Les Stroud's Beyond Survival

Hi, I'm Les Stroud and welcome to the series Beyond Survival.

In it, I circle the globe embedding myself with cultures that spend their time close to the earth.

This is episode one, The Zulus of South Africa.

- Right in the middle of what's going on here.

(men yelling) People get hurt badly in some of these things.

In fact a lot of times, the fight is until somebody has drawn blood.

It's starting to get there.

They're getting more technical.

They're pushing harder.

They're hitting harder.

I'm gonna get back in there.

(intense music) I'm Les Stroud.

I'm in Africa on a mission to seek out the true masters of survival.

Some of the last indigenous people on Earth.

(man chanting) (intense music) Before they're gone.

Before the past is lost.

Before their world vanishes.

I can learn their ways.

(rock music) Cradled against the Indian Ocean on the Southeast banks of South Africa lies the province of Kwazulu Natal known as the place of heaven.

It's the homeland of the Zulu Nation.

Africa, my search for understanding cultural and physical survival always brings me back to Africa.

Here in the cradle of civilization it's said that there is knowledge that leads to spiritual and human enlightenment.

I'm here to meet with the Zulu Nation so that they can share with me their ways.

I want to see if their hold on their traditions is futile, if their survival methods are all but forgotten, or if they'll endure past the homogenization of the planet's cultures.

I'm here to catch just a small glimpse of what has kept the Zulu going for thousands of years.

I'll take part in the Zulu practice of scarification.

(intense chanting music) Experience their unique Zulu wedding ceremony.

And, fight in the classic stick fighting battle.

The Zulu nation has much to offer because they exist on the knife edge between modern assimilation and their traditional land skills and beliefs.

(people chattering) All of these men have gathered here now, because we're gonna head out down into that valley that you can see down there for the hunt.

Got about 20 dogs or so, and maybe 20 men, and they're eager to go.

One man offers himself up as mock prey so that the men enter the hunt with the proper respect and intentions towards the potential game.

(man speaks in foreign language) We've got a trail we can walk so far anyway, through the thick of it.

Dogs will run in through the bushes.

If this is like dog hunting in other places what'll probably happen here is the dogs actually come up with something, they'll just start freaking out and we'll hear that barking.

Dogs whining when they know they're on something.

Situation like this, it can happen early.

It could take hours.

You could spend a couple days doing it before you get any action.

Or, you could have action within the first 10 minutes.

This is a fairly descent clear and easy walking so far, but this is serious black mamba territory here.

And, in an open field a black mamba snake can outrun or out slither a man on a short distance easily.

Can see the open field the men here spread out.

And, we're sort of just walking along to see what we can flush out.

The dogs get into the deep dark spots.

(men speak in foreign language) Now, it seems like a lot of fun.

Everybody's gung ho.

We're all into this, but the reality is some of the dangers here are deadly serious, puff adders, spitting cobras, and the ridiculously aggressive and deadly black mamba.

This is thick mamba territory, especially when we get into the bigger rocks.

So, I and all of they have to keep a real sharp eye out.

I asked them why they were all wearing rubber boots.

And, he said, "Snakes."

So, that's serious stuff.

Not only snakes, but can also just stumble into a rotted punky log and end up putting your hand into a scorpion or something.

And lastly, there's leopards in these hills too.

I don't think with this many people that, I don't really know.

I don't know how a leopard would react.

But, if you're doing the run and you're a few hundred yards from the next guy and you stir one up, it's not gonna be a good situation.

That's for sure.

They do have leopards here that have taken children and taken dogs and taken small goats and so on.

So, not such an easy hunt after all.

Me, I'm just worried about stirring up a hornet nest.

I can deal with the snakes and spiders and, oh, I forgot to mention the big black ants that shoot acid.

That's right.

They said, "Watch out of the ants that shoot acid."

Okay.

I'll do that.

And, this is obviously not stealth hunting.

They're all talking pretty loud.

This is push hunting.

