Les Stroud's Beyond Survival

(birds chirping) - Hi, I'm Les Stroud, host and creator of "Beyond Survival".

Within the scope of filming this series, I circled the globe eight times in 10 months.

I was never not in a state of jet lag.

To embed myself with cultures who still either live close to the earth or engage in practices meant to keep their connection to the earth.

It was a chance to stretch my own skills and beliefs beyond what I knew.

Beyond survival.

In many cases, I had to come to these cultures in a state of humility, offering a gift and seeking permission to take part in their lives, to experience life as they knew it.

I went in without pretense, without presumption, without agenda, and left myself completely in their care so that I was open to learning their ways.

Hunting, fishing, eating, sleeping the way that they do.

Sometimes it was modern influenced with much connection to the outside world.

And other times it was near primitive.

In all cases, I was challenged both in my own well honed skillsets of survival and wilderness experience, but also in my own belief system about life itself.

I learned to go beyond the technicalities of hunting and fishing, and shelters and fire.

And instead to dig deeper into what it means to be truly connected to the earth in profound ways.

To go beyond survival.

(upbeat music and chanting) Right in the middle of what's going on here.

People get hurt badly in some of these things.

Like a lot of times the fight was until somebody has drawn blood.

It's starting to get there.

They're getting more tactical, they're pushing harder, they're hitting harder.

I'm going to get back in there.

I'm Les Stroud, I'm in Africa on a mission to seek out the true masters of survival, (indistinct chanting) some of the last indigenous people on earth.

(dramatic music) Before they're gone.

(dramatic music) Before the past is lost.

Before their world vanishes.

I can learn their ways.

(dramatic 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, (upbeat music) Experience their unique new wedding ceremony and fight in the classic stick fighting battle.

(upbeat music) The Zulu nation has much to offer as they exist on the knife edge between modern assimilation and their traditional land skills and beliefs.

Stick fighting is a fantastic and exciting glimpse into a deadly Zulu tradition.

Fighting until blood is drawn to settle disagreements or to show off for the opposite sex.

But increasingly it's losing its importance to the modern Zulu man.

And it's a possibility this practice could disappear forever.

(machete smacking on tree trunk) So what's happening now is Mbu and I, and his uncle actually are fitting me up with what I need for the stick fighting.

The hitting stick, I got a shield.

They're getting me a protection stick.

And if you think about it, it's kind of like going through the various stages of not necessarily becoming part of a culture, but at least being accepted into it.

I guess we'll call this the education stage.

So I'm getting an education and this one's going to be all about how to stick fight.

(rocks smacking) Each fighter must make his own weapon straight from the land.

This is not a sport, it's a tradition.

- You'll know that buffalo dung.

It's buffalo dung tree.

- Buffalo dung tree?

- Yeah.

(speaking foreign language) If I want to hit you down your knee you have to protect yourself, you see.

Yes.

As well as to your head you have to protect yourself like that.

Fighting stick should go like this.

- Yeah.

(dramatic music) - That's okay.

Yeah, you are the man.

I can feel that.

- No, no, you are the man.

- Yeah.

(dramatic music) - Stick fighting requires a number of willing men.

So I'm led off to a small gathering where I can practice Zulu traditional stick fighting.

The intention is to get everyone prepared for the fights to take place at the wedding.

Along the way to learn the skill of stick fighting, we found an extremely formidable opponent.

Just getting together with men for a stick fight training, and lo and behold spotted yet another snake down here.

Lightning quick and deadly.

One of Africa's most dangerous snakes.

Has a bad temper, long fangs.

Okay let's just get a close look at this guy.

And like the men with me rarely runs from a fight.

(man speaking foreign language) All right.

So this is a puff adder.

That's why you can hear (mimicking a puffing sound).

Puffing sound.

Extremely fast, cytotoxin, very aggressive.

And you see the people around here are not happy that they found this snake.

Normally they'll just come and hit it.

I think I might be able to convince them to let it go.

But these snakes are all around here.

There's many of them responsible for a lot of bites and yet just another snake the Zulu people have to deal with just to live out here.

A lot of kids in this area, we're not far from schools and a lot of homesteads.

Okay, let's go stick fight.

(singing traditional folk song) (chanting in foreign language) All stick fighting starts off with their traditional songs and they must continue through the fight.

The day starts off soft, taunting and light battles.

Getting familiar with the moves and your opponents.

When the fight gets going on full, the tradition is that it doesn't stop until someone has drawn blood.

Men have been killed during stick fighting.

Some of the blows to the head can be deadly and injuries are common.

It's an aggressive game.

