MANGETTI

Mangetti is a village in the Kavango region that exists solely for the Mangetti cattle ranch: once the largest in the world, and still extremely enormous. James teaches at Mangetti Combined School, which is for the children of the cattle ranch employees. Many learners must live essentially as orphans in huts near the school, while their parents live up to 90km away on the post to which they are assigned. The people are very very poor, and the village is remote and in the bush, and thus quite underserved and much more traditional than mine. They are of a different tribe and speak a different language (Rukwangali) than mine (Oshiwambo).

Of the 353 learners at Mangetti Combined school, 80 are orphans and 86 are listed as “vulnerable,” which is a government title to show they are especially poor or at risk. In the cold winter mornings (below 50 degrees Fahrenheit!), many many many had nothing but their uniform: thin, short sleeve button-up shirt and skirt/slacks to wear. No sleeves, socks, hats, gloves…(yes, clothing drive!)

James and his learners converted an unused classroom into a library for the school, and held an opening ceremony for the community. The choir sang, the cultural teams performed, the women sold fatcakes and traditional brew, and, of COURSE, a soccer game was held. Because how else would you celebrate a library opening? :)

I love how babies are carried in Namibia!

James reading to some beautifully dusty kids who can't understand
a bit of English, but eagerly (and adorably) repeated every word.

Before I go on, I must insert a quick vocabulary review:

Afrikaaners: the German colonizers of Namibia and South Africa. Many were born here and are technically “Namibian,” but the cultures are completely divided. They even have German accents! Many Namibians and Afrikaaners do not get along, of course, because Namibia just gained independence from them 19 years ago. Thus many Namibians and Afrikaaners actually battled against one another in the war, Afrikaaners instituted apartheid, and there is still massive racism and discrimination.

Location: the collection of huts and embos which create a neighborhood.

Embo: a family’s homestead, which consists of a number of huts usually surrounded by a fence of grass or mahangu stalks. There is a kitchen hut, a tara-tara (which is essentially the living room), sometimes a guest hut, then other huts serving as bedrooms.

Mahangu: grows on an ear on a stalk, like corn, but consists of tons of teeny seeds. In America, mahangu is used as birdfeed. In Namibia, the seeds are ground into flour.

On with the story:

James spent the first term in the guest house of the cattle ranch, but, after being told by the Afrikaaners who run it that he could not have black people over (!), he chose to move into a hut in the “location” (that is the extremely short version of a sad story). He lives in his friend Thomas’ embo, which has 5 huts and one more he is helping build.

Hut life is TOUGH! There is no electricity, of course. There is a water tap to walk to, shared by the others in the community, but it only has water for a few hours each day. So you need to catch it when it’s running and fill up. And life in a hut is LOUD! Roosters do NOT wait for dawn when they cock-a-doodle-doo! There was one in particular who I glared at every day as I walked by. I could recognize his voice that he was the sucker always having parties in the middle of the night.

(view from inside the hut. Yes, the doorway is about 3.5 feet tall.)

The shower! You have to squat and use a bucket. If you stand up straight you can wave to the people walking by on the other side of the fencing!

Mangetti's electricity

James told his principal, Mr. Kalihonda, that I’d like to try a few traditional duties or activities while I spent time there, so we went to their embo and pounded mahangu. It is hard work!!! You pour the seeds into a deep, hollowed out tree trunk. Then take a tall (heavy) wooden post and slam it into seeds to mash them. Woo! It’s tough! Once you have pounded them to a powder, you sift it and then you have flour. James tried it too, which gave the ladies endless delight, they exclaimed “mpandu mitili!” (Thank you teacher!) It is not a man’s work.

Meme Kalihonda on the right

The next day Mr. Kalihonda invited us over for lunch, and we got to taste the fruits of our labor. We had oshifima – a porridge made of the mahangu flour, also a second porridge made of maize flour, mutete (a spinach-style vegetable), a chickpea dish, and they also ate chicken. It was interesting because I expected to eat with the whole family, but his wife and children sat outside while we ate in the kitchen hut. I asked after if I could help clean up (I have no idea what is appropriate behavior as a woman, but also guest, and did not want to offend). Mr. Kalihonda advised me to present an empty dish to his wife and say “mpandu.” I threw in “ezuva lye wa,” which she had taught me earlier during the mahangu pounding session. It means “have a nice day.”