Marula, Chobe, and Women Guides

We keep trying to talk about marula oil in this blog, but occasionally something comes along that we simply have to share with our readers. This time, it is an article written by Hillary Richard in the travel section of the Aug 27 issue of the New York Times: “The Wonder Women of Botswana Safari.” (Our thanks to Tony Carroll for calling this to our attention.)

Photo credit: Alexander Lahti

This article was intriguing for a couple of reasons. First, Botswana is the country where we harvest and process luxurious marula oil, and the Chobe National Park in Botswana is a true national treasure.

Photo credit: Hillary Richard

Second, Ms Richard speaks at length to this relatively new role of women in Botswana: Park Guide, a profession long dominated by men. Ms. Richard notes: “Guiding in Botswana is a prestigious career. Applicants must complete a standardized course that includes a placement at a safari camp, plus tests to evaluate English skills and scholastic aptitude.”

These women love their jobs. We support all efforts at elevating the status of women everywhere, especially in such challenging and demanding careers.

Chobe Game Lodge. Photo credit: Joao Silva, New York Times

Third, we encourage our readers – their friends and family – to consider traveling to this beautiful country and embarking on a great and memorable adventure: a safari! A number of excellent lodges are available, offering services and facilities that will meet even the highest standards of travelers.

Looking to travel Botswana? We can help. While we do not profess to be travel agents, we can answer questions and get people pointed in the right direction. Just ask.

Maybe we will see you here!

The Story of Marula, Elephants, and Beer

As many bloggers will note, sometimes staying on topic can be difficult. Anyone, who has ever written a paper or a journal, knows to stay on topic. Fortunately, no such rule exists for blogging!

In a previous post… actually previous two posts, we tried to stay focused on marula. DLG sells marula oil to international clients, so we have a particular interest in the subject: What makes marula oil so special? But, as in life, we have those “squirrel!” moments. Something attracts our attention, and off we go!

Photo credit: Ross Couper and Singita Safaris

This time, it was elephants! But, we stayed clear, intent on marula. No great, gray pachyderms would deter us from our appointed rounds. (Actually, elephants and marula do have their own story!)

Our focus this time is the marula fruit itself, the pulp that serves as food for animals and humans. But like many other kinds of fruit, marula can also be fermented. People in southern Africa make a “beer” (“mokhope” or “ubuganu”) from the fresh fruit, although “beer” may be the wrong descriptor. For those of us, who have brewed beer at home, about 4 weeks is required to complete the brewing process.

Not so with marula. We are talking a mere couple of days here. Days, not weeks. In fact, anything past three days is probably too much. After that, the concoction is very potent – even if any is left to drink!

Brewing marula beer is a cultural and social activity, taking place in the first few months of the year when ripe fruit is available… and there is plenty of ripe fruit! Woman peel the fruit, crush the pulp, and remove the stones (similar to plums). (Watch this video for a demonstration.) Water is added in an equal amount to the mash (oh, yes, don’t forget to remove the worms first), which is then left in a covered bucket for…

… one day, maybe two. If you are brave, you might try the three-day beer. Anything past that, fair warning!

After that, it is festival time! One of the biggest is the Limpopo Marula Festival. Out in the villages, however, people sit around in a shady circle, scoop beer from a communal vat, share large pitchers of the brew, and give thanks for fruit, the “mokhope,” and the wonderful, joyous tradition passed from generation to generation.

Now, about the elephants…. Well, maybe next time!

Marula – from Stem to Stern (or root)

Photo credit: Stephen Sporik. Paintings inside Pomongwe Cave.

We noted, in a previous post, a cave in Zimbabwe: Pomongwe cave. When discussing marula, specifically marula oil, bringing a cave into the conversation does not seem relevant. Except that it is from a historical context.

Marula has been part of the African life for centuries. As far back as ten thousand years, and very probably longer, marula has been part of the southern African diet. The fruit is highly nutritious, as are the seed kernels. Inside Pomongwe cave, evidence exists that over twenty million marula fruits were eaten.

