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Traditional sorghum-beer brewer Mashudu Steven Netshiunda, standing next to two drums full of Mahafhe while holding a sieve. Photo: Victor Mukwevho Ne-vumbani.
News Date: 27 October 2024
After failing to secure employment in either the private sector or the government, a 42-year-old man was so determined to escape poverty that he decided to do something for himself to survive. Mashudu Steven Netshiunda from Khubvi village asked his late aunt to teach him how to brew traditional sorghum beer, called mahafhe.
In Venda tradition, only women brew mahafhe; however, due to the economic hardships faced by many residents in the country, men have also entered the fray. After his aunt agreed to help him, it took him three months to master the art of brewing the popular thirst-quenching Venda traditional beer.
When asked if other men looked at him strangely for being the only man in the village doing such a job, he said some still laughed at him, but he is more focused on feeding his family than on listening to people mocking him.
“I don't care about what they say; what matters most to me is that I have created employment for myself. Some of those who laughed at me when I started are now pleading for a chance to work with me, but I have decided to work with those who started with me from the beginning,” he said.
Netshiunda goes to the nearby hilltop every morning to fetch firewood, using a wheelbarrow. "It is not easy to brew mahafhe. You need to know how to mix malt and mealie meal correctly, while the heat from the firewood is very important. If it is not hot enough or too hot, you won't brew the right stuff. You have to maintain the balance,” he said.
Netshiunda is encouraging members of the community who are unemployed to be creative and use their hands to create employment for themselves. “Even walking around cleaning people’s yards is something one can do for a living. Let us wake up and work,” he said.
When asked if he would one day train his children to brew mahafhe, he said he would never even advise them to try. “It is very hot where we brew traditional sorghum beer. This is done by people who do not have any other means of survival. I hope I will be the last one in my generation to do this,” he said.
Victor Mukwevho Ne-vumbani joined the Mirror during it's inception in 1990. He joined the SABC newsroom in 1995, and was known by listeners as "A u fhedzisela ari". He was a news editor for The Tembisan Newspaper from 2007 to 2015. He rejoined the Limpopo Mirror newspaper in June 2022 as a freelance journalist.
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