Visions of Venda

I had a brilliant opportunity to visit the Venda region in the last week: “The Land of Legends”; a land that has long been forgotten.

Through a chance encounter, I met Vince – an incredible man from the UK who walks with the Venda. The people of Bennde Mutale, perhaps the last outpost of the South African frontier within kilometers of Mozambique and Zimbabwe, have taken him in as one of their own. Vince obligingly wears many hats: teacher, taxi driver, rubbish man, community advisor and neighbor. He has built a community center housing a crèche, a home based health care office and a church. He employs a couple of villagers to manage a waste management center.

Even if we have shared only a few words, you know that I thrive on omens and unfailingly follow my gut….so, I jumped at the chance to visit Vince, Venda and her people. My intuition served me right, I had incredible experiences: I sat on a beer crate outside of a shebeen and witnessed the villagers argue about the pronunciation and spelling of my name; I waded through rivers and walked in the bush bare as the day I was born; I was embraced by toddlers and kissed their out-stretched hands; I gazed at stars from the roof of a vintage Land Rover; I collected rubbish from the side of a road that seldom sees cars; I practiced yoga underneath a baobab tree with my bare feet on red soil.

I have found home.