Trade Beads
When I am in Cape Town I always look for trade beads. Some are hundreds of years old and date back to the times when Venice was dominating the commerce with Africa. Nowadays we associate glass beads with African handicraft. Strangely enough they first moved the other way. They were shipped from Europe to Africa as payment for African goods like ivory and precious wood. The skill to make beads from coloured glass came from Italy. I love to wear these tokens of a to- and-fro between Europe and Africa.
I had found the green one in Victoria. The small Zimbabwean town is closest to the mighty Victoria falls. Mosi-oa-Tunya, The Smoke that Thunders are they called by the local people. Indeed you see the foam of the water rising high above the jungle when the plane is approaching Victoria airport. Like the Iguazu Falls between Argentina and Brazil one can see the Victoria Falls from two countries. I also saw them from Zambia, but I think they are best admired from the Zimbabwean side not to speak of the intimate boat rides one can do on the Zambezi.
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| © dMZ, pixabay |
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Bulawayo News 24, 10 July 2017
Dimbangombe, the farm I stayed on is the only one to combine game farming with cattle breeding. The Africa Centre for Holistic Management applies a sustainable concept of farming and is carrying on against all odds in the politically and economically extremely difficult environment of Zimbabwe. With the farm manager I went to have a drink at the venerable Victoria Falls Hotel. It cost him a fortune because of the worthless local currency. At the farm they use to barter with suppliers of necessary goods to get around taking money in hand, so he told me. On my very first day while walking in the tall grass I saw my first Kudu raising his elegant horns above the bush. You don’t have to go on a safari to see elephants. They often roam the streets of Victoria.
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