Sutherlandia frutescens or Cancer Bush

A wonderful perk of travelling is getting to try the food of different nations! I think armchair travelling is the same and I found much joy in all the comments I received about waterblommetjies, a traditional dish of the Cape! Now, from food to medicine as I introduce the amazing centuries-old cure, Sutherlandia frutescens, locally known as cancer bush.

Having heard so much about this bush and having noticed it in health tablets, I set off to !Khwa Ttu to buy the plant for my garden. I was lucky, there were saplings for sale! Not only that, but in the indigenous garden the plants were in bloom. The restaurant at !Khwa Ttu also had pots of them as flower arrangements, nicely labelled with info about the plant.

According to the booklet "Gathering Fynbos" written by San experts 2 handfuls of dried leaves and young stems should be added to cold water and boiled for half an hour. One should drink a small glassful once a day. It is claimed to be a great immune booster and beneficial as preventative or cure for pancreatic cancer, aids, kidney disease, diabetes 2, arthritus, fever, gout , urinary tract infection and for treating the mother after delivery. Remember, the San and Khoikoi people for centuries survived without Western medicine!

I needed some good neutral opinion and was pleased to find a very informative website official-looking and honest and never trying to over- glorify the plant. I took this paragraph from their site.

Quality-of-Life Tonic

There is preliminary clinical evidence that Sutherlandia has a direct anticancer effect in some cancers, and also acts as an immune stimulant, but Sutherlandia should not be recommended as a so-called “universal cancer cure”, but rather as a quality-of-life tonic.

• Mood
  Sutherlandia decreases anxiety and irritability and it elevates mood.
• Appetite and weight
  It is an established fact that up to a third of cancer patients succumb to the wasting syndrome, rather than the actual tumor mass. Appropriate doses of select chemotypes and varieties of Sutherlandia dramatically improves appetite, and weight-gain can be expected in wasted patients. The first 5 kg gain is common after six weeks of treatment. In patients who are not wasted, weight-gain is not usual.
• Energy levels and exercise tolerance
  Sutherlandia typically improves the energy levels and exercise tolerance of patients, and gives an enhanced sense of well-being.

The website has all the newspaper and medical reports one can wish for, for those interested in more info about Sutherlandia. If you come across it in health tablets in the States or UK or anywhere, I would love to know! I hope my little plant will thrive so that I can brew some elixir!

The painting was done in watercolours on 300gms watercolour paper. Those rhythmic little stems and the large pea-like red flowers were a tempting subject, tempting enough to make me reach my watercolour paints.

Khwa Ttu # 5:Art is in their DNA!

The oldest artworks in Africa are those made by the San and found in caves. I suspect that they painted on rocks in the open air as well, but the natural materials they used did not last outside. But, as it goes with excellent genes, the artistic talent of the San people is in full flourish today! Yay for all the wonderful enduring paints they now have access to!

As this is a blog where I have to paint (I have to, seriously!), I painted this passage which is the start of the hiking trail, the indigenous plant garden and the tour of the farm. How cleverly the builders have once again made use of the idea of "anticipation", leading us towards the outside areas through this story-corridor! I liked the hollow window where we could gaze to the sea in the distance....that is my beloved next-door neighbour, the ocean, just visible from !Khwa Ttu.

Now look at these wonderful wall paintings done by current San residents of !Khwa Ttu! They have such interesting schema (formulas) for doing trees. They are not daunted by branches and show the best side, like the Egyptians did. Can you see that picture where "dreams" in the form of multi-coloured dots find their way back to a large tree, symbol of the artist's "birthplace"?Don't we all treasure our past and our childhood? These walls gave San artists the means of expanding their love of story-telling and personal history.

If you are interested in more San paintings, please visit fellow blogger Roger Brown who has also been to a San Centre, the one in Botswana. He gives a link where more art can be seen. I am not going to say " to be continued" today. The Cape is suddenly cold and stormy with winter upon us. So, I will do a "second season" later, as they say on TV!

