Rustic Rastas: The Mpumalanga village where everyone loves the herb

The red, yellow and green flag gently sways on a tree in front of a cluster of huts, painted in similar colours, and a heavy cloud of marijuana smoke hangs in the air.

Dreadlocked men, women and children go about their Saturday routine, which includes creating handcrafts, playing with and schooling children in African history, as reggae music plays softly in the background. After a lunch of fruits and vegetables, washed down with water or marijuana tea and homemade juice, children gather and form a circle under the tree on which the flag is mounted. Elders of this community will spend the rest of the afternoon, teaching the children about African spirituality and history.

This is a typical day in an isolated settlement on the outskirts of the rural Waterval village, northeast of Pretoria, in the former KwaNdebele homeland in Mpumalanga, Nestled along the banks of a river, the settlement is characterised by a vibrant birdlife, indigenous crops, as well as fruit trees, vegetables and a herb garden.

Then, late in the evening Sister Celiwe, who lives with her husband and three children in the settlement, takes The Citizen team on a tour of the settlement. A group of other visiting and resident Rastafarians accompany us, assisting Sister Celiwe, who is carrying her two-year-old son, in explaining their way of life. She leads the way, barefooted through thorns, to a garden patch with several dagga shrubs, and solemnly explains how the dagga plantation is the centre of their physical and spiritual wellbeing.

Members of the Rastafarian community in Waterval are seen in the village’s kitchen wherethey prepare all their meals using only food they grow themselves, 28 September 2019, Mpumalanga. Picture: Jacques Nelles

“I wore glasses for years because I had problems with my eyesight. Wisdom about the power of marijuana to heal any ailment was passed on to me and I was advised to flush my eyes with marijuana soaked in boiling water. A week later I did not need my spectacles,” Sister Celiwe, in her late 30s, says.

She has so much trust in the power of the “herb” that her children are not immunised but treated with marijuana and spiritually protected by Rastafari, former Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, and righteousness. The river flowing along the settlement is revered, worshipped and protected by the residents as it brings life in the form of water and fish.

“Most important, the river is part of us. It is nature and our responsibility is to protect nature and the environment that comes with it because we are nothing and will perish without a clean and protected environment,” she says.

The Rastafarian community begin their celebrations after their community was included in plans for a Ndebele cultural village in Waterval, Mpumalanga, 28 September 2019. Picture: Jacques Nelles

This is no ordinary Saturday evening, though. The settlement is teeming with activity, with Rastafarians having arrived with their families from as far as Cape Town and Jamaica to celebrate a milestone. The current Ndzundza king, Sipho Mahlangu, used the annual commemoration of his father, King James Senzangakhona Mahlangu, to announce plans to establish a cultural village to exploit the area’s tourism potential for job creation and economic development.

He took officials from the provincial department of arts, culture and recreation and other royal dignitaries on a tour to the Rastafarian village and said the community had been living on the periphery of society, stigmatised with their dignity trampled for far too long just because they smoked marijuana.

Ras Rainbow, a Jamaican Rasta who says he used to play soccer with Bob Marley when they were younger is seen standing in the village kitchen in Waterval, Mpumalanga, 28 September 2019. Picture: Jacques Nelles

His spokesperson and son, Sipho Mahlangu Jnr, said since the Rastafarians lived in harmony with nature, produced art and have their own settlement, they were key to local tourism. He said their relationship with the Rastafarians dates back to early 1980s when they first requested permission to occupy the land, which he said they have used productively and have protected the environment, pointing to the flocks of various birds living in the settlement’s trees.

“They are the perfect people to work with for this project. Their heritage and this area’s tourism potential will unlock job opportunities for local people. This is where everybody who needs space to work and sell their wares or services will be accommodated,” Mahlangu said.

He added that the ultimate plan is to introduce game in the area to attract tourists and let the Rastafarians look after the animals “because they do not eat meat”.

Baba Lord I is seen standing by their marijuana crops at the Waterval Rastafarian community in Mpumalanga, 29 September 2019. Their crops are often eaten by local goats. Picture: Jacques Nelles

Baba Lord I, one of the two Rastafarians who founded the village, said they were grateful for the recognition after years of brutality.

“Now we feel part of the community, officially recognised by the royal household as productive members of the society not just a group of dagga smoking, untidy people. That is why we have Rastas from all over the country and Jamaica to celebrate with us,” he said.

The settlement, he said, was part of repatriation of black people from the diaspora and that already seven families had moved into the village. There is more coming, this is going to be a vibrant indigenous village,” he added.

A Rastafarian sits under a tree near the river in Waterval, Mpumalanga, 29 September 2019. Picture: Jacques Nelles

A Jamaican woman who has already settled in the village, together with others from Jamaica in search of order, honesty and tranquillity, said she was finally home.

“All we need is a way of life, free from contamination, clean surroundings, where everything natural is free to grow. This is our place of safety, free from exploitation and brutality. There is no I here. We are one, hence everyone has dumped their colonial names for rebirth and claiming back who we are,” said the woman, who goes by the name of Firekey Tafari I.

There are an estimated 700 000 to one million Rastafarians across the world, with the largest population in Jamaica. The majority of Rastafarians are of black African descent, though a minority come from other ethnic groups. Rastafari, also known as Rastafarianism, developed in Jamaica in the ’30s and is classified by scholars as both a new religious movement and a social movement. Central to Rastafarianism is a single God – referred to as Jah – who partially resides within each individual. Source: Wikipedia

– siphom@citizen.co.za

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