All that waitress Thabile Vilakazi requires is some corn flour, sorghum malt and three liters of water to concoct five liters of the creamy, thick traditional South African brew known as umqombothi.
Since South African President Cyril Ramaphosa banned alcohol sales as part of a COVID-19 shutdown, booze-deprived South Africans have turned to homebrew fermenting to get around the prohibition.
“The idea came because there is no alcohol. There is no supply of alcohol anywhere,” said 32-year-old Vilakazi, stuck at home in the Johannesburg suburb of Randburg.
Fermented over at least three days, making umqombothi is inexpensive, but time-consuming.
Although also served at special ceremonies where ancestral spirits are evoked, such as at funerals and weddings, the brew with a creamy texture and a pungent smell is gaining popularity.
“It’s a very sacred beverage,” said Vilakazi, adding that it is the first time she has tried to make the beverage, usually the preserve of her eldest sister for family ceremonies.
The premixture of corn and sorghum can also be cooked and served as a breakfast porridge, and it is believed to soothe stomach ulcers.
However, the sudden dearth of liquor sales has inspired creativity on how to get tipsy.
A plethora of recipes, tips and hints are being shared on social media by chefs and novices alike.
According to data on the Google Trends Web site, there has been a rise in the search on “how to make your own alcohol” — starting especially as the country entered its second week of lockdown.
“This lockdown is taking us back to our roots, especially for the African youth who aren’t aware of traditional life,” traditional healer Luthando Finca said, adding that the regular use and widening popularity of the brew was reminiscent of precolonial African society.
“Umqombothi was enjoyed widely in African communities before Western beverages were brought onto the market,” Finca said.
In a 1999 study, author Anne Mager said that the notion of “European liquor” in colonial discourse suggested that the liquor of colonial masters was something to aspire to among Africans.
“‘European liquor’ was repeatedly contrasted to indigenous brews of lower alcoholic content that were pronounced to be uncivilized and primitive,” Mager added. “It implied that drinkers of sorghum beer, palm wine and other beverages fermented from African grains and fruits would progress to the ‘superior’ beverages of their colonial masters.”
The coronavirus regulations have pushed locals to return to ancient methods of making alcohol, “reminding us of our history and heritage,” Finca said.
According to a 2016 WHO report, South Africa rubs shoulders with the top 10 heaviest-consuming nations as the average drinker had 30 liters of pure alcohol.
China’s military news agency yesterday warned that Japanese militarism is infiltrating society through series such as Pokemon and Detective Conan, after recent controversies involving events at sensitive sites. In recent days, anime conventions throughout China have reportedly banned participants from dressing as characters from Pokemon or Detective Conan and prohibited sales of related products. China Military Online yesterday posted an article titled “Their schemes — beware the infiltration of Japanese militarism in culture and sports.” The article referenced recent controversies around the popular anime series Pokemon, Detective Conan and My Hero Academia, saying that “the evil influence of Japanese militarism lives on in
DIPLOMATIC THAW: The Canadian prime minister’s China visit and improved Beijing-Ottawa ties raised lawyer Zhang Dongshuo’s hopes for a positive outcome in the retrial China has overturned the death sentence of Canadian Robert Schellenberg, a Canadian official said on Friday, in a possible sign of a diplomatic thaw as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney seeks to boost trade ties with Beijing. Schellenberg’s lawyer, Zhang Dongshuo (張東碩), yesterday confirmed China’s Supreme People’s Court struck down the sentence. Schellenberg was detained on drug charges in 2014 before China-Canada ties nosedived following the 2018 arrest in Vancouver of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou (孟晚舟). That arrest infuriated Beijing, which detained two Canadians — Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig — on espionage charges that Ottawa condemned as retaliatory. In January
Two medieval fortresses face each other across the Narva River separating Estonia from Russia on Europe’s eastern edge. Once a symbol of cooperation, the “Friendship Bridge” connecting the two snow-covered banks has been reinforced with rows of razor wire and “dragon’s teeth” anti-tank obstacles on the Estonian side. “The name is kind of ironic,” regional border chief Eerik Purgel said. Some fear the border town of more than 50,0000 people — a mixture of Estonians, Russians and people left stateless after the fall of the Soviet Union — could be Russian President Vladimir Putin’s next target. On the Estonian side of the bridge,
Jeremiah Kithinji had never touched a computer before he finished high school. A decade later, he is teaching robotics, and even took a team of rural Kenyans to the World Robotics Olympiad in Singapore. In a classroom in Laikipia County — a sparsely populated grasslands region of northern Kenya known for its rhinos and cheetahs — pupils are busy snapping together wheels, motors and sensors to assemble a robot. Guiding them is Kithinji, 27, who runs a string of robotics clubs in the area that have taken some of his pupils far beyond the rural landscapes outside. In November, he took a team
RSS