Living Museum: Music, Actors and
Sotho Architecture

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Live Actors


 

 The well known Basotho Cultural Village is situated in the QwaQwa National Park about 60 km from Harrismith on the Golden Gate Road (R712).

This Cultural Village takes you for a walk down the path of time - experience their lifestyle, hospitality, arts and crafts, riddles, fables and marvellous tales. Go on a Basotho pony and herbal Trail

In his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, President Nelson Mandela expresses his feelings for the Free State as follows: ``The Free State landscape gladdens my heart, no matter what my mood. When I am here I feel that nothing can shut me in that my thoughts can roam as far as the horizons. "

The Eastern Free State is home to grandeur of regal proportions. People who live here consider this to be Gods own country. This untouched pristine area takes you well beyond the realms of history. The Basotho nation living here has for generations been exposed to the awesome beauty of nature. Making their homes at the foot of majestic sandstone cliffs and surrounded by proteas and with abundant wildlife, the Basotho has developed a culture unprecedented in Africa .

It is here that the Basotho Cultural Village nestles in the heart of the Qwaqwa National Park , some mere stone's throw away from the world-renowned Golden Gate area.
The Cultural Village takes you for a walk down the pathway of time. It is here where the lifestyle and architecture of the South Sotho is accurately depicted from the sixteenth century to the dramatically colourful present.

Follow the guide's footsteps into the "khotla", the gathering place of men. Accept the Basotho hospitality by taking a sip from the traditional beer offered. Listen to the rangoon and lesiba and engage in a game of marabaraba.

Consult the ngaka, the captain's advisor, in his professional capacity as traditional healer and allow him to enlighten you as he has been doing for centuries.

Step into the home of either the first, second or third wife and move to the rhythm of the women grinding the maize and sifting beer.

Pass the tokened where grandmothers used to gather the young girls around them to initiate them in folklore by ways of riddles, fables and marvelous tales.

The huts are built and furnished according to the time frame depicted by each one. The interior and exterior decoration of huts is done by the Basotho women. It is called litem' and can still be admired on a drive through the Free State rural areas. The colours are extremely vibrant and dramatic.

At our reception you are guaranteed Basotho hospitality at its best. The art gallery boasts work of local artists and a permanent photographic exhibition of the building process of the village and litem' art in the Eastern Free State . Our curio shop offers a wide variety of Basotho arts and crafts.

There is nothing like a warm traditional Basotho meal in our sandstone amphitheatre and the entertaining sounds of the accordion and drum to complete an unforgettable experience. The heart of the visitor is finally won over by
the majesty of the surrounding landscape and by the spiritual ethos of the beautiful Basotho people dancing, singing and rejoicing in sheer well-being and to their heart's content.

Matlakeng Herbal trail:

One of the innovations at the Basotho CulturalVillage is a walking trail that takes the visitor along a typical sour grass veld habitat below some impressive sandstone cliffs, running through age-old woodland and clear unpolluted mountain streams.

A social ecologist and a ngaka (healer) escort the groups on this fascinating trail and their speciality is locating an array of grasses, roots, herbs, leaves and bark in the
veld and then explaining how these are prepared to cure ailments ranging from toothache to sexually transmitted diseases, or again their ritual use.

A certain leaf is dried and crushed into a powder. After a death in the family it is smeared onto the bodies of living relatives to relieve their pain. Eye and ear infections are treated with roots that have been ground into pulp.

And to ward off lightning, a major cause of fire in these thatched villages, a leaf is chewed and spat to the winds.
En route you will also visit well-preserved Rock Art, depicting eland, rhino, a giraffe and a lion in a kill.

Do yourself a favour and experience the crisp mountain air and breathtaking scenery on this trail.

The trail takes roughly two hours to complete and is not too strenuous. Sturdy walking shoes or boots are recommended and warm clothes in winter.

You might just be privileged to spot the rare bearded vulture or black eagle roaming the clear blue sky.