Show Notes
In this episode Manchán speaks to Sie from Zimbabwe. 'I’d appreciate for Irish people to understand me as a person, not me as an African, or me as a continent,’ says Sie who comes from a village without electricity in a northern province of Zimbabwe called Lubane. She stresses that her family had access to a bore hole for water but other neighbours still fetch it daily from the river. She says it was a difficult life of long trips to fetch firewood and a 6km hike to school each day through the bush, but looking back now on it she says she appreciates many of its positive aspects.
She has fond memories of gathering worms from the mopani trees, which the family dried, then used to cook by soaking them in water, then boiling and frying them. They’re crunchy, delicious and rich in protein.
'The good thing about the village it teaches you your culture, values, a sense of belonging, but we are living in a world that is evolving they still don’t have electricity, still don’t have sanitary system. But I still appreciate what's there. My father still lives in the village.'
Home Stories was funded by Creative Ireland alongside the county councils of Laois and Westmeath.
More from Home Stories with Manchán Magan
In this episode Manchán speaks with Tika from in a town in the southern part of Malawi, Blantyre. Her happiest memories are of her secondary school and the beautiful places they visited, ‘like Mount Mulanje which translates in the local language as ‘you don’t go there’, as people believed there were ghosts there that used to take people. This is because you need a guide there, or you won’t easily find your way back.
In this episode Manchán sits down with Fortunate from Zimbabwe. Fortunate grew up in a village in a mountainous region of Zimbabwe with many dangerous snakes, ‘All the mambas that you've ever heard about are in those mountains: black mamba, green mamba, white mamba. And we've got baboons - when we plough our maize they come to steal from us.’
In this episode Manchán speaks with Ivann from from the Guatemalan city of Quetzaltenango. He had to flee his home when drug cartels moved into the region. ‘It's close to the border with Mexico and five or ten years ago terrorists with guns set up in the area with drugs, and it changed everything, especially for the kids. Now it is very dangerous.’
In this episode Manchán speaks with Lwandise from Zimbabwe. Lwandise comes from a small farm of cattle, sheep, goats and other animals in Matebeleland South, Zimbabwe. His family also ‘grew grains so that we can feed our families throughout the year until the next rains.’ His father practised polygamy and so Lwandise had five siblings from his mother’s side and twelve from his father’s. Everyone was reared as part of the one family, ‘boys have their own rooms and girls have theirs, regardless of which family. It was a very good way of being brought up as there is always someone in the house for you. There is always a mother. In the village the more you are as a family the healthier you are, the more you can do and the more you can produce.’
In this episode Manchán has a chat with Nididi from Nigeria. Ndididi is from the eastern part of Nigeria from a village ‘that is like a city also, as all the amenities of the city are there. My own village even has a university. There is a big thick forest there, and a river, and a market and schools. There is electricity also. It is very beautiful.’ Their local market is renowned and people ‘from other cities, far and wide come to do their market there. People bring many foods and some people trade by barter. They might bring crayfish, and if they don't have money, they will exchange it for something else.’