Tea with Kubu
By a Reporter
David Bengu is a detective in the Botswana Criminal Investigation Department in Gaborone. His large size, impressive appetite, and dedication to achieving his objective have won him the nickname Kubu, which means hippopotamus in the local language. He features in the Botswana mysteries by Michael Stanley, who is actually two people, Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip. I invited Kubu to tea to ask him about his take on killer crafts and crafty killers.
“Are you interested in crafts, Assistant Superintendent Bengu?’
“Please call me Kubu. Well, detection is a craft, of course. It’s not something you can just learn from books. You need to be apprenticed to good detectives and follow what they do and how their minds work. I was lucky to be mentored by Jacob Mabaku. I learned a lot from him in my first few years. I remember a case soon after I joined the CID where the skeleton of a Bushman turned up when they were digging a trench for a water project up near Shakawe, and—”
“I was thinking more of a craft like quilting or working with stained glass.”
“Oh, I’m not really good at that sort of thing. On the other hand, I’m a very good eater! I never leave anything on my plate—at least not when my wife Joy cooks it. And I’m quite knowledgeable about wine. Not that I could afford much in the way of good wine in the days I was just talking about… I don’t think I’d call it a killer craft, although some friends, my wife included, say I should eat less. They’re afraid of me having a heart attack…”
“Do you enjoy cooking then?”
“Me? Cook? Well, Stanley says that if you can read, you can cook. I guess that’s true in general terms, but the special touches that make a dish really enjoyable take talent and experience. My first effort was a sweet and sour pork dish. It wasn’t terrible. At least everyone ate it. But dinner was about an hour late, so maybe they were just so hungry that they would have eaten anything.”
He continues, “I also learned a bit about whisky on that trip to Shakawe I was telling you about. Our pathologist, Ian McGregor, is from Scotland, and he knows his whiskies, especially the ones from Islay. We needed a few shots of those as he discovered more and more skeletons—eventually nine, all Bushmen including those of women and children—and it turned out that they’d been murdered. But we still thought it had happened long ago, so it was history rather than a case. Then, while there, an elder was murdered at his home in the village. The local police thought it was a robbery gone wrong and arrested a Bushman who had suddenly appeared in the area. But it made no sense to me. And then there were problems around the water project. And an international outcry about the massacre. My boss, Assistant Superintendent Mabaku, came out to help—”
“My readers would love the recipe for the tomato bredie dish you were telling me about.”
“Oh sure. I’ll send it to you. And the fun part is you can change things quite a bit and see how it works. It always seems to come out well, anyway. For example, I like to add some ginger because I always add ginger. Except to ice cream. Chocolate sauce works better with that.”
He laughs again. “Back to that case. With Mabaku’s help, we started piecing together that there was something sinister going on. A covenant from the past was killing people in the present. There was also a strange lady who believed a water spirit was involved … well, it’s a long story. But you’ll never guess who was actually behind it all. Talk about crafty killers.” He shakes his head. “It took me quite a while to work it out, and that was with Mabaku’s help, too.”
He checks his watch. “Well, I have to get going.”
“But what about the crafty killer? You haven’t told us…”
“The crafty killer? Well, it’s all in the latest book, A Deadly Covenant, and much more fun if you read the whole story first, and see if you can work it out as I did. Michael and Stanley would kill me if I gave it away here.” He laughs a third time as he clambers to his feet. “Thanks for having me visit. Those cookies were delicious. Maybe I could take a couple with me? That’s very kind. It’s been fun chatting. All the best and happy reading!”
Tomato Bredie Recipe
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons (30 mls) cooking oil
2 pounds (800 gms) mutton knuckles, chopped
1 large onion, sliced
2 pounds (800 gms) ripe tomatoes, skinned and chopped
6 cloves garlic
1 dry red chili, chopped
2 tablespoons (30 mls) tomato paste
4 medium potatoes, quartered and softened for 5 minutes in a microwave
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste
In a large pot, fry the onions until brown. Add the meat and simmer 30 minutes.
Crush the tomatoes and garlic. Add to the meat and simmer 15 minutes. Add the potatoes and cook until tender.
Salt and sugar to taste.
This is best served over yellow rice. Here's a simple recipe.
A Detective Kubu Mystery, Book 8
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