Whew , long time no update huh?
Thing is, we have more English assignments (cleverly disguised under the name "writing a reaction paper" meh. And as for the other subjects, for some reason our Afrikaans lecturers seem to be set on making us read the most boring (and ironically,the most important) novels in the history of the language. So now we're stuck with "The travels of Poppie Nongena" , apparently a famous book that has been translated into several languages.
This book just highlights for me what cultural differences there are between people ; like the indigenous tribes (yes there are still tribes in South Africa, whoohoo!) and their habits and customs. A few I have gleaned from the pages ::
1. First and foremost, the men are honoured and the women are posessions purely there for caring for her husband and bearing offspring.
Women are "bought" from a family, the man pays 'lobola' (a wedding price so to speak, an example would be a small herd of cattle ) So there's no emotion involved. The women also have to marry very early, by the time they are 26 they typically have 4 children or so. So there's no contraception to speak of
2. When the wife finally meets her parents-in-law, she may not look her father-in-law in the eye or shake his hand, simply go to sit on the other side of the room, and not on a chair. The men sit on the chairs, the women sit on blankets on the floor. They may also not call their husbands by their name, they must call him (e.g. Tata-ka-Themba, which means "Father of Themba", where Themba is the firstborn) Also, they try to have alot of children ,because they live together in one house (anything from 3-9 people in a two-roomed house) and everyone has to contribute to the household funds. Daughters above 13 stay home to care for the mother's babies.
3. The food: their staple food is maizemeal and sour milk. They often crush maize and let it soak in water overnight , then cook it the following morning and add sour milk, its then called "inquoqo" or something like that. Also cooked meat and potatoes.
Just goes to show you...
Anni 
