The team interviewed the acting Chief who gave us a short background of the area. It was the two women, who eagerly explained to the team the uses of the !Nara plant and the topic of discussion. Ms Utuseb, speaking in her native language, the Khoekhoegowab language, and Ms Kamp translated what she says in English. Ms Utuseb tells that the !Nara is not a plant that you use seed for and do farming with it. It’s a plant that grows naturally and seasonally in the Kuiseb area. When it’s time to harvest the !Nara all living beings including “snakes are [there for] the !Nara, […] we all, snake and all, we are all eating that [the !Nara], jackals even”. Ms Kamp tells us that manufacturers who process the plant produce commodities like “hair food, and chocolate like the dry fruit chocolate”.
Following this descriptive interview in 2022 with the women, Mr Manale, a Topnaar descendant whom we also interviewed that year took us out to the field to see where the !Nara grows but we could not find any on that occasion. Upon our return to Namibia in 2023, visiting Mr and Mrs Manale the research team got to experience the !Nara plant. Mr and Mrs Manale welcomed us to their home with the !Nara plant, presenting it to us before we entered their home. We tasted it. It was an experience of mouthwatering sensation and bursts of flavour. Mr and Mrs Manale bought roasted !Nara seeds and gifted it to us. We got to experience the !Nara plant in a variety of ways. They illustrated to us how the seed gets separated from the fruit which is smooth, milky and silky on your tongue. Once the separation of the plant is done and people have the seeds, the mushy insides are used for various things also for making animal feed.
In recent years, the seeds have been cold-pressed in Swakopmund, producing an oil rich in Omega-6 fatty acids, used to make nutty culinary oil. On our previous trip to Kuiseb I bought a bottle of this oil to use over my food back in South Africa and it was tasty.
The !Nara is a plant that keeps on giving to the people who discovered it and to the entrepreneurs who are making different products from it. In the dusty landscape of Namibia, in the dunes and dry fields are a goldmine of resilience named the !Nara plant. The desert that appears so dry to the naked eye, gives life to this plant that is ankered in one geographical area, thereby giving a cultural identity to its people like the Topnaar people.