Mursik not too sweet for plant

When Kenyan athletes arrive from their international competitions, they are usually almost sure that two or three sips of the Kalenjin mursik delicacy await them at the airport, all helped down the throat by the ecstatic merriment that accompanies such occasions.

The drink, made from fermented milk, charcoal and, sometimes, animal blood has over the last few months been commercialised and is now available in restaurants all over Kenya’s major towns.

But, even though that commercialisation has helped demystify the traditional drink locally, foreigners are still mesmerised by the spectacle of surging crowds and gourds raised to the heavens at the airport, and many have always wondered what it is that makes that milk so important that it is transported hundreds of kilometres to welcome our heroes and heroines.

Speculation has been so rife over the issue that some commentators have attributed the success of Kenyan athletes to the nutriment.

The Ministry of Tourism, probably inspired by the return of the masses to tradition, has jumped on the bandwagon and has been preaching the restitution of Kenya’s cultural heritage and diversity.

For the Kalenjin, where there is culture and heritage, mursik will be close by. And they are not alone.

The call to return to our roots has been embraced by almost all the major communities in the country, who congregate at various entertainment spots under the banner of “Cultural Nights” to wine and dine the traditional way.

While the Agikuyu relish their mukimo, the Abaluhya their ingokho and the Akamba their muthokoi, the Kalenjin guard the majesty of their Mursik with undying love, all too aware that the symbolism the drink carries risks extinction with the advent of modernism.

What many do not realise, however, is that the growing popularity of this traditional beverage is taking a toll on the one tree that it cannot live without.

In the quest to ensure the drink’s longevity, people are sending its vital ingredients down the road the dodo took.

The Peanut Butter Cassia (Senna dydimobotrya), whose stem is burnt and its charcoal mixed with boiled milk in a gourd and left to ferment for four to five days, is now becoming a rare species.

The plant is named “Peanut Butter Cassia” because it smells like peanuts when you run your fingers through its leaves.

Mursik’s scientific and skilful preparation has been in existence for as long as the oldest men and women of the Kalenjin community today can remember.

Ms Lorna Birir, 78, of Kipkelion’s Giri Mori Village says that the charcoal not only adds flavour to the fermented milk, but also has medicinal value.

“The tree is used to cure stomach upsets and neutralise acids that might develop during fermentation,” Ms Birir says.

“The charcoal strengthens bones and is the secret behind longevity and the speed of local runners. Modern yoghurt was developed as a result of the need to modernise mursik and have different flavours,” she adds.

The Kalenjin delicacy, which is estimated to be more than 330 years old, was developed to preserve excess milk.

“The preparation of mursik requires knowledge and expertise. We have had situations where the milk was so watery that nobody enjoyed drinking it,” Ms Birir says. She warns that care should be taken to avoid contamination, which could lead to stomach upsets.

When preparing mursik, the gourd, known by the Kipsigis and Nandi as sotet, is first washed then left to dry.

Pieces of charcoal from the Peanut Butter Cassia (commonly known as itet or senetwet in Kipsigis and osenetoi in Maa) are then put into the gourd and a palm tree branch used to coat the inside of the gourd with the charcoal.

Milk is boiled then left to cool before it is poured into the gourd and covered with a tight lid, usually made of sewn animal skin.  The milk is then left for four to six days to ferment.

When the mixture is presumed to be ready, the palm tree branch is used to agitate the milk and attain an even texture because butter tends to float on top.

The texture of the mursik, according to Ms Birir, will depend on the feed given to the cow and what breed the animal is.

Mursik made from colostrum, she says, is thicker and more nutritious than that made from any other milk.

Although the technique has withstood the test of time despite the development of advanced technology, the Kalenjin community fears that the quality and effectiveness of their age-old drink is slowly being compromised because the indigenous tree is slowly disappearing, especially in Rift Valley, where it is needed the most.

The quantity of the charcoal used to make mursik nowadays, Ms Birir says, is much less than the amount that was used when she was younger.

According to a study done in 1989 by the Department of Food Science and Technology at the Kenya Agriculture Research Institute (Kari) and The Jomo Kenyatta University’s Department of Botany to determine the bioactive fractions in the stem charcoal of Senna didymobotrya, the tree inhibits the growth of micro-organisms.

Antimicrobial activity was determined using the ‘cork and bore’ diffusion method against test organisms Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans.

The study results showed there is scientific justification for the use of S didymobotrya in the preservation of milk by the pastoralists of West Pokot, and that the plant can be considered a viable substitute for the chemical preservatives in the markets where more consumers show greater preference for products preserved with non-synthetic compounds.

Despite scientific evidence that Peanut Butter Cassia has medicinal properties and is a solution to many ailments, the plant has not been domesticated. It remains wild and faces the danger of being cut down to extinction.

Apart from its major use as a milk preservative, the plant’s leaves, roots, bark and stem have been found to have a wide range of healing properties.

The World Agro-Forestry Centre says that the plant has been used in Africa as a food additive and an anti-malarial for ages. A decoction of the leaves is used for stomach complaints.

The leaves are used among the Luo, Kamba, Kalenjin and Maasai for the treatment of ringworms.

A survey conducted by Kari in 2007 found that in Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and some parts of Kenya, a concoction made from boiled roots and bark from the tree is used for the treatment of malaria and other fevers.

Fresh roots and leaves treat abscesses of the skeletal muscles and venereal diseases.

The plant is also indicated for the treatment of fungal and bacterial infections, hypertension, haemorrhoids, sickle cell anaemia and a range of gynaecological illnesses, such as inflammation of the fallopian tubes, fibroids and backache, as well as to stimulate lactation.

A previous study by the same institution indicated that Peanut Butter Cassia is used by some communities to remove ticks from their livestock.

The researchers, however, said that although the plant is used to preserve and flavour milk for use in the dry season, its leaves, flowers, twigs, bark, roots and stems have not been subjected to any significant phytochemical investigation.

Mr Weldon Ng’eno, a lecturer at Kabarak University, says that mursik is not the same as it was two decades ago.

“Today, when you walk into a restaurant and order a glass of mursik, what you are given is a totally different drink. The taste, texture, colour an even thickness is no longer the same as what we used to have when we were young” Mr Ng’eno say.

According to the lecturer, modern mursik, unlike the “original” one, is kept in jerry cans. People no longer prepare the milk in a gourd.

The result, he says, is a drink that is light in texture, lacks the taste of the valued delicacy and has the smell left by the previous contents of the container.

“The reason people no longer use the gourd to prepare mursik is that, unlike some years back, the gourds are not available because there isn’t enough land to cultivate their vines,” Ms Birir says.

The gourd plant, belonging to the same genus as the pumpkin and calabash, is also facing extinction because fewer and fewer people are planting it.

Gourds, which usually take time from harvest to being ready to preserve mursik, are now very expensive. A gourd that can hold two litres of milk, for example, goes for Sh400 at Kapsoit Market in Kericho.

To make matters worse, the gourd is no longer being used for the traditional purpose, but is now harvested when it is still small and sold in curio shops as a decoration.

Ms Birir says that the Kalenjin and Nandi communities have resolved to using trees like the Olea Afrikana (commonly known in the community as emitiot), whose health benefits do not compare to those of the Peanut Butter Cassia.

The only solution to enjoying mursik in the future may be to domesticate the Peanut Butter Cassia plant, they say.