You go in deep and you scare out anything that'll be worth catching.

C'mon.

(Les makes kissing sound) (men speak in foreign language) The dogs here are a little freaked out by me.

I was told it's probably very rare that any white people come down into this area.

So, I think I'm a little bit of an oddity.

And, the dog's a little freaked out by me.

Can't get them to come close.

(men speak foreign language) The hunt is carried out swiftly.

Each man has to keep moving, (man whistles) always following the dogs, listening for their yelps, watching where they run.

The Zulu men love their dog hunting and will look for any opportunity they can to hunt on their forested land for game.

But, each man carries with him a very deep concern for accidentally coming upon poisonous snakes.

A significant number of people, men, women, children, and even dogs die each year from snake bites here.

(intense music) The large group of men is splitting up now, and we're heading off as smaller groups.

And, in some cases, some of us will go it alone.

We'll go that way?

Yeah, this wouldn't be so bad if we didn't have to carry the camera.

(men chatter) Many of the Zulu elders are still very in tune with the plants that have medicinal properties, but the skill is in danger of taking a back seat to Western medicine and chemical treatments.

All right, this grows close to water, the river, and this, he's telling me that they can take this root and crush it and put it in not hot water but lukewarm water, let it sit for a bit and drink it and it will heal broken bones.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- It's good.

- That's very good.

(men chatter in foreign language) The hike is getting very serious now.

They're pointing up at those big rocks.

That's a serious snake area.

I think what's happening is we're on one side of the valley and there's a group on the other side of it.

And, the dogs are either with us or running up the middle.

Crawling now.

Crawling through some pretty dense bush.

Oh man.

If there's ever a chance to get bitten by a snake, this is the time.

(Les gasps) The men aren't happy at all that we're in this area at this time of day.

This valley is known to be full of snakes.

With the sun coming up, the snakes become more active, and every step becomes more dangerous.

It is worsened by the fact that we're all moving quickly.

Some of us, including myself are down to searching for game alone now.

It's a fairly precarious existence around here.

There's 500 snake bites a year in this area alone.

And, all these kids and are playing in the fields and out in the forest and there's a lot out here.

There's scorpions, snakes, spiders, and some of them are absolutely deadly.

As much as the Zulu are also very much a part of modern existence now, it's a very strange cross in their world between, you know, going to school and driving cars and watching television.

And, you get further out here into the heart of Zulu area and there's still a lot of on the land living.

And, on the land living means well, when you get down to it, sticking your hands in deep dark places and moving branches and rocks.

We got there.

So, I've got a mother scorpion here.

And, she's got all of her little baby scorpions on her back.

This particular one here is not one I'm gonna mess with.

See the little tiny pinchers on it.

I don't know a lot about scorpions, but I've been told, when the pinchers are small, watch out, because that means the tail is gonna pack a wallop.

And, this one, this mother with it's babies all over it will pack a painful wallop.

Now, you gotta remember that kids are around here playing all the time.

And, I know when I was a kid, flipping over rocks was a pastime, so let's see what I got under this one here.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Look at that.

Okay.

Now, this guy is not so bad.

You see, some of them, I didn't know this was gonna happen, I mean, you can actually play with this scorpion.

He's not such a big deal.

You're gonna get a sting, but it's not gonna be so bad.

Some of these other scorpions, the kids get stung by them and you're in for a day, that's for sure.

(intense music) Separated somewhat from the other hunters, my focus has switched from finding edible game to finding the hidden dangers around me.

Okay.

There it is right there.

I can see it's tail.

Check this out.

I'm in South Africa with the Zulu men hunting with dogs through thick snake territory.

But, on my own separated from the other hunters have come upon a spitting cobra.

So, that's a spitting cobra.

I'm not gonna be stupid.

I'll just back up a bit.

And, I got sunglasses I'm gonna put on.

Harder to see in the shade, but a lot safer if he does spit.

Ah, it's a beauty.

That's a beautiful cobra.

I don't know if I can get him out of there or not.

