I Met Zimbabwe’s Tribe with Only 2 Toes

I Met Zimbabwe’s Tribe with Only 2 Toes

I heard about this tribe in Zimbabwe whose members have only two toes there is little information online about their identity because they are living in a conflict Zone I want to find out their true story spread awareness about their struggles and learn what life would be like with this shocking condition it is 5:00 a.m. I’m looking at a beautiful sunrise over Lake kba on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe and our driver has just arrived nice to meet you doing how you doing bro the journey to reach the vdma tribe is going to take 15 hours on Long dirt roads with several checkpoints our goal is a Caya District right on the tri country border with Zambia mosm Beek and Zimbabwe say the road is not in the best of conditions but we’ll make it today not tomorrow but today well it’s 7:34 in the morning so we have the whole day despite years of conflict and political turmoil Zimbabwe’s nature remains their greatest treasure the bumpy road leads us through a national park called monopol where the wildlife is abundant oh my God our first sighed oh look he y I got the Yar saw the Y out of nowhere we’re just driving and an elephant popped out look at this he’s so cute he’s a baby yeah that’s a teenager we just almost hit a tortoise in the road one of the small five that’s a leopard torties we’re going to release it safely so he would have been killed in a second he would have been killed in a second as you can see the roads are empty there is nobody around here and I mean nobody C fly yeah we are uh if our car breaks down right now we’re totally screwed but we shall make it [Music] there we stopped somewhere in the bush in the middle of nowhere we are filling up our tank for the last time in a while filling it to the brim like cuz we want to have fuel I mean for the next 6 7 hours have you ever heard of the vadoma people yes yes yes yes we read about them what do you know about them those people they even they afraid of people they need to live on their own a visitor comes there other they will hide they will hide yes as we approach the more int conflict area cisa gets word that we need to get a special permit to enter the region why are they so suspicious I think somebody might have come here and did something wrong the decades long conflict between Zambia and Zimbabwe is largely centered around the Zambezi River it’s a crucial source of water electricity and agriculture for both countries and tensions have flared up in recent weeks at the border I’m feeling nervous because cisa looks uncomfortable he’s been a guide in Zimbabwe for 20 years and has never explored this region right now we are at the mercy of the people in charge Cesar told us to stay in the car cuz he wants to handle it without us he said it would be easier if he goes so hopefully we get it how are you doing back there good I’m good let talk you were going to be charg but uh I’ve talked to them we just going to pay for a basic permit I’ll need 125 from you that’s fine but are we going to get the permit yeah that’s what I’m doing so give me one no problem yeah we get it nice good work man thank thank you buddy we got it boom we are at the checkpoint here the stick checkpoint there you go what is he all right we got in they were trying to be tough yeah did you did you notice that yeah I noticed that’s where do it they were nice nice talking they were nice I wasn’t expecting to pay 125 bucks for a permit and part of me doubts that it’s the normal price but now that we have the green light I’m anxious to finally reach the tribe we’ve been driving for 6 hours on dirt roads no joke and this is the first little settlement that we’ve seen it’s not even a village it’s just like a couple little Huts here and there’s one shop we’re going to buy out whatever this shop has bring gifts to the tribe how are you oh F see how are you bro what do you think about this shop cool they stuck now this is the first shop we’ve seen in like 6 hours of driving and we are literally buying the whole shop out a lot of stuff my love four yeah four four they need it oh that’s a soap yeah that’s a soap so this is a multi-purpose soap you can bath it with it you can wash with it you can even brush your teeth with it just make little shavings and put on your toothbrush it bubbles 100 trillion it’s okay you say no after 12 hours of driving finally made it to the voma tribe Deana just pulled out Google Maps and you can see we are on the board of mosm Beek Zambia and Zimbabwe it’s so cool how are you feeling right now very good I’m excited little [Music] B right wow we are giving rice flour cooking oil to them I’m done we Distributing it to the people here and all kinds of cooking oil sugar rice flour we’re going to be spending a few hours with them just hanging out and appreciating the life up here speaking of look at this massive bow Bob tree that I’m standing under so incredible according to vdma mythology their ancestors emerg from a bow Bob tree these strange looking things that originate in subsaharan Africa the vdma share a rare genetic condition which