Today we visited Siyanqoba in a VERY rural part of the province of KwaZulu-Natal. (There are 600,000 AIDS orphans in this province.)  It took us many hours to get there from Durban and back to Pietermaritzburg, some of it on a rough bumpy dirt road through hilly country. The name of this group means “we beat it!” They provide holistic care and support to individuals and families affected by HIV and poverty in the rural areas, including areas accessible only by foot. They organize gatherings for older community members, to create spaces for social support, connection and care, and run an after-school program that provides children with education and a nutritious meal. The SLF is a major funder of their programs.

We got the usual (now) enthusiastic, boisterous and beautiful welcome from the Siyanqoba staff when we arrived today. There were at least 50 other women from the community sitting on chairs in the hot sun outside the building where we were invited in for tea who also welcomed us warmly and adoringly. They treat us like celebrities which feels quite awkward. They were all in their best dresses and hats. We were eating and drinking inside and they got nothing until we left to visit the king. And they were still there when we got back a couple of hours later! They stayed right to the end of the day when they were each given a set of sheets, pillow cases and a towel from a city hotel that was upgrading its linens. At that point they became extremely animated, jumping up and down and yipping and putting the bag of linens on their heads! After that several of them came inside where a dance party broke out. I am really going to miss that. We may have to get a bigger venue so we can add dancing to our general meetings.

We were required to visit the King of the Zulu Nation, Misuzulu kaZwelithini. He was apparently busy elsewhere so we were greeted by his two wives, his right-hand man, and his brothers who were slouching against the wall. It was very odd. We were welcomed by more of the dancing Zulu maidens like those who entertained us a couple of nights ago and a few men in ceremonial garb. Introductions and explanations were made in their native language with translation by a young doctor with a gold Rolex watch who was also part of the community. The soft-spoken woman who welcomed us is the person who tests the maidens monthly for virginity! They feel very strongly that they are protecting these girls from disease and being used sexually by the men as well as providing them a chance for a sisterhood and, for some of the brighter ones, a bursary for tertiary education. We met one young girl who is just completing her first year of Education studies at the University of Durban. She spoke good English. Here are a couple of other interesting facts about the girls and women:

• They generally dance bare-breasted until they get close to 21 when they are able to get engaged. The men are directed not to lust after them but to look at them as children.
• The length of your skirt indicates your marital status. The young dancers wear very short skirts that basically just cover their genitals. We were directed to wear skirts well below our knees.
• Women in the Zulu nation are considered the chief breadwinners as well as taking care of the home and the children. The men contribute to society by acting as defenders, hunters and lovers.

The Zulu nation is a very patriarchal society. The right-hand man told us about a development program they run for boys as well. Every time he finished speaking the rest of the slouching men would all laugh but when the young doctor translated for us he didn’t say anything funny. They said that their nation is divided into four parts, each one headed by a servant of the king. That person selects some men from the community – both young and old – and the community itself also selects men – to form an authoritative body that helps keep the community safe. (There are also police, but this council of men is the line of first defence and decision-making.) They said that the mixture of ages helps teach the young men how to be good men and how to treat women right, but they didn’t really define what that meant. Similar to the girls, the brightest of the young men in the council will be given a bursary to attend tertiary education. The expectation, for both girls and boys, is that they will return to help out their communities. (We found out later in the evening that the King had been in court today because his half-brother his challenging his crown, based on the fact that he says the SA President did not use the appropriate process for ratifying him as the King when his father died. Check it out on YouTube: youtu.be/NOik8sQRt1U.)

The Zulu nation, in particular the rural people we met today, are very poor and have the highest youth unemployment rate in South Africa – 47%. Their homes are perched on mountainsides and they suffered terribly with flooding in 2022. (The SLF helped out with extra funding after that.) There are mobile medical clinics with sisters and nurses that come once a month to where we were today, to deal with 60 – 70 chronically ill patients – diabetes, HIV, tuberculosis and hypertension. The doctor writes them prescriptions for six months at a time, so they only have to see him twice a year and they don’t have to walk a long way to the hospital. If the patients with prescriptions don’t show up at the medical clinic, their medication is delivered to their homes. The biggest problem with these mobile clinics, however, is that most of the patients arrive very hungry (when they do home visits, they find no food in the house). The budget for the clinic doesn’t allow for purchase of any food, only a bit of porridge for those who are chronically underweight. For the diabetics, the nurses have to normalize their blood sugar with a drip before they can take their medicine. The lack of food causes problems for those on HIV medication as well. So Siyanqoba sets up a gathering to serve tea and sandwiches twice per month, one of those times on the day of the mobile clinic, not anywhere near sufficient but better than nothing.

The communities have no water. A truck comes to deliver water when it can and they have to pay from their meagre pensions for the water. They have access to electricity but it costs money as well. Most of the grandmothers get about 1500 rands ($120) per month for a pension and with that they have to buy food for themselves and their household, medication, water and electricity. It is clearly not nearly enough.

The SLF Grandmothers Campaign used to tell stories about grandmothers raising their young grandchildren and we in VG4A have been looking forward to getting some updated stories now that many of those original young grandchildren are in their twenties. We know there are some that have grown up educated and healthy and are carrying on the work of their grannies. But today we also heard that some of them, especially the rural and unemployed ones, are into drugs and crime, and sometimes abuse their grannies to get the only money that comes into their household for their own use. Today was another rather sad and discouraging day. But of course it ended up with group photos and joyous dancing. The women are so strong.

The first photo is us with some of the maidens! The one studying to be a teacher is in the middle.