Ongula Village Homestead - Harvesting and Processing Mohangu

After our visit to Etosha National Park, we stayed at the Ongula Village Homestead north of Ondangwa. The village featured a traditional Owambo homestead. In northern Namibia, most people are still living from subsistence level agriculture. The stable food is pearl millet called Mohangu. They also rely heavily on Mopane (yes, this is the tree that the worms they eat come from but the tree is primarily used for its fruit and leaves) and Makalani Palm trees, goats, and cattle.

Mohangu Field

Mohangu Grain Head

Mopane Tree

Makalani Palm Trees

Makalani Palm Tree Nuts

Mopane Tree, Malakani Palms, and Mohangu

Mahangu is more drought resistant than maize which is why they grow it in this region. After the mahangu is harvested, it is placed on elevated wooden platforms and thrashed to remove the grain.

Elevated Wood Platforms for Thrashing

Mohangu Thrashings and Chaff

The grain is then stored in big baskets. Once a basket is full, it is capped with a clay plug to keep out moisture and insects. The baskets are then stored under thatched roofs. A basket can store the mohangu for five years or more. This was a good, wet year so the harvest was good. During droughts with poor harvests, these baskets of stored mohangu serve as their food storage. It is literally life sustaining, so they protect and guard their harvest well.

Mohangu Storage Area

Mohangu Basket with Clay Plug

Mohangu Basket Covered with Thatched Roof

When needed for food preparation, the grain is taken out of the baskets and ground by hand with large, heavy poles. Once ground, it is then shifted in shallow baskets to remove the chaff. Karen and Kelda tried their hand at it but they were not very efficient (we would have starved before they would have ground enough for us to have a meal). (This is so not true! I know how to cook millet without it being ground to flour! We had an excellent salad that night with whole, not ground millet. We would be able to live on that)) The villagers also grind the Makalani Palm nuts to extract the oil.

Karen Grinding Mohangu

The Experts Grinding Mohangu

Kelda Grinding Mohangu

Shifting the Mohangu

Grinding Makalani Nuts to Extract Oil

 You will also note that Bruce did not even try to grind it! After the flour is finally prepared, it is mixed with water and oil and cooked in large, hand made earthen pots. Mohangu is part of every meal in some fashion or other. They served us mohangu with our meals and it was pretty good.

Cooking the Mohangu

The Final Prepared Mohangu

Don't want any of our posts to get too long so will described the overall traditional village layout and structure in a future post.