Here are more pictures of the Covelo Yoga and Healing Festival last weekend, May 29 to June 1. Please let me know if you don’t want your picture posted here.
More photos on the next blog entry. Higher-resolution versions of the photos are available upon request.
Here are more pictures of the Covelo Yoga and Healing Festival last weekend, May 29 to June 1. Please let me know if you don’t want your picture posted here.
More photos on the next blog entry. Higher-resolution versions of the photos are available upon request.
Thanks to Yoga Daddy and everyone else who organized and contributed to the Covelo Yoga and Healing Festival last weekend, May 29 to June 1. I’ve posted some pictures of the event below… please let me know if you don’t want your picture posted here.
More photos on the next blog entry. Higher-resolution versions of the photos are available upon request.
Amazing experience and good speaker:
After relaxing for a day at the Ancient City Lodge, I went to visit the Great Zimbabwe Monument site. I had reserved in advance an archaeologist as a guide.
OVERVIEW:
Hill Enclosure
Valley Enclosures
Great Enclosure
Museum
References
HILL ENCLOSURE:
Arriving at the Hill Enclosure, one passes through what was probably an ancient guard station
Climb uphill passing through narrow passages between boulders where defenders could have thrown boulders onto invaders to prevent entry and protect city
At summit, enter past double walls into a clearing where the king’s huts were built (one on top of another over time, possibly demolished as each king died, with new hut built on remains of the old, ending up with the stratified layers several meters deep excavated by archaeologists)
King’s platform short climb above the clearing. Thought to be the chikuva of the Hill Enclosure. A chikuva is traditionally a part of the kitchen far from the entrance where people pray to spirits for protection or good fortune. When a person dies, their relatives lay their body overnight in the chikuva before burial.
One of the famous Great Zimbabwe birds was found in the chikuva, representing what is probably an eagle of as yet unknown species.
Next comes what was probably the homesteads of the king’s closest and most prestigious advisors.
The Recessed Enclosure, named after the recesses in its far wall, is thought to have been the home of the spirit mediums.
A short walk on a downhill path brings you to the Cave where ore was likely stored and where the spiritual leadership likely prepared for rituals. Also, the cave acts as a natural megaphone for communicating messages to the Valley Enclosures and Great Enclosure far below.
Walking uphill along another nearby path, one reaches the Furnace Enclosure used for ore smelting, including iron and possibly gold work.
A bit further uphill is the Ritual Enclosure or Sacred Enclosure. Six birds were found there, then stolen in the late 19th century by a European archaeologist.
Many of the birds have toes that look like human toes.
There were at least two platforms within the Ritual Enclosure, one on each side. Probably two of the birds rested on each platform, facing inwards toward the people sitting around the edge at the rear (downhill side of the enclosure). The king’s advisers and the diviners likely sat on platforms arranged upward on the hill. The king likely presided over the rituals seated on top of a large boulder well above everyone else, a small wall seen on the left side when facing him, probably accompanied by guards.
The ritual likely consisted of drinking beer, chanting, clapping, and dancing until sweaty, which produced states of possession by the spirits.
According to Matenga, three cows were sacrificed: one for the crowd, a second for the spirits, and a third carcass taken to the jungle for the spirit lions. If the carcass was found eaten the next day, it meant the spirits were pleased; otherwise, additional measures might have to be taken to appease the spirits.
Sometimes the purpose of the ritual was to dance for rain.
King’s lineage passed from older to younger brother starting with first wife, then second wife, etc. King usually had over 200 wives living in Valley Enclosures. Continued on to sons if all brothers had served as King.
VALLEY ENCLOSURES:
Thought to be where the king’s wives lived in about 50 households with two to three wives per household.
Judicial court for commoners in one field with appeal only rarely to “supreme court” of King’s council.
Also the location of an enclosure where imported treasures were found, called the Royal Treasury.
GREAT ENCLOSURE:
Theories:
First wife of king may have lived there
Maybe a school of initiation and ethics there
Evidence includes phallic objects found there and a decorated beam with crocodile and other symbols
Children’s play area near front entrance(s)?
OR perhaps the (last?) king shifted residence from the Hill Enclosure to the Great Enclosure
The enclosure has the shape of a womb
The outer and most recent wall of the Great Enclosure curves around like a python biting its tail with the earliest construction at the lower end of the tail and later construction toward the head, including the layer of chevron decoration over the newer part of the outer wall.
MUSEUM:
Power was out at the museum, but luckily I had brought a torch. No pictures allowed. 🙁
Exhibits as far as I remember included:
History of Great Zimbabwe
Models of Enclosures
Crops: sorghum, millet, and one other
Tools: adze, spears, etc.
The Zimbabwe Birds (the piece de resistance!)
The Forge
Cotton and Textiles – Weaving
Trans-Continental Trade
Zoomorphic stool (said to walk around to fetch water on command of magician)
REFERENCES:
Provided by guide:
Hall, Martin. Farming Communities.
Hoffman, Thomas. Snakes and Crocodiles.
Hoffman, Thomas. Symbols of a Nation: Unveiling the Mysteries of Great Zimbabwe.
Matenga, Edward. Bird book (which I purchased there)
Garlake, Peter. Many books.
Mudhenge, Stan. Political History of Munhumutapa.
