4:33pm
A little over a week ago we had a very important visit in my community. The new Chief of our area, Chief Gasa WaNgwane, and his new chief Indvuna, Vusi Ndlovu, came to greet everyone and proclaim his visions for his new chiefdom. The Lavumisa area, the largest chiefdom in Swaziland, has been without an appointed chief for just over 10 years since Chief Ngwane’s father, Chief Tsekwane, passed away in 2000. I’m told that this area became as large as it did because the late Chief Tsekwane was a brother to the current king, King Mswati III. In an attempt to appease a possible rival for the throne he was given a massive area of Swaziland to oversee. One person told me he was suppose to be the king, but since he was blind in one eye he was unsuitable to take the throne. If I have not mentioned this before, the King is chosen from his plethora of siblings and ½ siblings by the lack of male siblings. If only one boy is born to a certain wife and the rest of the children from that wife are female, that child is deemed to be chosen by God.
But I digress, back to my corner of the country. Every year since the death of Chief Tsekwane one of his sons from his many wives have been brought before the elders in Swaziland. Until this year, every son has been turned down. This year they agreed that this son was the one to rule over the Lavumisa area. He was then brought to the King to be re-named. I don’t actually know what his name used to be, but from now until his death he will be Chief Gasa WaNgwane. He then appointed his chief Indvuna or his second-hand man. Their credentials are quite interesting. The chief was, and I believe continues to be, a chef or cook to the King. The chief indvuna was and is a police officer. It sounds like they do not receive compensation or a salary from the government, so they are chiefdom leaders on a part-time basis.
The community greeted both of them in great numbers. Bedecked in traditional garb, a truck full of people came in chanting and cheering over a handheld microphone. Chairs were set up under a tree and the group from the back of this truck sat there. As community members we sat under a couple trees facing the bank of chairs. A cow, several goats, and a few chickens were given to the new leaders. The chief Indvuna gave a speech after a prayer was said. Even before this speech, many people were not pleased with this appointment, and predictions have been made that he will be taken out of office. As a PEACE Corps volunteer I am not allowed to talk politics or voice opinions with host country nationals. I’m actually not suppose to discuss it in a public blog form either, so I will attempt to not show my personal thoughts here as well. Anyway, quite factually, many of his statements circled around the thought that to get to the Chief for any reason you, as a community member, need to go through him first.
The topics brought up by the Chief during his 20 minute talk were a bit more goal focused. He targeted the concept of “development”. Bullet points in his speech included the need for every home to be built well and have a toilet; couples need to be faithful to each other to decrease the spread of HIV (he practices monogamy); the secondary school that the community has been attempting to build for over a year is not close enough to the shops and should be rebuilt; he wants a completely new Umphakatsi (community meeting area and Chief housing) to be built. Other things were certainly discussed, but that was what I caught at the back of the crowd. Again, I’m not going to discuss my personal reactions to this, but the main question off the lips of my community members and friends are, “with what money?”.
At this presentation he also appointed a new Indvuna (community leader) for Ekuphumleni. He asked this individual to pick a new inner council of about 10 members. Thus, our entire leadership has changed overnight. Today I found out my Make (Mother), is a part of this council. I believe she is a “super-Make” being involved in every committee possible, so that was a very good choice. Plus, the fact that she is on this usually male-only council is a good step for women’s equality in my very conservative community.
In National political news, there have been protests by university students to the Ministry of Education to restore the scholarships they used to receive. From what I understand, almost all students going to college in Swaziland are doing so with financial help from the government. Last year “free education”, or publicly funded schooling, for grades 1 & 2 started with the negative effect of scholarship cuts occurring as a consequence. Protests have occurred or have been predicted to occur semi-often during my service for a plethora of reasons. Peace Corps always puts us on Alert and restricts our travel to these areas. Being in my hot corner of the country and at least an hour walk from the nearest Swazi “newspaper”/tabloid, I don’t usually get the dish until I talk to other volunteers who live closer to the cities. Another protest in scheduled for Monday, but Ekuphumleni won’t be the wiser.
P.S. While I have been writing this blog entry Nothando and Neliswa have been napping in my hut. After school today they came into my hut probably to escape the 100+ temperatures outside and to draw. We worked on how to tell time from a clock drawing I made, and then they fell fast asleep on my cool concrete floor. :-)
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