I think I'll try first, I'm gonna give him a nudge with a long stick and see if that works.

All right.

That'll help.

All right, he's moving.

(intense music) There we go.

Okay.

All right.

There he is.

Look at that.

Look at that.

Okay, buddy.

This is a full on spitting cobra.

This is a nasty, nasty snake.

These guys are responsible for a lot of bites in this area.

They can be fatal.

There he is.

There he is.

Look at that.

Fatal bites when they happen.

Whoa, whoa, he just bit the stick.

Look at that.

Look at that.

He's a beauty, and extremely deadly.

Children play, whoa, you don't.

No, you don't.

Not very far from here at all.

This is a very deadly snake.

On this planet, this is a snake to fear.

It's a cytotoxin, so it affects all your tissue.

And, the venom essentially in layman's terms, just turns your tissue to mush.

I've gotta keep these glasses on, because if he does decide to get a little ticked with me messing with him, he may not turn to bite me.

The first thing he might do is simply turn and spit at me with his venom.

He can shoot his venom nearly 20 feet.

I'm within four and a half feet of him right now.

There's plenty of these snakes around here.

The kids play around here.

The Zulu people exist, you know, in amongst the scorpions and different snakes.

This is not the black mamba.

The black mamba is an extremely aggressive snake, but this guy when riled, he can be one mean, mean dance partner.

If I look closely, I can see that his eyes are going a bit opaque, which means that he's not too far away from beginning to shed his skin.

And, when he does that, just by nature, he's gonna need to mellow himself down.

So, I've got him in a fairly mellow state here which is why he hasn't essentially stood up and spit at me.

Lucky for me.

You know what?

He's mellowing out.

I think I'm just gonna leave him there like that.

Let him spend the rest of the day on his own.

He doesn't need me hassling him.

That's pretty incredible.

I can take these off now.

That's really something.

That is a beautiful snake.

It's a powerful and deadly snake.

They can be very aggressive and very fast, and I'm probably really lucky he didn't rear.

He didn't spit at me, but boy, I don't think you can come that close to a snake like that too often in your life.

And, the kids here and the men here and the women here do it just living their daily lives as they live them.

Come within close proximity of a deadly snake like that probably nearly every single day.

I've circled back around to meet up with the men.

And, although they've also come across a few more snakes in the field and bush area, the story doesn't seem so good as far as the hunting goes.

I think that's it.

We've come out into a community area here on a dirt road, circled the field, had everybody going through the field, throwing rocks, chirping and chattering and hollering.

Dogs doing their thing banging the bushes, and all we've had this whole time has been the chase of a couple of birds, so I think we're calling it now.

That's a couple of hours of hunting, loss of a few hundred calories for sure.

And, it's hot now, a lot of men involved, and nothing's come of it.

This is supplementary hunting to go along with all of the farming and everything else they do here.

(men shout in foreign language) That's a lot of work with no pay off.

It's no different.

We've just come to a tree just to get in under some shade and just chill for a little bit.

First thing we did though was check for snakes.

I think that's it for the hunt.

A lot of work, no pay off.

There's the game off in the distance.

Back to stick fighting already.

We got a stick fight starting way over in the field.

They're doing all the fighting over there, and we're over here finding snakes.

Great.

(men yell in foreign language) (dogs bark) (men sing in foreign language) Ah.

(men chatter) (men clap) (women shout) (men sing) With most of the men from the hunt gone to drink their homemade Zulu beer, my connection with the nation now comes through the women.

And, I'm here during the time of a wedding.

My involvement in the wedding is something to be honored.

Some of the best of Zulu culture is experienced through their weddings.

It's a perfect blend of the old and the new.

(woman sings) This is a wedding rehearsal, just slightly different than our Western version, where the biggest concerns are where to put the receiving table and where to sit your uncle.

(women chant and sing) All right.

So, what's going on right now is we've got the wedding party who walked in from five to 15 miles away, walked in to practice for the wedding dances and songs and music and so on.

