Lesedi Cultural Village was the perfect start to our short South African getaway. The trip was primarily for visiting family + we made use of the Easter long weekend to explore bits here and there.
The place celebrates the glorious diversity of Africa; their tribes, particularly. Here, you have representations of the Zulu, Xhosa, Pedi, Ndebele and Basotho people.
We headed to Lesedi right after renting a car from the JNB airport. There were long queues for the car rental, and hence we missed the cultural tour in the evening, but we did get to watch Ingoma – the dance boma. To say it was “electric” and high energy demonstration of African dancing would be an understatement. Bombastic!
Short on time, we didn’t particularly get a chance to interact with the people, but staying in those tribal accommodations with the mod cons was a wonderful experience. Our rooms were in the Zulu enclave, with beehive style huts called iQukwane with straw roofs.
We were five adults and two kids, so between us, we had three rooms, one of which had a nice outdoor bath.
We strolled around early in the morning before getting ready to get the day going in a relatively timely manner.
The meals were meat centric, so we stayed away from eating dinner there, but had a very nice breakfast next morning, full of breads, fresh baked muffins, croissants better than a lot of places in the US, whole grains, muesli, fruits, jams, juice, coffee and tea.
We tried their traditional rusk, which was corn/ cornmeal, we were told.
We wandered around quickly and glanced at their art corner, which was a lot of beads that they’re famous for, before heading out to the Mpumalanga region.
I’m sure this great time here would’ve been more enriching had we gotten to spend a bit more time here. But, another time!
Gesondheid!
That looks like a fascinating experience! It would be really interesting to immerse yourself in a cultural experience like that.
Yes, first of it’s kind for us
Sound like very interesting experience, I’ve never tried something like that, but I would like to. Thanks for tips!
You must 🙂
This is a cool cultural village! I’ve never been to India, so I enjoyed reading this! Thanks for sharing.
Glad you did, though I don’t follow the Indian connection? This was South Africa 🙂
Those huts look amazing just from the outside, I was not expecting to see all that you’ve shown from inside, that bed and the bath tub, you’re not wrong in saying they had mod cons in them. South Africa has long been on my list and the culture village would be an amazing experience, I did the same thing in New Zealand at a Maori Village and it was a great experience.
Super! Added Maori Village to my ever growing bucket list 🙂
We were in South Africa for about a week and had a great time. We did tour one cultural village and it was very enlightening. I like that the whole area you were in is full of culture and life. Even the rooms you stayed in had culture and that is great.
Which one did you do, Christina?
The huts look really nice! These are perfect for tourists who want to have a taste of South African culture but don’t want to leave modern conveniences behind.
Yep, exactly that 🙂
Yep, exactly that
It must be an interesting place. I really like these round huts, they are amazing 🙂
It was. I would’ve appreciated more time there. But, next time 🙂
Fascinating place, looks like a sustainable initiative. Next time spend more time, would love to hear stories of the people of Lesedi.
This seems like it was a very interesting cultural experience! Those accommodations looked very neat! I love the straw rounded roofs
Lovely! Oh. I love the design of these houses and all the area. In Scandinavia, we have open-air museums, where they bring old traditional houses. These ones are very different from what I am used to seeing in Scandinavia and Europe.