This Place is Heaven

Video Transcript

For us, our culture is our life. The smoke that comes from the fire, it’s connected with our ancestors. And we’re sitting inside the smoke and fire because we know we’re all connected to each other. We share, we talk around the fire. We eat together. It’s our culture.

We treat each other as equal, not because of how much you have, what car you’re driving, what house you live in. People, they think maybe what we have is so little. For us, it’s enough. We’re happy.

We don’t understand what it means to be poor because we have everything we need. Because I live from the land.

Our ground or soil is our gold. It’s the richest thing we ever have because it gives us everything. We have plenty of land for farming. We’ve got sweet potatoes, we’ve got mielies, we’ve got veggies. And from the garden straight to the pot… still fresh as it is. We’re not putting any chemicals on our food.

We all give a hand to each other. Sometimes the old people, they can’t work the field anymore, they’re living alone, we go and do the field for that person to make sure that they’ve got food.

It’s not about one person in our village, it’s about everyone who lives in the village. We protect each other every single day.

I’m very, very happy to be born and bred in this area. This is the place that I’ve grown up, so for me, this place is like, everything in my life. We have waterfalls, we have beaches, we have gorges, we have rivers, we have clean sea. This place is beautiful and healthy. It’s like heaven.

In Pondo, we have a saying: Umntu ngumntu ngabantu nagemvelo. The person is the person because of the other people and nature. Without other people and nature you’re not a person. To be human, you must connect. I am connected with the land and other people. That’s a good life, and I’m happy. That’s all I need in my life.