Serurubele brings back the indigenous mooka
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Monday June 30, 2025 09:49
However, local poet and writer Edwin Moroka, also famed as Serurubele, who is not only passionate about preserving the Setswana language but also culture, is on a mission to bring back the delicacy. He is harvesting it and packaging it for sale. In an interview with Arts&Culture, he said he started his mooka product business in June this year, even though the idea was conceived in 2017. “I always talked of how I want to package mooka but never did. I am happy that I finally fulfilled my dream this year. I started with only a few products to test the market. My intention was not to sell it, I was just piloting to see if the people know it and if it will sell,” Moroka said. “I harvest it from our lands where there is plenty of it. I found people digging and eating it. It is like the more we dig, the more it increases. The funny part is that it is dug from the ground. After digging, we fill the holes so that animals do not get injured. I started digging it since I was in primary school,” he said. Growing up, he said he saw a lot of it, but after migrating to the city for greener pastures, he did not.
However, he said he was the one responsible for digging the stingless bee honey and even packaging it. He also stated that since he was now doing it as a business, he got assistance from a few people who helped him with digging after he identified the honeypot. Furthermore, he pointed out that the stingless bees' honey was very healthy, adding that he did not have to do anything to enhance it. He said it cleanses the system, soothes the throat, treats flu and boosts the immune system. He pointed out that the honey was made by stingless bees that stay underground. He added that they were found in places that had termites and dug and made a pot where they would make that sweet honey. He added that the honey is made from pollen and other things the bee takes from nature. Moreover, he said the public loved his idea since it was scarce and the honey was rare to find. He added that the demand was high and it was selling fast hence it being expensive. Moroka also said the nutritional value of the stingless bees honey was very special and healthier than honey bees, which he said was also attested to by different research that could be found online. “I have a book that I have written, and it is at a final stage. It will be out before the end of November and it is about mooka. The stingless bees take food from different sources, including flowers, trees, water and so forth. So far, I have identified six types of stingless bees. They are distinguished by colour and how they produce their foods,” he said, as he described them. He added that those bees could be found in different places.
He also said there were different ways one could identify the stingless bees. So far, he said he has not yet seen any products made of the honey and would like to try and rear it in the future so that he could harvest a lot of it. He added that he was thinking of producing drinks, sweets and even beauty products using it. “When we see the honey, we water it by putting the moretlhwa stick to detect how far it is. We dig it using a hoe or even a spade to dig it out. We have different products found in the honey pot and the eggs ( yellow), honey,” he said. He said the product has become a hit among many Batswana, including Culture Spears traditional song and dance group leader, Kabelo Mogwe, who testified how thrilled they were to buy the product since they could not remember the last time they tasted it. Some, especially the senior citizens, said they would share it with their children as they had not had the privilege of tasting some of the country’s indeginous foods like mooka.