Selling tswii is sweet but risky too, says trader

LEINANYANA TSIANE
Correspondent | Friday June 12, 2009 00:00

He really meant it. For a majority of people for food to be on the table, one has to really sweat.

This is exactly what Keolebogile Matebele has been doing every day for the past 14 years. She has been toiling to harvest and sell the Ngamiland delicacy called tswii.

Tswii is a potato like vegetable that is collected from deep under the water. It is cooked with different types of meat such as beef, chicken, goat and lamb.

Kelebogile and a group of other women are seen every day seated under a shade next to Ngami Butchery selling their tswii, which is always accompanied by fat cakes and buns. Other women sell cow/ox bells, dried beans, dried tswii, and an assortment of wares.

'I started selling cooked tswii after things got tougher and tougher for me and my family. I have never worked in my life and seeing how the difficulties of life were having a toll on us, I had to stand up and do something, hence this business,' Kelebogile said.

She said nobody taught her how to collect tswii, but that she learnt from other women who were old in the trade.

She explained that they collect tswii from Thamalakane River and further next to Matsaudi area because they are not allowed to collect it near the Wildlife Offices since the area is designated as a national park.

'Collecting tswii has its ups and downs. Sometimes we are forced to go into the (Okavango) delta, which we do most of the time. This depends on the depth of the water in the river. If the water is very deep it is difficult to collect it. I use a knife to dip into the river and sometimes the water reaches my waist. I have to wear a pair of pants to do so,' said Kelebogile.

She mentioned that she had just returned from deep in the delta to collect tswii, saying that she sometimes goes away for a week. She goes in a group of women and they contribute P250 to hire a vehicle.

'We hire a vehicle for P250 each and go for days or even a week in the delta to collect tswii. We like the delta most because tswii is plentiful there,' she added.

She however said that collecting tswii is dangerous as there are crocodiles, snakes and other predators lurking about. She said she nearly got killed by a crocodile sometime back while harvesting it.

'One day we went for our collection in the delta. I stepped into the water and stood on top of something which I assumed was a log  dragged in by an elephant. I don't know what happened but the next thing I was flung out of the water and I landed on dry land.

I only realised I had stepped on the back of a sleeping crocodile and that my weight woke it up. On that particular day I never collected my tswii because I was so scared I would not dare  get into the water. But the following day I had to otherwise I would have returned home empty-handed. It is dangerous but there aren't many options,' she lamented.

Tswii is not only a delicay when cooked with meat but it is also a nutritional drink and can be used by both diabetics and hypertension sufferers.

'You just boil the vegetable and drink the liquid. Legend has it that it lowers BP and sugar levels.'

Kelebogile says despite all the hardships that she encounters during her tswii collection, her children never go to bed on an empty stomach. She said this business is for life.

'I will continue doing it for the rest of my life. I sell it for P3 a spoon. Business is lucrative from the 1st until 5th of every month. The rest of the time it is low but I come here every day because I do not have a choice. I wake up every day at 4 am and go back home in the afternoon. Sometime I go with leftovers, which I give to my children,' she says with a great sense of satisfaction.