Take a trip into a bustling township and experience the communities where the majority of South Africans live. Locals share their rich culture and traditional values, and give insights on how these merge with everyday life.
Vibrant centres of sights, smells and activity, the first thing you’ll experience is the bustling township marketplace. Expect to be greeted with music, street vendors and Spaza shops where you can find handmade and beaded crafts, ceramics and other market treasures.
• Visit bustling craft markets
• Meet a traditional healer or ‘sangoma’
• Try daring local delicacies
• Enjoy drinks at a shebeen, or local pub
By lunchtime, it’s time to test your food limits. Street food stalls often offer daring local dishes, including ‘smileys’ (or sheep’s heads) and ‘walkie talkies’ (chicken feet and heads). Wash one of these delicacies down with a millet beer, served at township taverns called shebeens.
Sangoma
A traditional healer, known as a sangoma, is a practitioner of traditional African medicine in Southern Africa. They are viewed as powerful individuals and fulfil different social and political roles in the community including divination and healing physical, emotional and spiritual illnesses. These healers are highly revered and respected in a society where illness is often thought to be caused by witchcraft, pollution or contact with impure objects or occurrences, or by neglecting the ancestors. These visits offer insights into the cultural significance of these healers, and an introduction to the powders, potions and healing salves they offer.
Craft Markets
Explore the vibrant talent and skill of local tradespeople at various craft markets, which feature sought after objects such as masks and wooden carvings, beaded dolls, wire baskets and a variety of indigenous objects from many African destinations. Impressive selections of African artwork, pottery and ceramics are also on offer, providing a one-of-a-kind souvenir.
Shebeens
A place to savour a cold drink and meet with like-minded people, shebeens played an essential role in South Africa’s pre¬‐democratic social and political history. During apartheid, shebeens often served as meeting places for political dissidents, but they have since crossed over from makeshift taverns to mainstream venues for relaxing and socialising.
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By lunchtime, it’s time to test your food limits. Street food stalls often offer daring local dishes, including ‘smileys’ (or sheep’s heads) and ‘walkie talkies’ (chicken feet and heads). Wash one of these delicacies down with a millet beer, served at township taverns called shebeens.
Amid the food stalls, look for traditional healers or ‘sangomas’, selling herbs and animal parts used to treat ailments of heartbreak and heartburn. Be sure to chat with the sangoma about your own needs and see what treatment is suggested.
In some townships, cultural and artistic precincts have been established as centres of local art, theatre and culture. Others give their turbulent history a voice in museums that detail the township’s place during apartheid times. Today, these neighbourhoods of resilient and welcoming locals give visitors a deeper glimpse into local culture.
Sangoma
A traditional healer, known as a sangoma, is a practitioner of traditional African medicine in Southern Africa. They are viewed as powerful individuals and fulfil different social and political roles in the community including divination and healing physical, emotional and spiritual illnesses. These healers are highly revered and respected in a society where illness is often thought to be caused by witchcraft, pollution or contact with impure objects or occurrences, or by neglecting the ancestors. These visits offer insights into the cultural significance of these healers, and an introduction to the powders, potions and healing salves they offer.
Craft Markets
Explore the vibrant talent and skill of local tradespeople at various craft markets, which feature sought after objects such as masks and wooden carvings, beaded dolls, wire baskets and a variety of indigenous objects from many African destinations. Impressive selections of African artwork, pottery and ceramics are also on offer, providing a one-of-a-kind souvenir.
Shebeens
A place to savour a cold drink and meet with like-minded people, shebeens played an essential role in South Africa’s pre¬‐democratic social and political history. During apartheid, shebeens often served as meeting places for political dissidents, but they have since crossed over from makeshift taverns to mainstream venues for relaxing and socialising.
