Author Archives: Matthew Giles

New Shoes

Nationality: South Africa
Age: 50
Occupation: Homemaker
Residence: Granite Bay, South Africa
Performance Date: April 16, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: German, Afrikaans

Subject:

Superstition regarding new shoes.

Informant:

Anouchka Giles was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. She moved to Durban, South Africa, in her twenties and lived there until immigrating to the United States in 2012. Lee (mentioned in the script) is a close friend of Anouchka’s from her time living in South Africa.

Original Script:

“So you buy a box of shoes, the worst thing you can do is put them on the table: that’s really bad luck.”

Informant’s Background Knowledge and Relationship with this Piece:

When asked where she learned about this superstition and why she followed it, Anouchka replied “okay, and then, well I dunno this was Lee’s thing. She told me about it and until she told me about it I was okay with putting shoes on the table, now I’m not. I don’t know, I don’t know where Lee’s got these things from.” The informant did not seem to know of any reason or logic for the superstition, but trusted her friend and followed the rule (of keeping new shoes off the table) just in case there was something to it.

Thoughts About the Piece:

I understand why putting shoes on the table might be considered a bad thing to do, but if anything I would imagine that this would be more the case for used shoes, which might be dirty, as opposed to new shoes.

Tokolosh

Nationality: South Africa
Age: 52
Occupation: Pharmacist
Residence: Granite Bay, California
Performance Date: April 16, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Afrikaans

Subject:

Protection from the Tokolosh

Informant:

Graham Giles grew up in Zimbabwe, and immigrated to South Africa at the age of Sixteen, where he lived for most his life, until immigrating again to the United States in 2012.

Original Script:

“Okay, so they put bricks under their bed, because they believe that the Tokolosh – the Tokolosh is like this evil little spirit right? He’s like this evil little um… you know like the Irish believe in the Leprechaun, he’s like this evil little spirit and that and he… and um obviously he’s under the bed and, and so what you do is you put the bed up on bricks so he can’t reach up and get you, you know what I mean? And that’s why the guys are also from.. you know they come up to the bed and, I don’t want to say they jump onto bed from a bit of a distance but you know what I’m saying to you? So they’re all raised, so you’ll find even well educated people put a couple of bricks under their bed, under the foot of the bed you know what I mean? Just to raise it up off the ground so the Tokolosh can’t grab you. So the idea is that the Tokolosh is this little bad… evil spirit. He’s a little evil guy: causes problems, causes whatever, and he’s evil. So obviously you walk into your bedroom, under your bed is this little dark space – that’s where you’re going to find a tokolosh, you know?”

Informant’s Background Knowledge and Relationship with this Piece:

When asked where he learned the story, Graham just said that he can’t recall any one single person telling him about the Tokolosh, just that it was widespread, common knowledge in South Africa and Zimbabwe, and that many people fully believe in this Tokolosh, and raise up their beds for safety.

Thoughts About the Piece:

The Tokolosh seems akin to the Boogey Man, who lives under children’s beds and comes out to get them in the dark. However, while the Boogey Man is typically associated with childish fears of the dark, the Tokolosh represents a threat that even adults take seriously. From my own knowledge, I know that the Tokolosh is blamed for a whole host of problems: if something goes missing and the owner is certain that they did not lose it, he might say that it was the Tokolosh sewing trouble.

Nyami Nyami

Nationality: South African
Age: 72
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Folsom, California
Performance Date: 04/18/2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Zulu

Subject:

Nyami Nyami

Informant:

Amelia Giles grew up in Matabeleland, Zimbabwe, and lived there for most of her early life. She moved to South Africa in her late thirties and to America in her late sixties, where she lives today.

Original Script:

“The Nyami Nyami is Zimbabwe’s version of the Loch Ness Monster, and he’s a river God who is believed to inhabit the deep waters of the mighty Zambezi and, um, at the foot of Victoria falls and lake Kariba, which obviously was dammed for hydroelectric power, and this mythical god-spirit has the head of a crocodile and the body of a snake, and he was dead against anybody, um, building lake Kariba, because he felt that he was separated from his lady-love who was a similar reptile, and who was believed to have been left on the other side of the river. So, anyway, he just swears that eventually lake Kariba is going to collapse and he’ll be reunited with his love, and um… also the Zambezi river is Africa’s fourth largest river, and even today, um, as a display of solidarity, you can buy the Nyami Nyami necklace at the foot of Victoria falls, and people buy it and they wear it, and hope it will protect them from it’s wrath, and, um it’s said because he’s supposed to control all the fish in the water and whatever happens in the water. And, so that’s the story of Nyami Nyami, and um, it was obviously… the Tonga people believe strongly in the Nyami Nyami, and somehow they’ve managed to get that belief to come through to even the generation of today. When people, when they go to Victoria Falls they seem to believe the story, and that stories been going through at least three generations. And so that’s the story of Nyami Nyami, and whether he ever breaks through lake Kariba and reunites with his lady love, we just wait to see what happens.”

