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JJust south of Dutywa (also called ‘Idutywa’) off the N2 highway in the rural wilds of Eastern Cape, you’ll find a sign that reads, ‘Icamagu Institute’.
The property it directs you to embraces a modest cultural village of a few rondavels, a nursery, a vegetable garden and a herb garden – but the woman behind the project is a veritable force of nature.
An author of cultural and spiritual works, Dr Nokuzola Mndende is a former lecturer in comparative religions. She is also a diviner and firm believer in African indigenous religion.
‘The word Icamagu’, she explains, ‘is an utterance, a phrase used when one is speaking with or invoking the ancestors. It is something that connects individuals and the spiritual world. The ancestors prefer to communicate through dreams visions and sometimes use certain animals as channels of communication.’
Mndende takes visitors on a walk through the various huts, where they learn about the customs of the Xhosa people. In one hut, a woman is demonstrating the use of a rolling pin to grind maize on a special stone.
‘You know the famous phrase: “When you strike a woman, you strike a rock”? Well, the rock they refer to this a grinding stone like this,’ she will tell you.
Your fascinating journey with Mndende will take you into the world of diviners, the mourning customs of the villagers, and the various medicinal plants growing amid the food crops in the Icamagu vegetable garden.
There is blue-flowering plumbago, which provides thin dancing sticks for the sangomas/igqirha (diviner) initiates; there is bulbinella, to remove your headache and open up your sinuses; sneezewood plants, which will later provide leaves to scatter over ceremonially cooked meat; and a plant called ‘hawu hawu’, which, when boiled into a tea infusion, helps with coughs.
The vegetable garden also feeds Icamagu staff and produces olive and coral trees for sale, while the herbal garden has various herbs used for many ailments.
Icamagu Institute also teaches people the importance of planting trees, especially indigenous trees.
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Who to contact
Imonti Tours
Velile Ndlumbini
Tel: +27 (0)83 487 8975
Email: velile@imontitours.co.za
How to get here
The Icamagu Institute can be found between Butterworth and Dutywa on the N2 highway. It’s about a 2-hour drive from East London.
Tours to do
Imonti Tours offers guided tours to the Icamagu Institute.
Length of stay
Plan to spend 2 or 3 hours here; it makes a great mid-journey break if you’re heading to a coastal resort on the Wild Coast.
Where to stay
See the listed Eastern Cape Parks & Tourism website for accommodation options in this part of the world.
Best buys
The shop at the Icamagu Institute offers a variety of Xhosa cultural crafts and a wide selection of Dr Nokuzola Mndende’s books.
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