Game spotting at the Mai Mai market in Joburg

Posted on 25 January 2011

Eight cheetahs, over 10 leopards, three spotted hyenas, a caracal, zebras, monkeys, baboons, monitors, snakes, crocodiles and even evidence of the elusive pangolin. Anyone on a game drive would be ecstatic, but this was downtown Johannesburg, namely the Mai Mai market. The skins and carcasses of all of these animals were hanging from the rafters of the little trading shops at the market.

After hearing of my quest to find a pangolin, a friend suggested that we visit the Mai Mai market as he had seen them on another visit there. The market is located in a rather seedy part of Joburg. The muti (or traditional medicine) market is a formal trading area dedicated to traditional healing and is home to healers and their families. It is being remodelled in the hope of becoming a prime tourist attraction in Joburg.

There are numerous stalls lined with bottles of bits of flora and fauna, all which can be used in some combination to create concoctions, infusions and all sorts of cures for injured, ailing and sickly people and animals. They make potions and lotions to improve all sorts of imaginary problems too. Impressive at face value.

What got to me though was the large number of hides hanging everywhere. Leopard skins are used to make ceremonial clothing for royalty and I was distressed to learn from my friend how many princes, chiefs and kings are suddenly appearing around the country (self-proclaimed in a number of cases). All of these “˜royal members’ are wanting wardrobes of ceremonial clothing, resulting in an increase in demand for animal skins – mainly leopards, lions and cheetahs. There was no shortage of these at the market. They were damn pricey too. No wonder so many were still there, but that’s probably a good thing.

On politely questioning traders, we found leopard skins came from as far afield as Zambia and Malawi and our neighbours Botswana and Namibia. Just goes to show that the game in South Africa is almost hunted out or should that be – poached out. Guaranteed there are no CITES permits (as required by International Law) to go with these skins.

I walked past a pile of long sticks. On closer inspection these were actually lengths of hippo hide drying in the sun. They are used to make ‘sjamboks’ – a traditional weapon, usually seen on television being carried by aggressive protestors. Once dried, the hide remains flexible and inflicts serious wounds when fighting or viciously hitting people (and animals). The hide came from Ndumo (a game reserve I visited earlier) This  is a protected area, meaning that the hippo had been poached!

We found some pangolin scales on sale and the teenage boy explained that if you put a scale into your wallet, then your money doesn’t disappear. I’m not 100% sure if he meant your wallet doesn’t get stolen, or your money increases.

The whole place was not all doom and gloom. There are traders there who are selling the most beautiful beaded traditional clothing. Some were selling faux skins too. Many of the traders have public telephones in their stalls, an indication that there is probably more money to be made out of this than selling their wares. I smiled when I saw a rather old computer in one stall – selling their wares online I wonder. . . . . I burst out laughing when I saw handmade sandals sporting a Nike swoosh. Talk about brand marketing!

All in all, there was more evidence of trading in animal parts than there was of healing. I won’t be visiting the market again in a hurry.






yoast-primary -
tcat - Travel stories
tcat_slug - travel-stories
tcat2 -
tcat2_slug -
tcat_final - travel