Thabiso Sekhula
The women of Baleni spend their days refining salt in the trenches of the Klein Letaba River. It’s right next to the hot springs called Ka-Mkhulu in Giyani, Limpopo. The hot springs are believed by the local community to be sacred – and a source of prosperity and healing. It stays at one temperature of 30 degrees all year and the local people swear by the powers of the springs and its water.
The springs feed salt to the Klein Letaba River just a kilometre down the forest near the Baleni camp.
Cars are not able to go all the way in. So for the last kilometre you take an almost ritualistic walk, starting at the springs, and then going to the river, where only women are allowed to take charge of the salt refining process.
The first sight when you enter the sacred salt making banksa are the vha-kokwane – the grannies who lead the sacred rituals to ask for permission to let strangers on to the holy plains.
After the mini ceremony where you have to take your shoes off, you are led into the trenches of the river where the rest of the women and children are busy with the steps of the salt refining.
There are mothers, grandmothers and granddaughters all taking part in this 2000 year old process. Teaching a technique they were taught by their mothers and grandmothers. These are the women of Baleni salt.
They start by scraping the salt deposits and salty earth from the river banks where it seeps from the hot springs. Then the muddy salt is thrown into the enormous calabash filter called chinchava. It is layered with stones, rough sand and twigs to create the filter.
The next step is to fill water in the calabash a few times until the water that comes out is clean and clear. Then this clear salty water is boiled in giant pots until all the water evaporates and only the salt remains.
This is then dried and packaged.
The salt is sold at nearby informal markets and cultural spaces where the story of the Baleni salt ladies is also shared.
It is a great story of tradition kept alive and communities teaching younger generations the ways of the ancestors.