results in the absence of the middl toes and a Clift where they would be this condition affects about one in four children within the community and it leads to feet that appear to have two large toes resembling a lobster’s claw this condition is thought to be so prevalent due to the community’s long history of isolation and intermarriage the voma are still considered one of the few remaining hunter gatherer tribes in Zimbabwe living in relative seclusion and maintaining their Traditions I think with merging with different cultures and different people of normal to the genetic uh makeshift of the normal tours is taking over and they losing the original two TOS that they had in the past cuz it’s getting DED tell me what it’s like to to live with two toes what are the challenges what’s the lifestyle like saying when he’s walking with these two toys the first challenge is you know difficult to get some shoes there’s no proper shoes which is there’s some painful on this fot so no shoes no shoes yeah is it difficult to walk or walking is normal he’s saying it’s difficult when walking I can’t imagine what life must be like without five toes on each foot it makes me realize that there’s so much we take for granted to be honest the people that I’ve met here seem shy and depressed maybe because they never get visitors or that they receive no help from the government some of my favorite travel experiences have been visiting tribes in Africa such as South Sudan’s mandari tribe Ethiopia’s Mercy tribe and the Dr Congo’s Pygmy tribe so incredible a celebration of life and just happiness all of these tribes welcome Outsiders are eager to share their culture but I can already tell that the Veda tribe is different he made this guitar out of a plastic water bottle a piece of wood and and a shoelace so [Music] cool I tried right thank you if you are a traveler then you know how stressful it can be to get 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download money gam and start using the app to your benefit all right now let’s get back to the story wa it’s a pretty surreal experience to finally be out here like look at this beautiful nature these people around here crazy to think that I was in Arizona like 3 days ago man it’s been a very long 20-hour day and we need to find a place to sleep but there are no hotels around here we made our way back into Caya and stumbled across the only restaurant in this Tiny Town we found this little shop and this lady’s cooking us dinner of wild chickens and garlic soup all I know is that I am starving from driving all day like on dirt roads like I feel like I got hit by a train I’m just so exhausted so I’m really pumped for this meal this is what a local meal looks like we got ugali with soup on top of it and wild chicken so good so hearty So Fresh So flavorful it’s crunchy M it’s really tough and really flavorful good evening guys good evening yeah how are you good how are you sir suddenly two policemen arrived in a sketchy truck and started making accusations I realized the only way to get out of this would be to pay them off to leave us alone it’s pretty wild how easily things can turn South when traveling in a conflict Zone they know we’re here because we got the permit so they communicated with them just come in to double check that did they want to search our bags their main reason why they came here is to check if we don’t have any Firearms when we were eating dinner we met the guy and he invited us to sleep at his house here and I thought we were going to be sleeping on the floor somewhere everybody offered his Treehouse thing right here above ground my crib some guinea fowl up here look at least for eating right hello Mr guinea fowl how are you it’s not a tree house it’s just like a house that’s way high up to protect from animals and the rains I can walk straight under this it’s like at least 6 ft tall so cool what do you think of it I love it all right we got our mosquito net here got our bed we just showered in uh wet wipes you can see the wet wipes here they’re pretty much covered in dirt this is the glamourous life right babe right all right we slept really good it was really hot at the beginning and then it got cool and then the sound of the roosters woke us up at 5:00 a.m. what do you think about the experience it’s so good we’re having a nice local meal here with the voma people in Zimbabwe in Africa before we eat we crep our hands like this we clap hands to God we clap hands to the one who prepare yes please what makes you happy in life someone like you you are from America you come here in Zimbabwe so I’m happy to meet such a friends like you over there this bread and butter combo is very good we’re just having a nice meal here we got hardboiled eggs toast with butter coffee good you need to hit it this way careful you got it I got it I I got it too he literally just got up there in like 3 seconds what’s your name my name East Kristof how old are you bro years what is it like to grow up with two toes when all of your friends have normal feet walking with the two TS a long distance pains him on his foot cuz he’s not normal what about