NTHABI TAUKOBONG
In addition to the warmth and love she associates with her grandmother’s house, MOGAU SESHOENE also remembers the age-old decorating tradition of gokgopha.
Although my GRANDMOTHER had electricity and a stove, she still preferred to BAKE BREAD the OLD-FASHIONED way.
Some of my fondest childhood memories are from time spent at my grandmother’s house in rural Ga-Mphahlele, Limpopo. The house actually consisted of four separate structures: the main house with a kitchen, living area, bathroom, main bedroom, and the bedrooms where my cousins and I used to sleep every December holiday.
Then there was a two-roomed structure that two of my youngest uncles used as bedrooms, a double garage, and the “kitchen” where I first learnt to make bread.The best way to describe this space is as a kitchen, although it was basically just a roofed structure with a floor and four mud walls plastered with cow dung.Yes, cow dung. It used to be us cousins’ chore to go and collect it in the afternoon – cow dung for plastering and decorating the floors, and goat dung to use as fuel to bake the bread. Although my grandmother had electricity and a stove with an oven, she still preferred to bake her bread the old-fashioned way – on the fire in a cast-iron pot. And that bread is probably still the most delicious I’ve ever tasted. So, why cow dung? I bet you didn’t know cow dung has antibacterial properties. It also helps to ward off snakes, scorpions and centipedes, which wouldn’t come close to a place coated with it. I think perhaps the main reasons she used the dung though, is that it’s a natural mosquito repellent and it keeps the house warm in winter and cool in summer.
Surprisingly, once the dung is dry there is no smell whatsoever. I hated the task of collecting the dung, but I liked to sit and watch as my grandmother mixed it with water and used her hands to plaster it onto the floor and walls. She would then use her finger to draw beautiful intricate patterns as she sang. That is how most women decorated their homes; a tradition passed down many generations, creating lovely patterns that I later learnt served a bigger purpose outside of just aesthetics. I would discover that many other peoples around the world use dung in the same manner. The smearing of cow dung and soil mixed with water, known as go kgopha in Sepedi, is an age-old practice to preserve and beautify homes not only in rural communities in South Africa but also in Kenya and India, among others. Done mostly by women, go kgopha is applied every two months or so depending on how much foot traffic there is in the home.
A thin layer of the dung mixture is spread on the floor and walls, and then, using a stick or fingers, the artist draws lovely patterns in the dung. Every house would have a different pattern, every village artist secretly competing to draw the most elaborate and impressive designs. The other reason I was so fond of this outside kitchen, known as moraleng in Sepedi, was because on a cold winter’s day that was where we would all congregate as a family – my grandparents and all my cousins – to sit by the fire and listen to my uncle tell us a long animated tale, a really long and hilarious one that would have us rolling on the floor with laughter. All in all, that was the best thing about my grandmother’s house: the warmth and love that radiated from that home.