Culture
Ajon: Iteso’s Cultural Drink
Nationally, Now Known as Marwa
By Julius Odeke
Alugeresia Akellot is a seasoned and renowned local brewer of Ajon in the Pamba Ward, south of Soroti City. She has spent 34 years brewing the most celebrated traditional drink of the Iteso.
Akellot always attends to her customers, a gathering of 15 people. They sit on foldable chairs, surrounding a small red clay pot.
The pot contains a frothy brew – Ajon. It now has the popularly national Bantu nomenclature – Marwa. Locally, the Iteso refer to it as; Acowa na Iteso (the Wisdom of Iteso). History says that, Iteso are the “sole brewers” of this drink. Mr. Felix Inangolet, 52, a historian, researcher and teacher of Soroti Secondary School, with twenty years of experience says, “Iteso came with their millet and sorghum from Ethiopia in the late 18th century at the time of the Laparanat Famine, which occasioned migration, southward.” Today, finger millet, botanically called Eleusine coracana, is widely cultivated in the eight districts of the Teso Sub-region.
“Ajon, among the Iteso, is a social drink that was not commercialized like it is today,” notes Inangolet. It is a drink for festivities like marriages, birthday parties, the naming of children and other ceremonies like during the farming seasons. It is also used as a refreshment for elders and workers in the evenings. Inangolet says rich people in Teso used Ajon to reward labour. This was done, especially when the peasants helped the rich in communal work, to weed and harvest their crops.
In the early days, Ajon was sold but served as a reward. It was as a mark of solidarity. It was set in the evenings after work. “It was not until from 1970s, that the idea of brewing Ajon for commercial purposes came into offing,” Inangolet affirms.
Akellot has been consistently brewing Ajon. She is not alone; there are many other women who have joined the business. At Akellot’s courtyard in Pamba Ward, several calabashes are laid in a small hut adjacent to a group of people drinking the brew. Other calabashes and pots have been placed on top of the make-shift wooden rack, typical of what is used locally to dry utensils.
In Teso, people use calabashes and pots for drinking Ajon. Calabashes are only used by one or two customers. They use it ‘to kill’ thirst. This is done as they wait for other members to come. They then sit around in a circle to around the Ajon pot. Pots are used when serving a big number of people. To suck the liquid from the pot, they use long traditional straws (Ipiin). “We have banned the sharing of straws due to contagious diseases like Tuberculosis and Corona Virus,” Akellot says.
Akellot says, she invested over Shs. 1.2 million in her brewing business; buying chairs, benches, pots, calabashes and straws.
Urbanization and the rising costs of living, forced people to sell Ajon. This took shape in Teso, leading to the emergence of trading centres like; Bukedea, Kachumbala, Malaba, Soroti and Kumi, and far-away Busia.. So, instead of being merely a socializing drink, women started demanding pay from their consumers, thus the selling of Ajon, kicked-off.
The Ajon clientele normally is formed of various categories of people like; teachers, Prison warders, Police officers, business persons, Medical personnel, LC executives, motorists and local residents. At times, religious leaders are part of the market.
According to George Adutu, the Soroti District Environmental Officer, “Ajon has a strong attachment to the Iteso culture where many ceremonies like marriages, funeral rites and birthday parties are observed. It is the only local brew people prefer,” he says.
For that, a lot of land is cleared for growing millet, and this, too, affects the environment. People destroy the virgin land where natural trees and grass grows, resulting in environmental degradation. Ajon is a drink that is drank with hot water, and for a brewer to successfully sell it, she has to boil water and this calls for firewood.
“A small container that takes two kilograms of Ajon needs a lot of firewood and this has prompted a high demand for firewood in urban areas. Many people are now cutting trees and drying firewood that is sold to urban areas, where the demand for firewood for boiling water is high,” reveals Adutu. Akellot says she buys a bunch of firewood which is like ten pieces at Shs. 5,000. “It is expensive but we have nothing to do, ” she regrets.
Many Ajon consumers in Soroti City are attracted to Akellot’s brew based on its taste. This prompted her to narrate the process of brewing. “I normally buy three bags of millet from the lock-ups at the cost of Shs.460,000 per bag,” she states. “Then I come and start winnowing it in order to remove the chaff. At this point, the hundreds of kilogrammes you bought will reduce and it has repercussions to the brewer, because it’s a loss,” she narrates.
There are two ingredients that makeup Ajon; Ainyales (Yeast) and Asipa (Millet that has not been allowed to sprout) – it stays in water in a basin for maybe three days and then is dried. Asipa is milled and then covered in the ground for seven days. It is then dug up and roasted (Aikee) and dried. It is then poured into a container mixed with water, and on the second day, mixed with yeast that has already been ground into powder.
The yeast is then dried and taken for grinding. Some women, especially in the rural areas, use traditional grinding stones to do the work. Akellot states that after winnowing Asipa is taken for grinding to make flour. This flour is then mixed with water to make Akiria (Malt) that is dug into the ground (Obiso), where it takes seven days. On the seventh day, it is unearthed, roasted and dried, a process that takes one day.
Akellot lists the various types of Ajon as: Arasai which is fermented for three days; Aperoi takes four days: Aupapana takes five days; and then, Aducuduco, which takes more than five days. But it iss Arasai and Aperoi which is most preferred by Iteso, she states. The two are the most suitable ones. “Those two types are the reason Iteso are proud of their drink,” quips Inangolet.
Peninah Ikilai says: “The process of brewing Ajon is cheap but labour intensive, as it demands much attention on each and every process.” On selling Ajon, Akareut says that brewers have different measurements that include a cupful which goes at Shs.1,000; two cupfuls at Shs. 2,000; half a gallon at Shs. 4,000; and then, a full gallon costs Shs. 8,000.
Her long stay in the business has earned her several names that including ‘Brown’, ‘Small’, ‘Mama Boy’ and ‘Investor’, while others now call her, ‘Senior’. Many breweries in town rely mostly on their techniques that make their brew a darling of the area.
Brewing Ajon is an inextricable activity that continues to be a serious business among Ateso women. Ajon was viewed as the only alternative means of generating income to supplement farm produce – largely under the control of men.
Inangolet states that; “In the past, women in Teso largely had no control over land and financial independence over the fruit of their labour. As a result, they took to brewing Ajon as their sole business that earned the income.” He adds that, “Though of late, the brewing of Ajon has been picked by other tribal communities countrywide, Ateso women remain the queen brewers of Ajon in Uganda and beyond.”
Ajon is being brewed and consumed in western Kenya, especially in Busia, Teso North, Teso South and Trans Nzoia. There are over a million Iteso living in Kenya and they, too, brew Ajon.
The author is a former journalist from Kaberamaido District
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