There are no points and no body parts are off limits.

A blow to the chest could mean a broken rib.

Blows to the head are often fatal.

Though most of their hits to me are guarded, they're not holding back on making me feel the full power of the stick fighting club.

(speaking foreign language) All right, I just took a stick right in the eye.

So that's what's happening out here for sure.

One guy was swinging back his club, took me right in the eye right there.

(dramatic music) They stick fight to settle bad blood between men, boys train with soft branches until they're given real fighting sticks at the age of 15.

Tempers are held in check.

And stabbing is forbidden.

As soon as blood flows, the duel is over and the winner tends to the loser.

The argument is forgotten.

It's the traditional Zulu way of keeping peace among men.

Some of the men still prefer to wear the traditional clothing of the Zulu warrior.

Even in my own zeal, I hit too hard.

But if I do, I do so at my own peril.

As much as I ramp up the fight, they will too.

(dramatic music) Right in the middle of what's going on here.

I have to protect myself here.

But there's laughter, but people get hurt badly in some of these things.

In fact a lot of times when they take it serious, they'll fight until somebody has drawn blood.

It's starting to get there.

They get more tactical, they're pushing harder, they're hitting harder.

I know the hits coming on me are much harder.

I got to get back in there.

(dramatic music) (women singing traditional folk song) The wedding is now into its third straight day of the ceremony.

And this is it.

The final day of union for the bride and groom.

And this is also where my stick fighting training is meant to come into use.

They tell me that the fights can break out at any time.

As the men show the women with they're made of.

At first, the stick fighting is meant to be symbolic, to protecting the groom from being chased away by the bride's family and told to leave.

If that happens, it can be very real and it's not playacting.

The groom will come in later, protected by men with shields and their sticks.

And I'll be one of those men as part of the groom's party.

So it's coming soon.

(dramatic music) (drumming music) Like the Inuit in the far north, the Zulu have had many years to become accustomed to the outside world.

In fact, they've had since the dawn of exploration.

Yet in spite of it all, they're trying to hold onto their traditions.

Their land based skills of hunting, their language and their spiritual belief system.

It's a Herculean task to be sure given the pressure of modernization and I'm not so convinced they're winning.

On the outskirts of this wedding celebration, there are the partiers, the alcohol and the rap music of the west, but at least here in the inner core, the elders hold tight onto the past.

The stick fighters, the drumming, the dancing and the singing are all hundreds of years old, as far as tradition goes.

(women singing traditional folk song) The bride is the one in the red and between the two families gifts are given and accepted as the brides dowry is presented.

Brides used to cost 11 cows, today the Zulu bride is paid for in cash.

(indistinct chanting) The movements of the dancing tell personal stories of their lives and culture.

(indistinct chanting) Though the groom's paid both parties dance and sing until the final gift of ukwaba is given.

(singing traditional folk song) The bride carries a chest full of blankets, the gifting of warm blankets to the groom and his family.

The blanket is leopard print, a sign of power and used to be real leopard skin.

The groom's father is covered in the blanket in a final show of acceptance of the bride and her family.

As with all manners of life, the Zulus full respect is given to acknowledging the ancestors.

(speaking foreign language) I came here heavily anticipating the stick fighting, a traditional part of a Zulu wedding.

Further north, it may still be happening with zeal amongst other communities, but here the interest level has become novel at best.

There will be no stick fighting this day, even though there are sticks and shields everywhere.

And the only reason I can figure, sadly, is apathy.

No one could be bothered this day to keep that part of the culture alive.

During the Zulu wedding, many traditions and ceremonies abound, but many more like the stick fighting are vanishing.

I'll need to go onto the scarification, to the Sangoma, the divine healer, to find the traditional spirit holding strong.

(dramatic music) I was never given her name.

She was just known as Sangoma, divine healer.

The rite known as scarification will take place in her small hut.

And all I have to do is remain open.

(healer speaking foreign language) Scarring is a form of tattooing.

A way to identify yourself as a member of a community or family.

After I undergo scarification, the Zulu will feel that I belong to them.

(healer speaking foreign language) There are various reasons for scarification, for some it's simply a matter of aesthetics and decoration.

Other times it's meant to bring a youth into adulthood, here it's often used to indicate which family you belong to, but the Sangoma has other plans for me.

She has told me that I'm on a great journey and that my scars will be for spiritual protection.

They will be markings that let the spirits know that I am to be looked after.

Each cut on my body is meant to be a marking visible to all of the spirits approaching me.

To scare off the malevolent ones and to attract the protecting spirits.

