They say it takes a village to raise a child, but what if I told you a community has an even more important role than just raising the young? In fact, one of the ways to measure the strength of a community is by the practices of ancient civilisations still remembered.
The ancient city of Mapungubwe was powerful but when its citizens left home, a lot of that civilisation was wiped out. The few artifacts left tell a story of a life and world far gone and I can't help but mourn all the things in between that we will never know. Colonisation also wiped out a lot of indigenous knowledge which showed how strong our ancient communities of Africa were.
But despite this, some communities have been so resilient that time has helped their legends grow bigger and ever more important - in a world where we are waking up to respect and seek out more about our ancestors and the ways they lived. These communities which have preserved their knowledge can become beacons of wisdom for the rest of us.
Communities like the one in Mbokota in Elim where ancient artistic practices are taught from generation to generation without any formal art education. The community has produced world renowned artists like Jackson Hlungwani and Thomas Kubayi, without a single day at art school.
Instead, after modern day school, the kids in the community gather at the homes of legends such as Kubayi to learn about ancient instruments and art. They learn to interpret the dreams their ancestors communicate about ancient healing practices and how to carve wood in the shape that "the wood wants to be", says the elder Kubayi on one of our visits to his studio.
In Giyani, the community of Baleni has been at the centre of salt mining in the Klein Letaba River. They use the same tools which were used by their ancestors before them, 2,000 years ago. The mining can only be done by women; this is their tradition. For over 2,000 years, they have also navigated modernisation, apartheid and patriarchy. But they insist that there is nothing more important than preserving the knowledge of their ancestors which guides them - and the ancient rituals and practices in salt mining which are connected to abundance and nature in the area.
For civilisations which didn't want to leave anything to chance, they have literally left the instructions carved and written in stone. On Mapungubwe Hill, you can find traces of the holes which were carved into limestone which were the foundations of the houses that they lived in over 1,000 years ago as well as the games they used to play like moruba and diketo.
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And in the Blouberg mountains, next to the home of world renowned tour guide Jonas Tlouama, is the history of the San, Khoi and Bapedi people who ran from a war of brother against brother in Botswana. One brother wanted to lead his people and forced the other to run across to Limpopo with his loyal supporters who made a home in Limpopo under the name of the Bahananwa people. These three civilisations have their paintings on the rocks of the mountains detailing how life was between 100 and 200 years ago, from coming of age ceremonies to how households lived, the food they ate and their spirituality.
There are even paintings of when Paul Kruger came to arrest their chief Malebogo on the mountains and depictions of the chief's transportation by train to Pretoria. These stories which have been preserved now make up a large part of the tourism in the province. Showing that in our history, there is life and that there our future lies.
Photos by Love Limpopo: Artist in Mbokota during one of the after school sessions teaching kids about musical instruments.
