Our grandmothers are beer brewers, they brew a traditional beer called “Bojalwa ba Setswana”. It is a sorghum beer; hence for us beer brewing is in our DNA. Sorghum beer is brewed by women, and it is consumed on special occasions during weddings, funerals, traditional ceremonies and celebrating boys coming from initiation. Beer is liquid for our soul.
For us South Africans, we owe our being to the mountains, the rivers, the valleys, the trees and the animals that we share citizenship of our native land with
Our ancestors were artists as well. They left their rock art in the mountains right in the depth of nature. We as Beer is Art relate beer being art to these drawings that were left in the caves by our ancestors. They drew paintings on the caves to tell a story, a story of how they are living and what happened, so that we can read these stories that they have left for us and get to know who they were and how they lived.
When you brew beer you are telling a story, the beer that we brew now will evolve in the next century. The people who will be living in those times will be using the beer that we are brewing this time the history that we are creating as reference. They will learn about the aromas that we prefer and the tastes that we prefer.
Some of the natural resources that we are using now will be extinct or would have evolved. They will read the stories that we have left for them and learn what kind of people are, what are our likes and dislikes and the barley, hops we harvest our water quality that is influencing our beer.
We have a collaboration brew with Vine Street Brewery in Kansas Missouri USA. Vine Street Brewery is telling a story using their beer; their beer celebrates their African heritage. The collaborative brew beer Mkeka celebrates and commemorates Kwanza, Kwanza is an African American and Pan African holiday that celebrates history, values family, community and culture.
This collaboration brew documents history as Vine Street Brewery is the first black owned brewery in Kansas Missouri. The generation that will come, will know that there is a first black brewery in Kansas Missouri. If we don’t claim and own this history it will be lost. African Americans part of us as much as we are part of them. We come from the same soil. Our grandmothers who brew traditional ‘bojalwa ba Setswana” are their grandmothers as well. Beer brewing is in their DNA as well hence they brew beer. The brewery is founded by African Americans
Beer is Art teaches the youth who are over the age of 21 the skills of beer brewing, licensing, beer podcast, beer and food pairing, starting their own beer brands and starting their own breweries for free.
When our students see the history that Vine Street Brewery has made they will be inspired as well. In South Africa there are a few black owned breweries let alone black women breweries. Vine Street Brewery shows us that this can happen, we can own our own and we can brew and carry the tradition from our grandmothers
Obakeng Malope expressed that the first time she met Kemet Coleman the co-founder of Vine Street Brewery she was inspired. Some people live in spaces whereby when you come up with a brilliant idea they find thirty reasons why it will not work and they don’t support it. Some people live in spaces whereby when you come up with a brilliant idea they give you thirty reasons on why that idea will work. When you live in spaces like that or countries that support great ideas the society thrives, she says.
About Vine Street Brewery
Vine Street Brewery was founded by Kemet Coleman, Elliott Ivory, and Woodie Bond JR in the USA. Beer is Art was founded by Obakeng Malope in South Africa. The Mkeka Beer is available at Vine Street Brewery, 2010 Vine Street, Kansas City Missouri 64108.
For More Information:
https://vinestbrewing.com/