Makeshift marketplaces have sprung on the side of the road connecting Francistown, Botswana’s second city and Orapa, the diamond-mining township, roughly 25 kilometers outside the village of Borolong, Northern part of Botswana.
Those not familiar with the area are bound to slow down or stop, to figure out why these home-like structures and make-shift markets exist, but locals know that it is the mopane season.
Gatherers cannot help but be grateful for the recent rains that resulted in the abundance of this delicacy, especially for the northerners.
During this season, people travel long distances to either purchase or harvest the creatures.
Mopane worms are harvested and sold in makeshift markets on roadsides across Botswana, a business worth tens of thousands of pula every year, with temporary homes and shops set up along the roadside during the harvest season.
Outside the village of Borolong, some people stay for the entire season, spending their days gathering phane from the leaves of the mopane trees and then preparing it for sale.
This year, Botswana is blessed with a bumper harvest of phane, due to the heavy rains recorded in areas such as Jamataka, Mabesekwa, Mokubilo, Matsitama, Lekoba, Natale, Goshwe and Tsetsebjwe, north and central parts of Botswana.
Women and children are usually the ones involved in gathering mopane worms, but in recent years, men and youth have joined in, attracted by the potential income.
Once collected, what follows is the task of squeezing out the gut before the worms are boiled and sundried to preserves them until the next harvest.
Harvest peaks of this species is November to January (major) and March to May (minor), though population numbers and location of outbreaks vary from year to year. Some phane businesses have considered domesticating it in order to make the industry more reliable.
One gatherer, Kesentse Mogomela, explained that the demand is very high.
As a business we are aware of this growing demand and we have positioned ourselves to be the major players in this industry,” she said.
She explained that selling to individuals gets her 300 pula to 400 pula a 20 liter bucket, while a 50kg bag sells at around 3,500 pula, adding that they also sell to informal traders, some hotels and restaurants.
But besides the good things associated with phane as a commercial commodity, some people, who live outside areas where it is abundan, might be surprised to learn that phane gathering is a risky undertaking.
The mopane woodlands are home to venomous spiders and poisonous snakes, biting and stinging insects.
For example, in 2017, a 54-year-old woman died from a snake-bite suspected to have been a black mamba when harvesting phane at Mohawaneng cattle post in the Tsetsebjwe area.
The snake was found at the scene, but later vanished into the bush.
Gatherers sometimes get lost in the bush, are pricked by thorns, bitten by snakes and risk contracting Malaria from mosquito bites.
Others get their hands stained and terribly cracked from preparing phane without gloves, which are unaffordable to many gatherers.
Elizabeth Toteng of Borolong village, who is currently harvesting near Lekoba lands, explained that the cool climate makes many of the harvesting areas ideal breeding grounds for many venomous and poisonous snakes, spiders, and other dangerous creatures such as elephants that may attack people in the forest.
Another interviewee from Mabesekwa settlement, Ditathelelo Otlaadisa confirmed that harvesting phane comes with its own risks.
She explained that a resident of Mmeya settlement, 18 kilometers north of Mokubilo village, was also beaten by a snake during the current harvesting season in Tsetsebjwe.
She said that the woman stepped on the snake, but one of the harvesters, who is a traditional doctor, managed to cure her.
A village leader, Israel Molema of Borolong village described the recent rains as “fantastic” because it is a big relief to harvesters, who were previously feeling nervous because the country was “very dry and hot as the season’s first rains delayed”.
He advised gatherers to work in groups because it makes it easy to pick if one is missing while a local police officer, Oteng Ngada warned that most of the areas where gathering takes place have become fast-breeding ground for many dangerous creatures.
“We [the police] have encountered cases of missing persons who suffer exhaustion and die in the bush,” he said.
Besides the risks associated phane gathering, it seems the business has resulted in conflicts among gatherers, fighting for territorial areas.
“Some people don’t want us here, they think we have come to harvest from their territories, but mind you, this is a lucrative natural resource that belongs to us all,” said Toteng.
Sharing the sentiments was her daughter, Kgakgamatso Maripe, who explained that some chase them away on grounds that they will contaminate their grazing areas by disposing waste everywhere, which she said is not the case.
“We have been taught proper waste disposal in the bush. You dig a small hole, you help yourself and then cover with sand to prevent livestock from eating the waste and suffering from measles,” she added with assurance. Enditem
