ROOIBOS
A UNIQUELY SOUTH AFRICAN STORY
M
any myths and tales have been told about the history of rooibos, and most of those who have spoken or written about the origins of rooibos tea in the last couple of decades have repeated the same postulations and perceptions. Many of these postulates have never been tested or verified. I hope in this article to address some of these perceptions and present some of the latest findings.
THE ROOIBOS PLANT Rooibos, or Aspalathus linearis, grows naturally in only one place on Earth: on the slopes of the majestic Cederberg Mountains in the Western Cape, some 250km to the north of Cape Town. It forms part of the Cape Floral Kingdom, commonly known as fynbos, and is a member of the Fabaceae family—a
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genus with more than 200 species. It seems rooibos is impossible to cultivate in any other part of the world. At the turn of the 19th century, it was common practice for the inhabitants of the Cederberg region to break off the branches of the wild-growing bushes for tea. The leaves and fine stems were chopped with axes and bruised with mallets before being left in heaps to ferment. Once fermented, the plant matter was spread out on a flat rock to dry in the hot African sun, ready for use in a thirst-quenching brew. Today, rooibos is still processed in much the same way, but of course, the methods are now mechanised and far more refined.
THE ORIGINS OF ROOIBOS TEA The origins of rooibos tea and the
traditional knowledge of the plant have become the subject of intense debate. Did rooibos tea originate with the indigenous people in pre-colonial times, or was it the colonial settlers who brought the culture of tea drinking from Europe to South Africa? The San people were the indigenous inhabitants of the Cederberg region since the dawn of time and lived of the land as hunter-gatherers, acquiring in-depth knowledge of the flora and fauna of the region. Archaeological records indicate the rooibos plant has been around for at least 60 000 years. To date, no record of pre-colonial uses of Aspalathus linearis has been presented. There seems to be no evidence that would indicate the indigenous San or the pastoralist (Khoikhoi) population used rooibos to
prepare food, beverage or medicine before the advent of colonial-era settlers. No indigenous name for rooibos has been known to exist, which may indicate the plant was one of minor importance to the San. All the common names for the plant are of Dutch, English and Afrikaans origin. Archaeologists and anthropologists have not reached consensus on whether the San consumed infusions or decoctions (like rooibos) in pre-colonial times. The moot point is the container and facilities required to boil water in pre-colonial times, which is necessary for making rooibos tea. John Parkington, a distinguished South African archaeologist, has pointed out that the hunter-gatherers had no containers suitable for boiling water until the last 2 000 years or the appearance of pastoralists. Even afterward, the San— for whom the default option was mobility—were not interested in heavy utensils. According to Parkington, “it is not impossible that hunter-gatherers were boiling water in pots 500 or 1 000 years ago. It would just be unusual.” Anthropologist Paul John Myburgh, who lived with the same San people in the Kalahari for a period of seven years during the 1970s, never saw them make anything like tea or use complicated procedures to prepare food or drink. Preparation of wild rooibos, as we know it, involves cutting, chopping, bruising, drying and, eventually, making an infusion or decoction. By the time researchers realised the
need to study the ‘plantlore’ of the subcontinent in the 1980s, much of the ethno-botanical knowledge of the San had been lost to us through acculturation.
HISTORY OF TEA DRINKING IN THE CAPE The first shipment of tea to Europe was made in 1610 by Dutch traders who imported it from China and Japan. In Holland, tea rapidly gained popularity among the affluent ladies, who held lavish tea parties long before tea became the national drink of Great Britain. In the 17th century, Dutch sea captains plying the trade route between Europe and Asia began making regular calls at Table Bay at the Cape of Good Hope, and in 1652 the VOC (Dutch East India Company) sent Commander Jan van Riebeeck to build a fort at Table Bay, with the aim of providing a refreshment station for weary sailors. The Dutch settlers had brought with them the culture of tea drinking, and brewing tea was part of their daily life. Tea was extremely expensive, however, and farmers soon began to augment the precious Camellia sinensis tea with leaves from local fynbos shrubs.
FIRST SETTLERS IN THE OLIFANTS RIVER VALLEY – THE HOME OF ROOIBOS In 1660, the first pioneer explorers to venture into the Cederberg and Olifants River Valley were sent north along the west coast by the commander to search for the cattle-farming Khoikhoi tribe.
After following a San footpath through the mountains, they emerged in a valley to find hundreds of elephants and herds of eland, as well as hippo in what later became known as the Olifants River. In time, others arrived from the Cape; by the 1720s, some had put down roots in the valley as cattle farmers. With the missionaries, migrants and settlers to the Cederberg came the culture of tea drinking—and soon the search for a less expensive and readily available substitute had begun.
PIONEER PRODUCERS AND MARKETERS OF ROOIBOS It was not until 1904 that a Russian immigrant Benjamin Ginsberg realised the marketing potential of rooibos. By 1930, Dr Pieter le Fras Nortier, local medical doctor and keen botanist, developed a method to germinate rooibos seeds successfully. Together with Oloff Bergh, a commercial farmer, they advanced new cultivation methods— and soon the production of rooibos began on a much larger scale. From such humble beginnings, rooibos tea has grown to become an international brand that is now available in over 60 countries around the world, where no less than six billion cups of this uniquely South African beverage is drunk every year. René Hermans Sources: Rooibos, a people’s plant by Boris Gorelik; John Parkington; Bruce Ginsberg; The Rooibos Council
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