And, they're rehearsing in the rain, and they're gonna try and go inside.

I'm just simply easing myself into the culture, slowly.

You can't just jump in head first and say, "Hi, I'm here.

Let's party."

Gotta ease in slowly.

Gotta do things with respect.

I mean, I've got people with cameras and lights here to capture what's going on.

So, I've gotta do that in a way that doesn't upset them, and that shows respect.

(people sing and clap) The dancing will continue through the stormy night.

And, the practice is in earnest.

Weddings are important and big deals.

And, they tend to last at least three days.

As always, age old tradition revolves around animal sacrifice.

I'm with the Zulu people in Africa learning of their survival traditions.

So, right now, they're collecting blood so they can mix it with the intestines and it becomes a delicacy later to eat.

The main thing about this whole ceremony when the kill a cow is to collect the bile.

The bile's actually put on the bride's feet.

That's very, very important.

If they don't get the bile, if they somehow mess it up and they can't get the bile out of the cow, they have to sacrifice another cow.

They're only too happy to have me help with an all day job.

The reality is if I'm going to immerse myself in any culture in any situation and go through cultural traditions, rituals, rights of passages, I can't do it squeamishly.

I've gotta do it.

And, I've gotta do it full on.

And, that's getting the acceptance, getting the respect and handling it that way.

And, get in the middle of it.

Men, women and children have walked many miles to join these wedding preparations.

And, many more will come over the next two days walking across the fields through the bush and along the roads.

And, though cars are all around them, most of them don't own one.

The sacrifice of the cow is primarily for the bile, but of course, the byproduct is enough meat for a grand wedding feast.

Some Zulu beer is finally ready, and I can't turn it down as this translates as a rejection of hospitality.

Homemade beer.

- It's a combination of meal together with malt.

- Yep.

- They soak it, and the following day the cook it.

And, they let it cool.

They put it in separate dishes.

After that, they put the malt.

And, it start to consider bubbles.

Then, they can start to filter it and filter it.

- Women are the master brewers, and the woman who produces the best beer enjoys a higher rank within the community.

What's going on here right now is also going on over in the village where the bride's family is.

And, they'll actually take the liver, now the liver is considered to be close to the heart.

So, they take the liver from here, take it over to the bride's family, because it's a nice meat.

It's a soft meat, and because it's close to the heart, it represents that closeness, that bonding of the two people at the heart.

Then, the bride's family will also then pass meat back here and it represents sort of the back and forth thing accepting each other by the ancestors and into the family.

(intense music) Three days of feasting begins now along with a number of traditions each with it's own symbolic asper.

The bride's family arrive.

And, they bring a gift to be sold to the groom's family.

The gift has to be considered acceptable by the groom's family or there can be and often is trouble.

This interaction always starts off with smiles.

But, in older times, the negotiation can lead to physical fights and the canceling of the wedding.

This is a full on barter and the groom's family is not accepting the offer.

They want double.

So, they just keep on singing and turning away from the attempts made to appease them.

This argument could last all night long.

(women sing and shout) The bride's family thinks they're asking too much, and they're not happy about it.

(women argue in foreign language) The men however just carry on trading meat back and forth between the two families.

You know, watching closely, there's a lot of subtleties to the cultural traditions that are going on here.

And, it all has to do with acceptance from the ancestors and so what they're doing is they're actually putting some of the meat into the ground with vodka actually and or water, to present that to the ancestors first.

Then, everybody else gets a chance.

This is about discovering what kind of survival methods they use culturally to take them through the ages.

And, we know that the coupling of the human beings, a man and a woman is a big thing.

This type of marriage, as I say there's no divorce with the Zulu.

And, the acceptance is between the two major families.

There's a moving in that happens.

So, my challenge is to continue to work on assimilating myself with them and not interrupting what's going on, but being part of what's going on.

And, then accept the challenges and the traditions that go along with it like stick fighting and scarification.

We'll see what happens tomorrow.

(intense music)