Cat meat livens up Chibuku party

GALE NGAKANE
Correspondent | Friday February 22, 2008 00:00

The cat, with a tan and white coat, had fallen into the temptation of sneaking into the yard - day or night - to steal a fowl or a goose. But on Wednesday, 'MmaTebogo' had had enough. She let loose her dogs which chased and mauled the cat until it came to the end of its nine lives.

'MmaTebogo' - whose real name is Tryphinah Ditlhong - runs a flourishing chicken project at her home in Area W, which is also a Chibuku shebeen. She also keeps a handful of geese that mingle with the chickens.

Ditlhong's shebeen is one of the most well known in Francistown. It is situated at the foot of the giant the flyover that straddles Area W and the Francistown bus terminal.

Off-duty taxi drivers and bus conductors cross over to the shebeen by walking under flyover to toss down litres of Chibuku. They sat on the benches with their cartons as MmaTebogo's dogs 'nabbed' the thieving cat and put paid to its ninth life.

And she was in the process of disposing of it when she jokingly suggested it would be wise to put it in the pot and the ravenous Chibuku guzzlers, who overheard her, caught on to the idea.

Suddenly the young men who go by the names of Dumba, MD, Frank, Letshwenyo and Jeff Moalosi put aside their cartons of the opaque beer and sprang into action.

They borrowed Mma Tebogo's kitchen knife and went about skinning the animal. Some prepared a bonfire while others washed clean a three-legged pot.

'I was joking when I suggested the cat should be eaten as it also feasted on my fowls,' laughed MmaTebogo.

'MD' said there was no way he was going to throw away a meal. 'I come from Mmadinare and over there we have no problem with cat meat.

We eat it and there is no problem,' he salivated as he watched the thickset Dumba mincing the cat meat, which exuded an aroma akin to that of a fried chicken, with an improvised spoon from a tree branch.

MmaTebogo's granddaughter, a two year old girl looked quite keen on the proceedings as she kept rubbing herself against Dumba, apparently in anticipation of being given a piece of cat meat. 

When the Mmegi team arrived at the shebeen, the big eyes of the cat stared at us on a washing line where they had placed its head, as if ruing the fact that it had squandered its quota of nine lives.