Today, we were introduced to the youth ambassadors of our partner organization I Am We Are. After a two-hour bus ride from Johannesburg to the Kingdom of Bofakeng, we arrived at the kingdom’s Community Centre where we met the kids from IAWA. After a round of brief introductions, and a short icebreaker activity, we went out for lunch with Meisha, the head of the organization, and the kids. This wasn’t just any ordinary lunch though. The Kingdom of Bofakeng is just that: a kingdom. It is a fully functioning traditional society operating within South Africa. For hundreds of years the people of the Bofakeng Nation have been living as a traditional society, and the center of that society is their king. Even today, he is treated with the same reverence and respect as rulers of the past, and we got to have lunch with him. It was an event. After quick group photos, we were served a traditional South African meal at the five star hotel he owns, and a lucky few people got to sit at his table during lunch. Overall, it was a great experience and one I will not easily forget.
Our day with IAWA ended with a tour of a couple of the Bofakeng facilities. First, we got to see the Civics Center where they hold meetings to discuss things like the yearly budget, as well as a traditional Bofakeng settlement court. Next, we visited one of the area’s largest private schools called Lebone. Nestled high in the mountains, the school’s size and scale rivaled that of an American college campus. It mixed modern architecture with traditional Bofakeng symbolism to create a truly stunning piece of architecture. Last, we visited a soccer stadium in the heart of the kingdom. The stadium itself was impressive, but the reason it was built was to host the 2010 World Cup, which I find to be the most noteworthy fact about it. Finally, after a long day of touring we went to the mall for dinner before heading to our hotel to sleep.
Reflecting on the day, I found this part of the trip to be the most interesting. Here, in the Bofakeng Kingdom, we find a mini-nation, with its own functioning law enforcement and government as well as over $1 billion in assets, in the middle of not only a fully functioning country, which is a feat all its own, but an African country, a continent not often associated with wealth and prosperity. I’d never seen anything like it before now. A society living under its own laws, operating within the border of another country, and thriving at that. While the relationship between the state and the Bofakeng government was interesting, the best part of the experience in my opinion was meeting some of the people. The people of this kingdom were wholly and fully committed to bettering their nation through education. A good, solid education was the foundation of many of the kingdom’s major programs. The people that we met, including the king, truly believed that education is the key to success, and further from just believing it, they took steps to make it the best it could it be. Educating the youth seemed to be a top priority for the Bofakeng people, a value I would like to see embodied with such commitment everywhere in the world.
Miles R., Georgetown Day School