Chronicle Editor
Pathisa Nyathi
ON 26 March 2022, I saw an advertisement to the effect that Chibuku, a well-known brand for the traditional brew is celebrating sixty years of operation in Zimbabwe having been established in 1962.
I began reflecting on traditional beer brewing from the sorghum grain that goes back thousands of years on our continent.
As will be pointed out later, I have somehow been associated with both Chibuku and Ingwebu traditional brews.
Africa has been associated with the cultivation of traditional grains, namely sorghum (amabele/mapfunde), finger millet (uphoko/rapoko) and pearl millet (inyawuthi/zembwe).
There are records of cultivation of these grain crops over thousands of years.
For example, at the Nabya Playa, near the border between Egypt and Sudan, evidence of the crops being grown and consumed has been found.
Traditional brews have been part of African cuisines and they featured prominently in African hospitality.
Kings and queens offered beer to visitors alongside meat from slaughtered animals.
As a matter of courtesy, even the European visitors obliged, albeit consuming a little out of courtesy and decency.
Ndebele royal capitals always had beer ready for consumption and to extend royal hospitality to visitors.
Beer was regarded as food.
In my rural home, Sankonjana, there were families that engaged in brewing of traditional beer.
Back then, brewing and consumption were for social purposes as many elderly people partook of the frothing beverage.
Brewing was the preserve of women and even after the demise of the Ndebele State and the establishment of colonial Bulawayo, aristocratic Ndebele women at Makokoba continued brewing traditional beer not only in Makokoba Township, but also in the surrounding villages before the Ndebele were evicted to distant native reserves.
Over the weekends men cycled to Hyde Park and other places beyond to consume the traditional brew.
In the rural areas, beer was brewed for both social and spiritual purposes.
Beer brought together imbibers who exchanged stories about the goings-on in their homes.
Information was exchanged while social neighbourliness and cohesion were facilitated and enhanced.
As a matter of traditional practice, women got together to consume beer on their own while the menfolk also did the same.
In the early days, snuffing went along with beer drinking.
In a traditional set-up, beer was not brewed for commercial purposes.
Rather, it was a social engagement that offered oral conversational entertainment.
At my rural home villagers still, engage in social beer consumption, what they term “idlani zwenyu,” that is, free beer.
The influence of TjiKalanga is still felt.
This is still the case when harvests have been good as was the case in the 2020-2021 agricultural season.
Beer, together with snuff, were items that were presented to the ancestral spirits.
Beer was perceived as facilitating communication between the mortals and the living dead.
Beer was poured onto the ground (where the dead, abaphansi, are presumed to be) while the family intercessor uttered words as a way of thanking the ancestors for protection, good harvests, good health, fertility and a lot more.
At the same time, more blessings were requested from the family spirits.
Traditional beer was an important libation, which was used to communicate with ancestral spirits.
Libations went together with offerings and sacrifices that included known portions from slaughtered beasts.
Colonisation brought about changes to the patterns of beer brewing and consumption.
Some Christian denominations proscribed both smoking and beer drinking by their members.
Many African converts began to despise traditional brews, which were then being associated with pagan religious practices.
The social and spiritual roles of traditional brews were despised and abandoned by those who converted to the exotic religions.
The same fate was met by snuffing.
Tobacco especially snuff, was associated with African spirituality.
It was an important ingredient in the process of initiating and sustaining communication with the spiritual realm.
Like traditional beer, it was followed by negative perceptions.
However, some people then resorted to smoking cigarettes.
The practice was seen as modern and a sign of prestige and expression of a civilised way of life espoused by a people who attached to themselves racial superiority.
Industrial and commercial activities saw the emergence of towns and mines in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).
Labour was in great demand.
Africans provided the cheap labour.
They lived in dense populations, which translated to lucrative markets for the sale of industrially produced traditional beer.
Over weekends, industrial and commercial workers resorted to the consumption of the traditional brew.
After all Cecil John Rhodes had made sure Africans were excluded from consumption of clear bottled beer.
Such was the preserve for “civilized” people and Africans were excluded from the definition of civilised men.
I have always cited the traditional beer brewing process to show that there was applied science in African culture.
The first stage in the process was soaking grain (ukwenya) to get malt (imithombo).
The partially germinated grain was dried to stop the process of germination to avoid total depletion of the starch and sugar.
The sweet imithombo are then boiled and this is the stage when umhiqo is produced.
The mixture tastes sweet and I love both the taste and aroma.
This I have been pointing out to those who fail, or do not try at all to see science in African culture.
The various stages in brewing point to the application of known scientific processes and principles.
Grain stores food in the form of starch and is converted to sugar which when acted upon by yeast cells yields both carbon dioxide and the desired alcohol.
What the brewers seek to produce is alcohol which is a by-product of fermentation.
Respiration of yeast cells leads to the production of alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Brewers knew this and sought to strain the mixture just at the right time to separate alcohol from the grain waste (insipho).
It was at this stage that women brewers slept in the hut (brewery) with the pots of fermenting mixture to ensure they strained the mixture at the right moment.
They knew about what we teach in science.
Carbon dioxide does not support combustion.
A fire was kept burning in the brewery.
From time to time, the brewer would take a burning brand, isikhuni esibhebhayo, and bring it to the mouth of the pot with the fermenting mixture.
The stage of straining (ukuhluza utshwala sebuqumile) had to be undertaken whether it was during day or night.
The extinguished firebrand told when the time was ripe for straining.
All science, which the women brewers may not explain as I do, given my little science background.
For straining, an artefact known as isihluzo, made out of twisted reeds (imizi) was used.
These days metal sieves are used although isihluzo is still holding out in some places.
Clay pots, large grass baskets (izitsha) and gourd cups (inkezo) were used at the various stages of production.
Big metal drums have wormed their way as storage vessels.
In the past, the large clay pots, izimbiza, were used and these were dug into the hut floor.
Beer was served from these large containers and put into gourd calabashes (amaqhaga) into smaller portable clay pots (imbenge).
When people relocated to a new site the pots were abandoned.
There was time when the descendants of William Usher, uMampondweni, led me to their ancestors’ home where I found the pots still preserved because they had been dug into the hut floor.
As will be seen in the next article, even the modern industrial production seems to link the packaging of traditional beer with African tradition.
Both Ingwebu and Chibuku beer containers are emblazoned with decorative icons associated with African aesthetics-triangles and chevron designs.
Part II will focus more on the traditional brew in mining compounds and urban settlements.
Both Chibuku and Ingwebu trace their histories to the post-colonial period with laws and bylaws that were promulgated to inform and create the brewing and traditional beer consuming landscapes, as we know them today.
Online Reporter