By Julie Snorek
Today, I passed through a cultural veil towards a better understanding of how and why things happen they way they happen in South Africa. Propelled across the road from my temporary home at Wits Rural, I found myself straddling the concept of a truth and a half truth in relation to the land reform process. The road stood as the barrier or divider between dichotomous relations – community lands turned into conservancies and a new and humbling concept that regenerates land and community relationships.
My feet led me to the community side where a young woman with great verve and candor has been working on a tourism and training center called ‘Nourish.’ The land upon which she is facilitating multiple activities was designated to ‘Nourish’ only after a dozen or so chiefs signed off on a land use agreement. Garnering and maintaining land rights in the part of South Africa is highly complex and conflict-ridden. On this community land as well as so much of the lands under dispute by the same communities, people have been struggling with imaginaries of dispossession in the word and practice of conservation. Contrary to these practices, Nourish, lacking any vestige of ownership is exuberantly planting seeds and growing livelihoods upon the community’s land, bridging community life with tourism and education.
A small gift shop sells handicrafts created through the program.
Nourish first invested in artisan work, primarily for women. Yet creating art with a baby or two in one’s lap provided for quick burnout. In response, Sarah opened a creche-in-a-box, a former shipping container (many of the ‘buildings’ are shipping containers) turned classroom wherein the toddlers could play. This creche serves these woman at half the cost of what they would have paid in the town, but has better and more localized care. The creche became such a success, non-Nourish parents are now vying for positions for their children. As part of a pre-school graduation ceremony, Nourish hosted a ‘trash’shion show (a fashion show wherein all the costumes are made from items that could have been trash). The event was a fantastic success, bringing out both feminist discourses about fashion shows and a message of anti-consumerism.
Along with the creche, Nourish has started a lending library where community members can sit and read or do activities in a cool, calm space.
Nourish’s LibraryLikewise, there are spaces for tourists to relax along their journey to and from Kruger National Park. In the rooftop of the shipping container gift shop, visitors can relax and have a cool drink while looking out over the landscape.
Roof-top cafeAnd up-cycling is the name of the game here. Upcycle what you leave in the latrine for the garden, upcycle cans for the chicken wire cheetah statues, upcycle your shipping container for the classrooms, upcycle your old plastic for the table covers. The ways of consumption have not found a hold in this side of the road. This place is truly nourishing one’s soul!