Tree Sleepers
Try wedging yourself in a tree where a branch meets the trunk and take a succession of 10 minute naps throughout the night. This is how the bushmen traditionally slept and how they became known as tree sleepers. How they managed to procreate is a mystery.
At the end of the Tsumeb training we stayed on a campsite called “tree sleepers” which has canopies built high in the tree canopy on which you can erect your tent (no slinging legs over branches here). The bushmen are ancient nomadic tribes of hunter gatherers but the hunting bit has been radically curtailed since the government naturally does not like the stock of animals in the game reserves being depleted. Consequently, the bushman’s self sufficient way of life and culture is dying and they will all eventually live in corrugated tin shacks in a rundown township and sit around drinking homebrew with the other unemployed. It’s called progress.
As dusk fell we sat around a large campfire holding bits of dough on long sticks over the glowing embers of a wood fire. We ate kudu (a kind of large antelope) in all its manifestations. We ate it roasted, stewed, minced, boiled and pounded to death into a kind of powder. Kudu is very versatile and very tasty. Unfortunately, Mr Sainsbury does not stock it yet. Get some when he does. After this we had the traditional bushman desert of ice-cream. I think it may have been black mambo flavour.
The best, however, was yet to come. We were led by young George (a traditional Bushman name) in a torchlight procession through the pitch-black night to a circle in the forest where a large fire was already blazing. On one side was a group of about ten young bush people (average age, maybe 15 years) in traditional bushmen costume (ie. not much at all, maybe just a scrap of animal skin to cover their modesty). They performed a variety of traditional dances one of which closely resembled the “ant” dance (see Tsumeb 1). The boys shuffled around in a very close approximation to ice skating and the girls escorted a rather solemn faced bride to her wedding. For a few moments we were all bushmen observing and re-enacting our culture under a star-studded African sky.
Later that evening we had an electrical storm which sent those treesleeping scurrying groundwards to finish the night in the terrestrial tents.
The bush toilets deserve a mention. These are traditional porcelain surrounded by stick walls. It is notoriously difficult to find sticks that lie together without leaving gaps. This has the advantage that one can see who is approaching in sufficient time to burst into song to prevent any surprises as there are no doors in the toilets or showers. I recommend showering with a friend as this affords the opportunity for a rendition of two part harmony.
The following morning George took us on a bushwalk. He showed us how to make string, how to snare game and how to make poison (so don’t cross me!). He told us that the tastiest mushrooms grow at the base of a termite mound and he showed us how to make fire. That’s him in the picture above. I don’t think my new-found skills will be of much use in the UK.
This entry was posted on Monday, December 29th, 2008 at 10:22 am and is filed under Namibia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.