Khwa Ttu # 4: How softly they tread!

There is no painting today but only photos. As heavy rains come down daily, accompanied by extreme cold, I stay indoors and ponder on what we know of the San.

Signs of their lives which go back thousands of years were found in this whole area stretching over Yzerfontein and Darling and at the present !Khwa Ttu. Even here where I live close to Kabeljoubank one of those mysterious rounded stones with the hole in the centre was found when the neighbours laid their foundations.

How very softly they treaded, these gentle people, the first inhabitants of the Cape! They did not excavate or build or cultivate or plant! They truly left the earth as they found it! What they needed in their daily lives was only a little food and water, and some protection for the body. My few photos show all the possessions they needed. With bow and arrow the men followed and killed buck, which they cut into pieces with flintstones. They made "Boy-scout fire" and some meat and vegs were cooked. (On the tour that I will take on a sunny day, we are going to be instructed in making a fire with two sticks, oh my, I am going to fail class!)

The women and girls collected medicinal and edible plants and roots, using the heavy stones as levers on their sticks to lift out underground tubers. The San valued water most highly and collected it underground by means of grass straws pushed down into melon-like watery roots. Water could also be stored in ostrich shells and carried around like quivers by using leather straps. All clothing and blankets were made of animal skins. The only other thing they needed was entertainment, which took place in the form of stories en-acted by the elders.

Once an area was depleted of food, the San would move away, but they were not nomads in the full sense of the word, as they would gladly settle in a good spot, like here at !Khwa Ttu, The Place of Water, with many little discoveries still in store for us... (To be continued)

Khwa Ttu # 3: The Restaurant

The best place to start learning about !Khwa Ttu is to visit the restaurant where everybody you meet will be willing to tell you more about the place and about themselves. We had happy chats with Michael who is so forthcoming with amazing stories about the San, and we also had conversations with trainee cooks and waiters. Everybody here is always friendly! You can meet many of the staff by clicking on the official !Khwa Ttu website.

For the children and adults living at !Khwa Ttu both traditional and formals skills are taught. Ancient crafts and skills are thus preserved, but a sense of direction into the modern world is also instilled and with it the dignity that comes with a good education and the chance of gainful employment.

I loved the shy-friendly and serene personality of Magdalena (we share a name as that is my middle name), who was very helpful and efficient at our table. In this portrait I tried to express the personality of this shining star. The photos show detail of the large cool restaurant.(Breakfast and lunches offered). The lovely "wildlife" light fittings of papermache are well chosen. Before I go, I want to recommend the pear-and-blue cheese salad. A last note: This is the 150th post and my blog is 2 years old!

Next week we will enter an interesting walkway......to be continued!

Khwa Ttu # 2: Admin Buildings

!Khwa Ttu is the San Culture and Educational Centre. It concentrates on their oldest history and culture, but also, most importantly, on their place in modern society.

The San (hunter-gatherers) and the Khoikoi (herders) are the oldest indigenous people of South Africa. They were here thousands of years before the black nations moved down from the depths of Africa and before the monarchs of Europe sent ships around the Cape of Good Hope and the Dutch started the refreshment service at the Cape to provide for these ships.

My previous post awoke in many readers the sense of longing one feels when approaching !Khwa Ttu. I was happy when fellow blogger Kelley Carey McDonald used the word "evocative" in her comments. We are very aware of this feeling when we enter a walkway made of a lattice of saplings. It leads to a large cleared circle in echo of the antique San encampments. Here, in my painting (a large 24 x 18" oil painting) you can see the info and admin centre, shop and restaurant housed in a friendly building.

Am I going slow? In the next post you will meet the San at last! And after that, another interesting walkway! In coming posts we'll also see some ancient tools and hear of the miraculous talents of survival of these people. I am even one day going on a tractor ride to learn more! My children will "test" this ride to see whether mom's back can survive it! If all else fails, it will have to be a walking tour after the winter! To be continued......