Informant’s Background Knowledge and Relationship with this Piece:

Amelia remembers hearing this story throughout her childhood, but only paid attention to it and started to believe the legend when she visited Victoria falls for the first time in her late teens. She knows that Nyami Nyami merchandise is commonly sold around Victoria Falls, and that his legend is widely known and believed in across Zimbabwe.

Thoughts About the Piece:

I think it’s interesting that Nyami Nyami is viewed as a wrathful God, who only appeared in the last few generations. I also think it’s interesting that a God is so strongly associated with a modern, man-made structure.

Flooring Technique

Nationality: South Africa
Age: 72
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Folsom, California
Performance Date: 04/18/2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Zulu

Subject:

Rural Southern African Flooring Technique

Informant:

Amelia Giles grew up in Matabeleland, Zimbabwe, and lived there for most of her early life. She moved to South Africa in her late thirties and to America in her late sixties, where she lives today.

Original Script:

“The local Africans in Zimbabwe who live in the rural areas obviously cannot get their hands on any cement or any modern day materials, so what they used to do, and what they probably still do today is they collect the manure from cows paddocks, from the cattle paddocks, and they mix it with soil, and they actually use it as a flooring in their little huts that they build with the thatched roof, and they smear it, almost in a plastering motion, and that is, is very very strong, it doesn’t crack, and it’s also an insect repellant. It, it definitely… they believe it stops snakes and insect from coming into their, their little huts, because of obviously the scent that it gives off. It’s not, not a scent that I could smell when I went into the huts unless it had only just been done, but they feel that, you know the snakes and the different animals can smell it. So, they don’t, um, that’s what they do.”

Informant’s Background Knowledge and Relationship with this Piece:

Amelia learned about this piece in her very young days. She remembers being a seven or eight year old girl when she first walked into a hut using this flooring technique, and has since been in many such homes. The idea of using cow feces interested her because it seemed like a weird, gross idea, but at the same time seemed to have a number of valuable properties, from being a good, hard flooring, to serving as pest repellant.

Thoughts About the Piece:

It makes sense that in rural areas where more conventional materials are hard to come by, people would develop novel ways of flooring their houses. I think it is interesting that feces were chosen as a building material, and I am surprised that they claim it to be an insect repellant: if anything, I would expect this technique to attract pests like flies and dung beetles (which are common in the area) into the house. I would guess that they just learned of some effective ways to mix it with soil and probably some other things to help it set better and change the smell.

Sadza Recipe

Nationality: South African
Age: 50
Occupation: Homemaker
Residence: Granite Bay, California
Performance Date: April 16, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: German, Afrikaans

Subject:

Recipe for sadza

Informant:

Anouchka Giles was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. She moved to Durban, South Africa, in her twenties and lived there until immigrating to the United States in 2012.

Original Script:

“okay so um, basically you got to use, well, we call it mealie meal they call it cornmeal here but it’s better if you use the fine ground one, you don’t want one that’s too course. And then basically you put water in a pot and then you add sadza – uhh mealie meal to it with a bit of salt, and then you take a wooden spoon and you stir it till it starts to bubble and get thick, and then you let it cook.. for… I would say that if you want to get rid of the bitter taste you have to let it cook for about an hour, slowly, or at least 40 minutes and then you put a stick of butter right at the end and so it becomes like a stiff kind of creamy texture to it.”

Informant’s Background Knowledge and Relationship with this Piece:

According to the informant, this recipe is traditionally from Zimbabwe. Originally, she had made phutu, a variant of this recipe that is more common in South Africa. She started making sadza when she learned the recipe from her mother in law, who had lived most of her life in Zimbabwe. According to her, sadza has a much smoother consistency which she prefers, and which her husband and his side of the family was more used to.

Thoughts about the piece:

I grew up eating sadza, and I’ve always enjoyed it. From my own experience I know that corn and cornmeal are staple food products in many regions of southern Africa, and sadza is a recipe that was developed as a means of consuming those products. Of course, this version of the recipe has been refitted: the butter is purely for taste and in poorer areas adding a stick of it would be considered a luxury. Also, these same people would often not have adjustable stoves but would instead heat their pot over an open flame. In these conditions it is easy to burn the sadza, and so it would be a better decision to cook the sadza for a shorter time, which would leave a more bitter taste.