While visitors are captivated by the peace and beauty of Tshulu Camp, the highlight of many people’s visit to Hamakuya is staying a number of nights in a community homestead. Accompanied by guides who translate and facilitate, visitors are invited to take part in the ordinary tasks of everyday life in rural Venda. These include fetching water and collecting firewood, looking after cattle, driving donkey carts, and cooking traditional food over an open fire with ingredients gathered from gardens or the bush. More seasonal activities might include smearing dung floors, thatching, or brewing marula beer. Visitors are also welcomed into their hosts’ leisure and social lives, and may be invited to church, a football game, or a Tshikombela dance practice. Neighbors are always curious and visits often result in long discussions, or music and story-telling sessions.

 

The home-stay programme enjoys such remarkable success because it avoids the theatricality of ‘cultural villages’, and provides an environment for meaningful interaction between visitors and hosts. The structure of the programme offers significant agency and self-determination for the hosts, and visitors benefit from being in a safe, organised community that is exceptionally welcoming towards outsiders.

 

If you'd like to see what past visitors thought of their home-stays, have a look at our blog section.