The Marula Festival serves as a great way to unite the different tribes in Limpopo, such as the Vhavenda, Tsonga and Sesotho tribes, as everyone comes together as one big nation to enjoy traditional marula beer. This is according to Ms Dora Makananisa, member of the Mopani Mayoral Committee.
"We want communities who live in areas where marula trees are found in abundance to help protect this tree, so that even the future generations will know the importance of the tree. It doesn't only bear its succulent fruits; traditional doctors, for instance, also use the tree's bark for medical remedies. We have to respect our culture and traditions, and through the Marula Festival we can showcase our different cultural dances," she said.
Makananisa was joined by officers from the National Heritage Council (NHC) of South Africa, the Limpopo Heritage Resources Agency, and the Limpopo Department of Sport, Art and Culture last Saturday at the Muti wa Vatsonga Cultural Museum near Tzaneen to celebrate the annual Marula Festival.
The two-day event started with traditional ritual performances by selected traditional doctors, traditional leaders and community members. Traditional dancing, such as the tshigombela, xigubu, and mitshongolo, was performed to entertain guests.
The chairperson of the Limpopo House of Traditional Leaders, Kgoshi Malesela Dikgale, said that, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, performing the Go lomavukanyi, or U luma mukumbi, to mark the beginning of the marula-beer-drinking season was not possible. He said that unemployed rural woman should take advantage of the marula season to empower themselves economically as profit could be made from making the beer.