to another in accordance with changes in weather and changing pastures. Each hut serves up to 30 years. The main risk is fire.

The marker of gender is the type of fence. This is, for example, the men's room:

And this is female.

Of course, we climbed into all the huts and joined the Swazian way of life. Although the hood there works through a hole in the ceiling, if a bonfire burns in the cabin, it smells strongly of smoke - what our guide called "Swazian spirits."

This is a crescendo of misanthropy. Men's shelter, a type of club that women are not allowed to enter. If a man sits in it, women have no right to even contact him.

Mantenga village is located directly under the slopes of the mountain, which is called Mount of Executions. In the old days, those sentenced to death for witchcraft were taken to the top of this mountain, from where they themselves had to jump down from the steep slopes. This mountain dominates the entire space between Mbabane and Manzini.

Having joined the Swazian life, we moved on to the highlight of the program - the performance of the dance and song troupe. Here her leader is preparing for the show.

Sing it!

Again, male and female songs alternate - basically all this is performed at wedding parties.

The key moment of the dance is when the first guys in the village demonstrate their athletic training.

And they do this, throwing their legs in the air with all their might. And they do it with such an anguish that it seems that they are about to tear their tendons. One, two, and three, and again, and again, and again, until sweat begins to pour hail from them.

Then comes the turn of the girls to do similar movements. They explained to us that traditionally this dance was performed by virgins, thus demonstrating their virginity. I doubt that it can be visually discerned like this, but nevertheless the girls turned chastely 90 degrees.

Woman in shamanistic clothes.

Hot southern guy.

And one more.

And the last chord of the dance is some more frantic acrobatics.

The performance ended with the fact that the girls approached the guys sitting in the audience and led us to dance a very straightforward dance too. Since I was in the front row, of course, I also learned the Swazian "two slams - three tributaries." Dancing, however, is always a pleasure.