Photo credit: Brett Hilton-Batber

The marula tree (Sclerocarya birrea) is one of Africa’s treasures. Not only is the fruit so highly valued, but every component of the tree can serve a vital purpose. The tree bears fruit from January through March – give or take several weeks, depending upon location, beginning when the tree reaches seven to ten years of age. Trees continue fruiting into their hundredth year and beyond (at over fifty feet tall, the ancient trees are quite majestic!).

While the fruit itself is important (especially to us here at DLG, and we will discuss it in future posts), Africans have used virtually every part of the tree:  The wood can be carved and the bark made into a dye or brewed into a tonic used as part of a marriage ritual (marula is known as the “marriage tree”). The bark contains antihistamines and is also used to treat fever, malaria, scorpion stings, snake bites, dysentery, and diarrhea.

The “mopane worm” – Saturniidae “Emperor moth” caterpillar. Popular food item in southern Africa. Large numbers of caterpillars can be harvested before the start of the rainy season, dried, and stored. Photo credit: P.A. Hulley.

The inner bark makes rope. Insects – e.g., the large Saturniid caterpillar, a resident of the tree, and the larvae of the cerambycid wood-boring beetle – can be roasted as nutritious treats. (We here are DLG have enjoyed the mopane worm as part of our meal.) The leaves are commonly used to treat heartburn and indigestion.

Marula trees are dioecious, i.e., they have a gender. The Venda believe bark infusions can determine the sex of an unborn child. If a woman wants a son, the male tree is used; a daughter, the female tree. But, if the infusion fails (a child of the opposite sex is born), then the child is designated as very special: he or he defied the spirits.

We cannot forget the roots, which are used for bilharzia (a disease caused by a parasite worm), sore eyes, weakness, and making an alcoholic medicine known as kati.

Finally, the fruit.  Inside the fruit, and held firmly by a concrete hard pit or stone, are one to four seed kernels. These are tasty, protein-rich food sources, and their high oil content makes for a lovely skin cosmetic – and it is the oil that we will focus on in future posts.

The Story of Marula… opps – make that Hyrax!

When doing research for a blog article, we often stumble upon some interesting information that has nothing to do with the initial topic. In this case, we intended to write about the story of marula oil. The initial idea was to offer the story in two or three parts, depending on the eventual length of the blog post.

But, we found a description of a cave located in Matobo National Park in Zimbabwe. The cave, more specifically Pomongwe Cave, has produced intriguing archaeological findings dating back to pre-middle stone age, including nearly 40,000 stone tools, hearths, cave paintings, and bones – tortoise, large game animals and, most notably, bone fragments of the hyrax, apparently the main menu item for the cave’s inhabitants.

That is an old cave! But, the age of the cave was not what caught our attention. We had to stop and ask: What is a hyrax? That was a new one for us. Toyota builds a truck called Hylux, but we seriously doubt cave dwellers were munching on Toyotas of any model. So, instead of researching marula, we had to know more about the hyrax.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

To our surprise, we ended up on www.wired.com for a few “fun facts” about the hyrax. This little furry animal looks like a large guinea pig, but it is not a rodent. They are actually related to – ready for this? – elephants and manatees!

Somewhere in the evolutionary pathways, the hyrax and its cousins decided on different roads to travel. Today, the hyrax sports tusks, has a multi-chambered stomach (but are not ruminants), and males have testes that change with the season (hyraxes live in colonies usually dominated by a single male, who aggressively defends his territory and females from rivals and in mating season can have his testicles can grow 20 times larger than during the non-breeding season).

And they talk! And sing, and chatter… In fact, as noted in the wired.com article, “hyraxes have at least 21 different vocalizations, including trills, yips, grunts, wails, snorts, twitters, shrieks, growls, and whistles. Males also sing complex songs that can last for several minutes and serve a territorial purpose, like bird song. When researchers looked at how males put together different syllables (wails, chucks, snorts, squeaks, and tweets) to compose a song, they found the order of the syllables was significant; that is, hyrax songs make use of syntax, the manner in which different elements are combined. They also found hyraxes from different regions used different local dialects in their songs.”

Maybe they sing about marula!

Well, if they don’t, we certainly will. Stayed tuned for the Story of Marula in upcoming posts. We will try to keep on topic next time!