“Bo gatilwe ke kgomo”

“Bo gatilwe ke kgomo”

My 93-year-old grandmother responded cheerfully after I had asked what they had flavoured the creamy porridge with, one hot morning of February 2018. A literal translation of her brief response is: “a cow stepped on it”, meaning it was flavoured with cow milk. The multitalented matriarch of the family is also a poet, a singer, and a storyteller of note. She is an eloquent speaker.

Amid erratic rains and droughts, the main crop grown in Botswana is sorghum. In spite of its declining consumption levels, sorghum remains the most favoured cereal staple in the country (Kebakile et al. 2014). The grain-crop is consumed mainly as sorghum meal, prepared as fermented or non-fermented thin (motogo) and thick porridge (bogobe).

I did enjoy my mother and grandmother’s gluten-free, high in fibre and protein ritual breakfast: the non-fermented motogo , cooked not only with madila, or traditionally fermented milk (sour milk), but also lekatane or wild melon.

For my sweet tooth, I added a handful teaspoons of pure raw honey uncle Willy had brought for his dear mother and sister. And for the love of food, I just had to add a bit of extra madila on top. As soon as I pulled the first cleanly licked spoon from my mouth, I utterly agreed with my grandmother’s poetic declaration: bo gatilwe ke kgomo .

#wildmelon

#botswana

#breakfast

#lekatane

#sorghum

#porridge

#motogo

#madila

#honey

#poet