Pikirai, Innocent. The Archaeology of the Mutapa Empire.
Thanks to Senior Tour Guide Francis Muchemwa, Great Zimbabwe World Heritage Site, P.O. Box 1000, Masvingo, Zimbabwe, tel. +263 039 265084 or 262080, mobile 011 760824, email francismuchemwa@yahoo.com (send copy of book)
I took the bus from Harare to Masvingo.
Then, on January 20, 2008, I made it to the Great Zimbabwe Monument, outside Masvingo, Zimbabwe, by paying off a local gas station owner who was willing to undercut the price offered to me by unscrupulous taxi operators in town.
I stayed at the stunning Ancient City Lodge, which is itself a recreation of the grounds of ancient Great Zimbabwe. The hotel is one of the best hotels where I’ve stayed anywhere in the world and certainly an amazing find in Zimbabwe. Tip: the price in South African rand was much more reasonable than the US dollar price for some unknown reason.
After resting for a day, I made my way to the monument the following day as chronicled in the following blog entry.
The Institut des Hautes Etudes et de Recherches Islamiques – Ahmed Baba (IHERI-AB), formerly the Centre de Documentation et de Recherches Ahmed Baba (CEDRAB), commonly known in English as the Ahmed Baba Institute, houses an excellent collection of historical manuscripts in Timbuktu.
We walked through Timbuktu from one manuscript library to another.
The other library also had amazing historical manuscripts.
Oshogbo (or Osogbo), the “city of peace” never dominated by foreign rulers, has a river that runs through it which the residents worship as the Yoruba goddess Osun.
I saw this amazing sacred forest, the Osun Sacred Grove, reportedly the original settlement of the founders of Oshogbo starting more than 400 years ago. Now a long-term Oshogbo resident in her 90s, Austrian artist Suzanne Wenger (or Susanne Wenger?) helped over the years to restore the grove with fantastic Yoruba sculptures and was ordained as a priestess of the cult of the deity Obatala – the god of creation.
Toward the end of the visit at the main grove, I returned to the area by the Osun River and near the ceremonial dwelling, which was a kind of palace. The residents didn’t want me to take pictures unless I paid lots of baksheesh. I had already paid to take pictures when I paid the admission fee, so I decided to let the pictures of the palace go and take pictures of everything else instead. 😉
I found some more sculptures and shrines on my way back to the entrance.
At the entrance to the grove, I found out there is another whole area down the street that I hadn’t seen, so I broke out some more baksheesh to see the place.
After leaving the portion of the grove, I saw lots of sculptures alongside the access road on the way out.
I have located a place in Lagos to replace my lost laptop power adapter, so… Life is good! More after I get my laptop working again.
Written on December 16, 2007, at the museums, and on December 25, 2007, Fajol Castle Hotel, Abeokuta, Nigeria
I couldn’t pick up my Togo visa in Cotonou because it turned out it was the weekend, so I headed to the station for Porto Novo.
In Porto Novo, I stayed at the amazing Centre Songhaï, which was not only a hotel but also an entrepreneurial venture designed to inspire and empower African youth. I sampled their jams and a variety of juices produced there, including baobab, pineapple, and a bit-too-strong ginger. They had signs up around the premises explaining a bit of the philosophy of the place, including an integrated approach to design and industry.
My expedition walking to town included a visit to the Musée Ethnographique and the Musée Honmé.
The Musée Ethnographique has exhibits related to birth, life, and death in cultures throughout Benin, including Gelede masks of the Yoruba as well as artifacts related to Betamaribe aka Samba (NW) and Patombou (NE) peoples. Léonard gave me a tour of the museum. There was also a Yoruba “statue” of a man with false breasts and a mask worn on top of his head carrying twins, one in each arm. Yoruba revere women as having the power of life and twins as a gift of the gods.
I avoided a trip inside the Musée da Silva, despite the well-done bas reliefs about slavery on the museum’s exterior, and despite the admonitions of a fellow hanging out on the street who worked there.
I came across this temple-like edifice labeled Zangbeto Kphkli-Yaou with a fascinating altar on the premises.
The Musée Honmé was the palace of the kings of Porto Novo from the late 17th to 19th centuries.
Currently under renovation with a guide who explained very well the history of the place. There were courts of the king, the queen mother, a gri-gri room for the king, the “chambre noire” for committing royal suicide, a kitchen with a divinity used to check the food for poison by a change in color, a tree of justice and some prison cells, the king’s toilet, the queen’s bathing area (although they lived elsewhere and came to the palace for 21-day stays during which they danced for the king in hope of being chosen to spend the night with him). Cannon were purchased for 15 male slaves or 21 female slaves from the French and perhaps also earlier from the Portuguese. A waiting room for visitors used so the king could check with a divinity about their intentions. Also had a mound representing Legba, a protective divinity, and representations of other divinities, as well as metal houses for ancestors. The king didn’t die — he went on a voyage. He didn’t bathe because he was always proper — he just refreshed his body. He didn’t eat — he adored the food.
Returning to the hotel, I relaxed, ate dinner, and visited the Internet cafe. I also met the Director of the Songhaï Center who helped me clear up a billing problem for telephone calls that wouldn’t work properly to the U.S.
