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George Sekonya inspects mopane worms in Lerala, Botswana. Photo supplied.

Sekonya pursues a study of mopani worms

 

The study of indigenous species creates more interest, not only from those supervising the student and the academia, but also those who hold first-hand knowledge of that species – and so is James George Sekonya's current doctoral study (PhD) of mashonzha (mopani worms).

Sekonya, who holds a bachelor of environmental management (honours) degree from the University of Venda (Univen) and a master of philosophy degree in environmental and geographical sciences from the University of Cape Town (UCT), said that, once he had arrived at UCT, he had approached several potential supervisors who had an interest that aligned with his desire to study the use of biodiversity for livelihoods.

“I eventually met Prof Rachel Wynberg, who was looking for a student with interest in exploring the trade of mopane worms between Botswana and South Africa. Ideally, this was for a PhD project, not suited for masters because of the extensive study area and amount of work,” he said.

Nonetheless, Sekonya and Prof Wynberg and another researcher, Jaci van Niekerk, met a few times and decided to focus only within South Africa for the master’s degree research. “My extensive knowledge of Thohoyandou and Venda, from my time at Univen, helped me to conceptualise the research on mopane worms quickly,” said Sekonya. “Also, my background knowledge of the trade that I had seen in and around Thohoyandou for four-and-a-half years was helpful.”

His keen interest for the master’s degree was to investigate the impact of climate and environmental change on the mopane worm populations and the effect on the livelihoods of traders and consumers of this resource. For Sekonya, the experience has been incredibly rewarding, fulfilling and especially challenging, because he had to study and make connections between mopane worms, local cultures, the socio-economics of the traders, climate change, street trading regulations and politics among traders and municipalities to understand the narratives of mopane worms.

“This research got good reviews from the examiners as it highlighted worrying issues about this vital resource,” he said. “This encouraged me to continue studying mopane worms, politics, and the governance systems between Botswana and South Africa for my PhD.”

So far, his study includes the towns in Vhembe and Greater Giyani as well as the Central District in Botswana. He had been to Thohoyandou, Sibasa, Malamulele, Giyani, Elim and the Makhado municipal area to interview vendors, cross-border traders and municipal officials.

“In Botswana, I engaged harvesters, traditional leaders, forestry officials and the revenue service officials to understand the whole value chain of mopane worms across the two countries,” he said.

For his master’s, he did research entitled Mopane worm use, livelihoods and environmental change in Limpopo Province, South Africa. The results of this study were recently published in the International Journal of the Commons, in collaboration with Nick McClure, a former Fox Fellow from Yale University in the USA.

He originally comes from Atok, Gankwana, in the Sekhukhune District and he has strong ties with Vhembe District as a former student resident.

However, a worrying fact is that the availability of mopane worms is following a downward trend. Some areas that used to have mopane worms do not have them anymore.

“This will have implications for communities who used to trade this resource for an income,” he said. “Therefore, my current research is looking at the various ways that mopane worms are regulated in Botswana and the trade in South Africa to suggest ways to improve the sustainability of the resource while promoting livelihoods across the two countries as there are strong links.”

He added that mopane worms were rich in protein, energy, minerals, carbohydrates and fats. “There is a growing trend of people altering their diets to eat more insect-based food across the world,” he said. “People are increasingly concerned about the impact of beef production and its contribution to the emission of greenhouse gases and water use.”

 

 

Date:01 March 2020

By: Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

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