The Sunday Mail
Claude Maredza
“Whoever does not inform his children of his grandparents, has destroyed his child, marred his descendants, and injured his offspring the day he dies. Whoever does not make use of his ancestry has muddled his reason. Whoever is unconcerned with his lineage has lost his mind. Whoever neglects his origin, his stupidity has become critical. Whoever is unaware of his ancestry his incompetence has become immense. Whoever is ignorant of his roots, his intellect has vanished. Whoever does not know his place of origin, his honour has collapsed. – African Philosophy from Antiquity
A lot of people have heard of the harurwa insects of Norumedzo village, Bikita District, Masvingo Province of Zimbabwe.
While lots more have enjoyed the delicacy that harurwa insects are, very few people realise that there is a very elaborate management system that goes with the tradition of harurwa.
There is a whole systematic management system that goes into harurwa, which in itself is proof of the efficacy of indigenous knowledge systems, in this case, as far as management goes.
So, let us look at traditional practices used to manage harurwa. This will help to demystify the rumours, innuendo and half-truths that a lot of people, out of ignorance, tell each other about harurwa and the traditional practices thereof, as practiced by the people of Norumedzo village.
We hope that by now most people know that the harurwa insects came naturally from God to cushion Nemeso, the founding father of Norumedzo village, who was born with four eyes and was rejected by his father for this abnormality.
He was given his inheritance in advance by his father in the form of the piece of land now called Norumedzo village, so that he could be far away from the rest of his people because of his abnormality.
He therefore didn’t have anything to eat, and God, through the ancestors, then gave him these insects, not just for momentary hunger satisfaction, but as a perpetual source of food and trade.
The detailed story of Nemeso is found in the book ‘Harurwa’ written by this same author.
What we can reveal with authority is that Nemeso is the first born son of Fupajena – today represented by Chief Mazungunye and Mhepo, the rain-maker daughter of Chief Musikavanhu of Chipinge.
Fupajena is the brother to Mutindini, popularly known as Mutindi today represented by Chief Mukanganwi.
Both Chiefs Mukanganwi and Mazungunye are Moyo Chirandu Duma. They form the nucleus or centre pivot or fulcrum of the vast Moyo Chirandu Duma people who are the majority sub-tribe of the generality of the Karanga tribe of Zimbabwe.
What we want to document now is the actual practice of the harurwa tradition as it is done by the Moyo Chirandu Duma people of Norumedzo village, Bikita District, Masvingo Province, Zimbabwe. There have been many distortions regarding the harurwa insects.
We want to clear the air and clarify those distortions, and Zimbabweans and the rest of the world understand the harurwa practice as carried out by the Moyo Chirandu Duma people of Norumedzo.
Harurwa has an acidic juice inside its belly.
This juice is its defensive mechanism.
If you try to catch it, it squirts this acidic juice out of itself. If the juice gets into an eye, it is very irritating and the affected person will spend a minute or two with this sharp irritation that eventually goes away without damaging the eye.
Consequently, the eyes will naturally produce tears.
But the tears people are referring to are not the ones caused by the insect squirting its defensive acidic juice into a person’s eye.
Because this acidic juice is sour, before you fry the insects for consumption you must ensure that this juice is squeezed. If this is not done, the insect will be horribly sour in the mouth.
But it always happens that when you kill the insects for frying and eating, there will always be some that retain their juice.
In fact, it is actually a skill, which gets acquired through practice and experience, that one gets to kill the insects in such a manner that you end up with very few or none at all that retain the acidic juice.
To achieve the highest level of the skill, one has to pour very little amounts of hot water on the insects, which will be in a container. As the insects try and fight this hot water, they do so by squirting the acidic juice out of themselves.
The longer one takes pouring these small amounts of hot water on the insects that almost all of them will die after having tried to defend themselves thus ridding themselves of this acidic juice resulting in very few retaining this juice.
The belly of a harurwa insect, which hasn’t squirted all the acidic juice out of itself, turns a very distinctly dark brown colour after being fried. This colour is much deeper just on the insect’s belly as opposed to the rest of the insect’s body, which will be a benign and appetising light brown.
If you eat harurwa with a dark brown belly due to the acidic juice still inside it, your mouth is sharply incensed by this sour tangy taste, which makes you want to spit the insect.
The sensation this sour taste causes in your mouth conjures tears from your eyes in the same way you feel when you eat say a sour fruit like a lemon.
From how people describe this sensation, one would think that these insects are eaten while one is howling!
In fact, people from areas far from Norumedzo actually believe that indeed harurwa are eaten when one is crying.
That is not correct and far from the truth.
The explanation lies in this insect, which may have retained its acid.
And this doesn’t happen all the time at all.
So, it is absolutely incorrect to say that harurwa insects are eaten while one is crying.
They merely cause a teary sensation and this only happens if you eat a harurwa whose acidic juice has not been removed before frying the insect for consumption.
It doesn’t happen all the time, as people erroneously believe.
Such a sour harurwa insect is called a FUVE (pronounced as spelt) in the Karanga vernacular language of the area.
In fact, when eating the harurwa insects, you are actually warned to be careful of the FUVES.
You can select those harurwa with the dark brown belly, and you throw them away as they are the FUVEs.
I hope this puts an end to the incorrect debate particularly in Harare, and other places far from Bikita.
*Claude Maredza is from Norumedzo village. He is a qualified accountant and is completing his doctorate in business administration with the University of Liverpool. Contact: +263 772 382 099