advantages like are you able to do things that your friends can’t with my two TOS I can able to play soccer can you tell me when you’re son was born with the two toes what was your first thought this is a god-given guy when he was born I just raise him so that I can look after him and I’ve two kids with the same disabled so this guy is grade six so I’m just looking after him so but I need some help so that he can go ahead with the school do you know the reason why the two toes is happening only to the voma people just say it’s from God Is it true that they cannot marry outside of their tribe so far they’ve just married in One Tribe tribe there oh okay yes do you have any questions for me scho oh he’s saying got a challenge when going to school maybe you can buy me a small bicycle those so that I can go quickly to school using two tours I was late at school the VD story is a sad one but one that I still feel is important to be told they face ongoing discrimination food insecurity and unemployment it almost feels like they’ve been forgotten so it’s a little bit weird because they’re pretty shy and and you know we’ve learned about why they’re shy because they’re scared of Outsiders they’re scared of animals in the area and theyve just very private people so we’re not trying to really infringe too much on them we’re just kind of just hanging out and doing our best to to smile make some friends and this is quite an interesting experience and much different than I was expecting I’m on my way to meet up with the chief who wants to share more context about the struggles that his tribe is facing could you just give me a little information about this community and this tribe they they lived Beyond this mountain in a place called chopo so during the Civil War they were staying there and they were safe but as soon as the Civil War the 870s independence in 1980 they started coming into these areas because it was safe after talking to the chief I’m hit with the hard reality of life for the voma they have been kicked out of their indigenous lands and are virtually unable to hunt for food or gather medicine like previous generations it’s not surprising why you can see the sadness in their eyes can you imagine what it would be like to get kicked out of your own house with no access to food a job or security it is very characteristic of the V people that when they see somebody they do not know coming just like we have come with a vehicle they disappear you come and look in their Homestead there’ll be nobody they are people that hide what’s the reason for that so whenever they came close contact with the humans that were here they were shy you know like people are looking at them and laughing at them they didn’t love that so they would rather hide and sck to the thickets than be exposed I’m curious to know why do people here have genetically these two toes and really nowhere else in the world would have been the men that spread this Gene across so I think it’s a genetic makeshift that was spread through his lineage one guy yes I read online that there’s like witchcraft involved is that a thing there is no witchcraft there’s no sorcery they were created like that by God that’s exactly what he’s saying and that’s what they believe in how many tuto tribe people are left now yeah it looks like uh the numbers are growing with these young folk that are getting married to I’m sure closely related uh young ladies they also seeing a number of young babies born with the two toyss as the night falls the voma people want to perform a special song and dance while we are starting to see more Smiles this experience changes the way I think about tribes in Africa this trip reminds me that some groups struggle more than others to adapt to a changing world I hope that the vdma people are given more attention and opportunities so that they can lift themselves out of poverty and be free of violence in the region and in case you are wondering I kept my promise to give that kid a bicycle I sent money to Watson via Money Gram who lives in harar the capital he picked up the cash bought the bike and then put it on a bus to Caya where the kid picked it up as a traveler it’s important to always give back and I hope this video spreads awareness about indigenous rights in Zimbabwe thank you so much for watching the story and I’ll see you next week [Music]

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I’ve visited dozens of indigenous tribes around the world, but no experience has been quite like this one, on the tri-country border of Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. My wife, Deanna, and I spent 2 days driving on long dirt roads to meet the Vadoma tribe, who are the only humans on earth that genetically have 2 toes on each foot.

I came here to find out their story, spread awareness about their struggles and learn what life would be like with this shocking condition. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments down below – have you ever heard of the Vadoma tribe? What do you think about their feet?

#africa #travel #MoneyGramPartner

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