We had the chance to learn about local Shangaan culture a little bit tonight. Shangaan people are from the Bantu group, and are closely related to Zulus, Swazis, and Xhosa peoples.
We went to a show that had live dancers and singers. We walked in after dark down a torchlit path to the sound of traditional drumming. We were welcomed with a drink of a local fermented cream beer. It's called mageu, and it's usually homemade out of corn, it was white, a little bit thick, slightly sweet, and had just a little bit of a sharp taste to it. It was certainly not beer in any sense of anything I've ever seen!
The traditional dancers sang songs and drummed, there was no other music. There were three men dressed in traditional clothes, with long white sheepskin ankle covers (traditionally to protect from thorns in the bush) and long front pieces made from springbok pelts. One had sheep fur crossing his chest (he was the only actual Shangaan in the group, and he danced the Zulu dances and lead the Zulu singing). The other two men were Swazi, and while similarly dressed, they had sheepskin armbands instead of chest straps. There were a number of women, most of whom were dressed on colorful woven cloth wraps. The cloth had either pictures of a crown or pictures of the Swazi king woven into them. There were three more women who wore bras and skirts that were made of strips of cloth. If truly traditional, they would have danced topless, the bras were surely a bid to the sensibilities of tourists. These women were actually Zulu and danced the Zulu dances. The Zulu dances were very fierce, with lots of high kicking and aggressive arm movements. This was meant to suggest hunting and going to war. The Swazi dances had more foot rhythm and occasionally looked like they could be something that might show up in a club in the US.
After they danced and sang, they invited us to dance as well.
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