Great care is taken to ensure that my blood is not left behind in her hut.

And due to the problem with AIDS, the Sangoma now only uses sterile razorblades and gloves, but it's no matter.

She's connecting to the spirits through the process.

When she touches me during the process, I feel only warmth, only caring in her hands.

What's needed from me during a ceremony like this is surrender.

A surrender of the ego, of preconceived notions, of expectations.

Even a surrender of reason.

For when reason and ego run the soul, the heart cannot live.

(healer speaking foreign language) She rubs an ash mixture into the cuts, so the markings will still show after the skin is healed.

The Zulu are extremely superstitious and they believe the scars will protect me from possible acts of witchcraft, such as lightning.

The act of scarification is an act of initiation, an experience shared by most Zulus living in the village.

In the local schools, children can be seen with scar markings on their faces, denoting which family they're from.

Others receive the marks to be healed of sickness and disease.

And many come, as I have, for markings that speak to the spirit world.

For the rest of my life any Zulu who sees the markings on my body will recognize them as a sign of respect.

(dramatic music) Because I am a man, she makes the scars on all points of my body.

She feels I'll need to be strong for the journey I'm about to take.

The process is as much about invoking the protecting spirits as it is about banishing the negative ones.

(ominous music) (healer speaking foreign language) - But when you leave you never turn back.

Because the spirit would come back, will leave you alone.

- When I leave, I don't turn back.

- Don't turn back.

- To not look back is to ensure that the evil spirits can't follow me.

So what's happening now is the instructions are that I'm to leave straight the house, not turn around, not look back.

Not look at her.

(dramatic music) I need to find a nearby hill to bury my bloody bandages and leave them behind in Africa.

(dramatic music) Here's my trail.

Sangoma wants me to bury all of the swabs that have my blood on them and the razor blade, everything that came out of me basically, And not to leave behind any bodily fluids in any way, blood, sweat, anything like that here, because it's part of the spirits.

So my instructions are to take it all away from her.

Take it all with me and bury it.

(dramatic music) It seems to me this is as good a place as any to do it.

The view is incredible, it overlooks some gorgeous part of Africa, it's right in the center of villages and things all around.

And it's actually within sight of where I was with the Sangoma.

So to me it feels very appropriate because there's no point taking part in anything like this, unless you're going to do it seriously.

All right, well, I might as well leave it wrapped away.

(dramatic music) That's my blood is now left in Africa.

I've been given the scarification protection from the Sangoma and the Zulu.

But if I keep diving into cultures that are out there, that are different from mine, and that have survived through the ages, through their traditions and their rites of passages like I have now, by sitting with a Sangoma, a divine healer, and allowing my blood to spill in Africa.

And perhaps I can keep finding some of these so-called vanishing worlds and see that they are still alive and well and surviving.

(children chattering and singing) With the scarification process complete, the entire hillside community is, they tell me, thrilled and it's time to celebrate.

- You can sit down.

When you are going to the Sangoma the Sangoma wash you.

Washed that bad spirit and placed the good spirits to you.

Then you have to able to serve people as Les is doing.

Les is pure now.

He can able to serve people, that's what he's doing inside here.

It's a gift to the woman, it's a gift to old people, so he's to cut the meat to the people, she's allowed.

She's a member of the family now.

Everything's good.

(indistinct chatter in foreign language) - The festivities will take place in the ancestors' hut.

This building is built, maintained, and kept clean only for the ancestors to live in.

Their spirits fill this hut.

At all times, and in the minds of these people, these relatives who are not really considered to be dead are very happy to welcome me into their family.

They've told me many times that my desire to share in their culture has brought them great joy.

(women singing traditional folk song) (rhythmic clapping and cheering) (women singing traditional folk song) The gathering starts simple.

The feast, at first served by me, I have now earned the right to serve them food.

(women singing traditional folk song) I've also earned the right to celebrate and to dance with them, to drink their beer while the ancestors smiled down upon us.

The Zulu don't see their world vanishing at all.

For them, it continues on with great meaning and great importance.

But beyond these walls lies a different world and increasingly homogenized and cluttered world.

Beyond these walls, the ancestors are watching with dismay.

(ominous music) Yet not far from here is the Sangoma's hut, and that is where the Zulu culture continues to survive.

That is where the Zulu belief lives on.

If the stick fighting ends and the weddings become westernized.

If the hunting is replaced by imported food and the dangerous creatures are removed by wildlife management, then it'll be up to the Sangoma, the divine healer, to bring the Zulu back to their spiritual origins and take them beyond survival.

(dramatic music) (chanting) (water splashing) (bright music)