Festivities to honour the humble marula

Community members from around the Masia area who produce marula beer attended the annual Marula Day festivities launched at Mission Kurhuleni earlier this month.

The event was officially opened by Vhamusanda Vho-Nndwakhulu Kharidzha. He said that in February and March of every year, the marula trees bear the delicious fruit from which the vitamin-rich juice is collected for processing. He said the existence of the marula fruit was a huge boost to the local community, as it created opportunities for people. At the start of the marula season, hundreds of unemployed Vhembe women collected wild marula fruits and started making beer to sell to locals and people from other provinces.

Kharidzha said that it was important for the different cultural groups to develop their living cultural heritage that distinguished them from other people of the world. He said that Amarula Cream liqueur came from the heart of Africa and was made from the fruit of the indigenous marula tree. He said that marula was known for its aphrodisiac properties and the marula fruit featured prominently in tribal fertility rights and still played a major role in tribal marriage. The marula tree’s fruit can be used to create a wonderfully refreshing drink, but it can also be used for medicinal purpose. He urged communities to plant more marula trees and protect them in an effort to ensure sustainability.

“Marula Day must be respected every year. Marula beer also helps in cleaning our bodies, so that we can stay healthy,” said Kharidzha. He urged rural unemployed women to empower themselves economically by brewing marula beer and selling it to the public. “We want our rural unemployed women to take advantage of the marula season. By drinking mukumbi/marula beer, we are celebrating our cultural values,” he added.

Ms Agnes Mufamadi, one of the producers, said that in the past women in the area never saw the business opportunity in producing the beer. She said they only made marula beer for recreational purposes and gave it away for free. “We collected marulas from the trees and started making the beer, which took three to four days to be consumed by drinkers. We learnt how to produce marula beer from our elders, who used it for traditional rituals only,” said Mufamadi. 

“Today we sell 20 litres of marula beer for as much as R80 and we are making good money,” said Mufamadi.

News - Date: 25 February 2015

Kaizer Nengovhela

Kaizer Nengovhela started writing stories for Limpopo Mirror in 2000. Prior to that he had a five year stint at Phala-Phala FM as sports presenter. In 2005 Kaizer received an award from the province's premier as Best Sports Presenter. The same year he was also nominated as Best Sports Reporter by the Makhado Municipality. Kaizer was awarded the Mathatha Tsedu award in 2014.

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