Uncovering the Importance of Cow Dung in African Customs.
A nurse’s experience:
Home Health Nursing:
As a home health nurse in the Transkei region of South Africa in the 1970s, I became familiar with the Xhosa tribe’s use of cattle manure to construct and upkeep their huts.
In African culture,
Cow dung is highly prized for its many uses, such as smearing the floors of huts. To do this, fresh cow dung is mixed with water to create a thin paste known as ‘kudzudzura/kudzurura.’ The women then apply this paste to the floors to keep them clean and freshen up the scent inside the hut. The floors are typically made of anthill clay and smearing them with cow dung helps keep the soil particles together and reduces the dust in the air inside the huts.
Throughout different tribes, cow dung has been utilized in various ways. It has been used to create baskets and trays and seal holes in straw baskets to prevent grain from spilling out. In addition, some tribes have burned dry cow dung alongside firewood in fireplaces to ward off mosquitoes. For instance, the Masai Mandari tribe in South Sudan used cow dung to repel snakes, scorpions, and centipedes. Moreover, there are some indications that cow dung possesses antimicrobial properties.
