The phafana that made me a warrior
Spira Tlhankane | Friday March 10, 2017 15:38
Off course I have no interest in entering any lion infested forest in my lifetime but recently I felt like a brave warrior when I attended Son of the Soil (SOTS) event with my most valuable cultural asset, phafana (African calabash).
Most men these days want to drink beer in fancy bottles but I had kept that phafana for two years since buying it in 2015 and it was one of the most valuable beer containers in my collection. The same way a warrior sharpens his spear before any battle, that morning I had to soak the phafana in hot water and used chewing gum to fill the holes and cracks. The calabash is a product of a gourd plant so it is bound to suffer a few damages over time. I find it easy to maintain my calabash because I know what I am dealing with. All this time I had to keep it in a dry place after washing and normally it should not be kept in water for a very long time.
I remember how women used to make diphafana by removing the juices and seeds inside the gourd fruits. From there they would place them in the sun to dry up. After some time when they have dried up, the green colour will slowly fade as the hardness sets in.
In the modern setting these African calabashes are bought for home use or for decoration. As a man who appreciates culture and in that case traditional beer, no phafana of mine would be used as home décor; I needed to put it to good use.
I arrived at the cultural event not particularly dressed up for the event but my phafana and weaved traditional hat were the only weapons as I entered a culturally rich event where everyone was looking stylish.
In Setswana it is rude to invite someone to your home and not offer them a cup of tea or even a glass of water. The organisers of SOTS knew that so they served bojalwa jwa Setswana right at the entrance. It is even more rude to reject a good sign of gesture therefore I had to get the traditional beer and start my day. I put out my phafana to the lady who served beer and I could tell that it (phafana) was eager as well after having not contained any traditional beer since the last Dithubaruba Festival.
After filling up the phafana, I could observe that some of the calabashes people were carrying didn’t have the plain look but had rather transformed into a sophisticated piece of art. I looked at my plain calabash and even though culture is evolving, I realised that I didn’t have to change the look to keep up with the times.
After taking my first sip, I carefully put the phafana on the green grass at Serokolwane lawns and it settled perfectly on the spot I wanted it to be. It can break easily and should be handled with care. I had watched my colleague spill traditional beer constantly and observed that she didn’t handle it with love.
I was not about to break my two year-old phafana but even if I did, calabashes are known to be environmentally friendly, it can be disposed off and it decays naturally without polluting the environment. Some domestic chickens also feed from the damaged material of phafana.
I watched as people walked around with calabashes and observed that it is a better idea than plastic. I had to move around the event to watch other things but I took my phafana with me the same way an elderly man never leaves his okapi knife.
As I met a few acquaintances, they would ask for a taste from my calabash even though they had their own and the beer was probably brewed from the same pot. The more people asked for a traditional beer from my calabash, the faster I had to run back to the beer pots for more. I realised that there is more to this phafana than I thought, and like a loyal servant, I didn’t want to drink from any calabash except mine.
Traditionally bojalwa jwa Setswana or maswe a dinala as some people prefer to call it is passed around for everyone to drink. In some cultures they pass the calabash from the eldest male to the youngest in order to create a bond. I decided to join dikhwaere in order to avoid people drinking from my special calabash. I didn’t mind but running back to the traditional beer pot constantly would have made me look like a regular to those ladies who served the beer.
I didn’t want to have my name tarnished just yet so dikhwaere was my better alternative. I was moving back and forth dancing to dikhwaere in the midst of culture aficionados who were enjoying the sounds of dikhwaere. One thing I noticed is that I didn’t spill any beer despite the movement and the muddy grass on my feet. At times I would raise it high with my single hand like a soldier’s spear after a victorious battle.
In Setswana an elderly person is not supposed to be classified as drunk no matter how much beer they have consumed. You will rather say, mogolo o itumetse (the elder is happy) in order to show respect. I was happy with the way the event was turning out and the phafana made feel like a warrior as I walked around. While men abandon traditional beer in favour of lager, I was glad to be appreciating culture the right way by using phafana.
As I saw some people wearing Zulu, Xhosa and Swazi traditional garments, I remembered that the African calabash is an esteemed product and it will always be in use across multiple cultures. The Zulu call their traditional beer pots ukhamba. Unlike our own phafana where the gourd fruit is plucked out to remove the content inside, the Zulu women craft pots made from fine clay to make their beer pots.
I was getting tired of moving around with the phafana and moreover I had to show respect because traditional beer is consumed in a setting where people sit down and drink peacefully in taverns or depots. In addition, it is said that drinking this beer is associated not only with the living, but also with the dead. Phafana is quite sacred as well because it also used to serve ancestors during appeasing rituals.
After SOTS, I realised that the more young people drink higher alcohol beverages in fancy bottles, the further they detach from our nature and culture. Phafana is no longer just a traditional beer container but it holds a huge significance for Botswana’s culture and tourism.