Your Ancestors Want You to Brew Beer

Let us Brew Beer (Kubika Doro/Hwahwa)

I am starting this blog with fun, and what is more fun than good old beer, the waters of cheer.

In African Traditional Religion beer plays a very important role in the rituals and rites. You have been having a problem, you have visited everyone you have been referred to and the advice has been the same: “You must brew some beer for your ancestors”.  You visit a sowe and the nice Madzibaba says: “Come back after you have brewed some beer for your ancestors” . You have toyed with the option of joining the new Pentecostal churches but what if your head is touched and you fall down in front of the TV viewers? You have not been to a single church since Boarding School. You meet a friend who was “born again” three months ago and she is the “God Bless You” type. You know the type, the one that you meet after 5 years and in the first 5 minutes you already know that he/she is now a “born again”.  She asks you “Which church do you go to?” You mumble something about your boarding school church because you are, at least, familiar with some of the songs. You are safe because she says she now goes to the church located in the city centre. You spot the plastic bangle. You hesitate to ask about being touched on the head and falling down. “Come back after you have brewed some beer for your ancestors”, that was a Madzibaba, a church person who said that.

You are so scared because you do not know where to start. Everything sounds so complicated. How can I be expected to brew beer? They are talking about the traditional beer that is brewed over 7 days. So, let us brew some beers. We will brew a total of 3 beers.

Temporary Beer/Doro

When you get around to be told to brew beer for the first time, usually you are also broke. You are broke, because you did not brew some beer. Chicken and Egg? What to do? With a less that 20 dollars, you can brew some beer. You will need some clay pots (pfuko) but that is an investment for the big beer. The little pfukos for musumo, cost about $2 each and a bigger one would set you back $5. For ingredients you need 2litres of opaque beer from the bar (mugweje) and chimera chezviyo from the supermarket.

You then prepare1 litre of masvusvu. Masvusvu is a sweet drink that you cook, using chimera only. Let it cool down and then mix it with the scud in  the big clay pot. If you leave it overnight, it ferments. You now have your temporary beer, which you can use to advise you ancestors that you are willing and ready to brew beer but you are facing this and that problem.

Additional Beer

Now you are ready to brew the 7 days but you are worried about the expense. Will you have to buy additional beer, lager, spirits, wines etc? For minimal cost you can brew chioneday also called chikokiana or skindon. You do not use this beer for musumo. It is just to make sure that you have enough drinks for the day. It is called chiOne Day but in reality you need two days. If your function is on a Saturday, brew your ChiOneDay on a Friday.

You heat some water in a drum and add mealie meal as if you are cooking sadza, Let it  cook for a good 4 hours. Cool the porridge down, add chimera and yeast  and leave over night. The next day you sieve, to remove the pulp/draff/dregs or maseses. Do not throw masese away because they attract a lot of flies but rather give is to the local fishmonger. Sprinkle a bit of brown sugar and people can start drinking on Saturday morning. Keep your mbira players away from this one.

Do not try  this at home. Find someone who can.

Next blog is  the real thing.