04 Oct 2020

From time immemorial, people have always made the most out of their environment, often drawing sustenance and deriving their livelihood from it. 

Communities, regardless of where they find abode, often times put to good use the different natural resources they find in their chosen localities. 

In Matlhako, a village in the Tswapong area, little exists that may draw a visitor’s attention, but from a distance as one approaches the village, an interesting sight emerges. 

At the entrance of the tiny village, packed in haphazard but somehow neat rows, giant morula trees stand guard, ushering the visitor in to experience the warmth of the local people. 

Clearly the huge trees, their branches stuck together in an unending embrace, offer a massive cover for the ground underneath and it is without doubt that their shade, when they are in full bloom, would soothe both body and soul of any weary traveler. 

The particular orchard of morula trees, according to Kgosi Ditshoto Kgaugelo of Matlhako, gives a perfect view of how the village used to look like decades before, before developments picked up speed and in turn resulted in some residents felling the massive trees in the process of clearing their residential plots prior to building their homes. 

Since settling in Matlhako in 1952 after trekking from Molepolole’s Borakalalo ward, and in the course of their journey settling at some point at a place near Makwate and thereafter in Chadibe and then in Borotsi, before finally proceeding to their present-day location, residents of Matlhako have always derived some benefits from the many morula trees found in their area. 

Popular perhaps, among the uses of this tree in this community, was and to date remains, the brewing of the traditional alcoholic drink made from the morula fruit, and also dikgeru or dikolonkota as morula kernels are called in Setswapong. 

Some people like Kgosi Kgaugelo also use the tree’s leaves, mixed with molasses, as feed for small stock particularly during dry seasons when pastures are bare. 

In recent years, it has emerged however that the tree, which some Matlhako residents use for the production of mortars and pestles and other woodwork items, has a lot more importance as its fruit can be used to make jam, sweets, soap and oil. 

The advent of the other more commercial uses of the tree and its by-products has seen people from some quarters develop an interest in Matlhako, often coming to buy the nuts from residents for extraction of the kernels and subsequent processing into different products. 

This turn of events has left Kgosi Kgaugelo and the Village Development Committee (VDC) worried since it emerged that morula nuts were being bought at a pittance from locals. 

Nonetheless, another concern arose from some residents’ reluctance to register their buyers at the local kgotla to give the village leadership an opportunity to watch over the sale process to ensure that those selling do not get cheated. 

“We have long appealed to residents to always register their buyers at the kgotla, so that we help ensure that people do not cheat them, but they have not been forthcoming since the call was made. May be they think that we want to stop them from selling,” decries Kgosi Kgaugelo. “Ba bangwe bareki ba kgona go tsaya kgetsi ya 50kg ka P20. Ke gore ke seemo fela se se botlhoko,” he notes, explaining how some buyers at times demand to be sold a 50 kg sack for P20. 

VDC chairperson, Mr Phetogo Rateloko has big dreams for the morula trees in Matlhako and its environment. 

His committee has started the process of rallying the community, the idea being to set up a community trust that would spearhead the conservation of the morula tree and coordinate the manner in which residents make use of and benefit from the tree. 

“We want to commercialise morula. Our greatest desire is to see residents understand the true value of this tree,” he observes. Mr Rateloko reckons that a lot of footwork would go into getting residents to understand why the hullabaloo about the morula tree. 

“Ba bangwe ba a o rema ba re o ba tlaletsa leswe gape o ba thubela matlo,” he laments, saying this is despite meetings in the past with officials from the Department of Forestry and Range Resources during which residents were informed that the morula is a protected plant species hence they should desist from cutting it. 

According to Mr Rateloko, once the trust is up and running, the intention is to set up a morula-processing factory, a feat that, once realised, will create the much needed jobs for locals, who, like countless other Batswana in the rest of the country are grappling with unemployment. 

A resident, Ms Spompo Jim will be selling morula nuts for the first time this year, joining many others who earn a bit of income from the sale of the nuts, which usually get processed from the fruit during the brewing of the alcoholic drink. 

Though she has been waiting for a potential buyer for weeks, she has no idea about the pricing and will seek the advice of other residents before selling. 

To acknowledge its significance, government in 2014 declared morula a national symbol, alongside three other plants and animal species; those being sengaparile, motshikiri and kgori. 

The Department of Forestry and Range Resources official in Serowe, Mr Desmond Serero confirms that morula indeed forms part of the couple of other protected plant species in Botswana. 

Mr Serero explains that the tree, like others found locally, is quite significant in the lives of Batswana and the public should thus do its utmost in efforts to protect and conserve it. As humans have for ages been using forests to source materials for construction and medicinal purposes among many others. 

Plants also have a major role of soil restoration and conservation Matlhako, a situation that also ensures that man gets the most out of the soil from which he carries out different other activities. 

Overall therefore, the Matlhako community stands to benefit a lot from the host of morula trees in its locality, and that is, to some degree dependent on whether they will eventually all see the need to live in complete harmony with this often gigantic tree.  Ends