Deeper south

Since the IBJ team members have lives here, we do most of our work on the weekends and last weekend was our busiest yet. We headed south near the border with South Africa to the Lavumisa area – Swaziland’s poorest and most troubled section, in which all the problems seem to compound one another. The HIV/AIDS infection rate is as high as 70% here, which often leaves children heads of households, which forces them to drop out of school, which means they don’t have job skills, which increases the poverty, which, ultimately, further exacerbates the education, disease and crime problems.

IBJ was there to address the crime problem specifically, or rather to instruct the community police officers on how to deal with the criminal element. These rural areas rely on an entirely volunteer force with little organization, no uniforms, and little-to-no training and they often resort to extreme measures to capture and detain criminals. At the first workshop of the weekend in the village of Matsanjeni, we heard about one man who was inadvertently killed by the police during his arrest after allegedly stealing a chicken. Click here to check out the IBJ blog post from both workshops with photos.

On a lighter note, we had to stay overnight in the south for the next day’s workshop so we had a braai (short for braaivleis, or “meat grill”), which is basically a really festive barbeque. It was at some South African businessman’s former mansion that was seized by the government and turned into a guesthouse (where some of the team stayed, but not us; we got a much smaller, noisier guesthouse). It had 3 of the 4 elements of a successful barbeque: meat, beer and music. Majority rules, it was a success. The only missing element was warmth. It was freezing and it was a little too crowded around the fire, so we had to dance to keep warm.

























The next day’s workshop in nearby Ngelane was even more remote and shocking than the previous. We were pretty late because we got lost. Even Sibusiso (pictured below) didn’t know where we were and he grew up near the area.

Once we got there, the team decided to hold the workshop outside among the cattle, which was nice because I didn’t have to shoot in darkness for once.

Though they hadn’t killed anyone in recent memory, we learned that the community police regularly beat suspects until they lose control of their bodily functions. Though it was entirely in siSwati (translated by the team), you could tell how commonplace and acceptable this was. Hopefully the workshop left a good impression and things will get better. It seems like these workshops are very effective. At first I thought the team would be viewed as elitists and dismissed by these communities, but that’s really not the case. I think it really helps that Dube and the team are all universally likeable people.

Apart from its socioeconomic problems, the southern part of the country is gorgeous. It’s a little more arid than central Swaziland, where we’re staying, and it’s a little reminiscent of the Rocky Mountain foothills in Colorado and New Mexico, but, somehow, uniquely Swazi. I’m fighting the urge to suggest a visit because Swaziland is not really a destination I would recommend, but if you’re ever in South Africa, dip in for a day or two and you’ll see what I’m talking about.