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Chapter · South Africa · Today

Who owns a seed

Rooibos, the ants, and one and a half per cent

The European regulation protecting rooibos itself recounts how a Khoi woman collected its seed by breaking open ant nests, always leaving enough for the colony. This path starts from that sentence and follows what it ended up costing: one and a half per cent of the price paid at the farm gate, paid since 2019 to the San and Khoisan councils.

Context first

A lesson to read before the others, to set the scene.

  • The place
  • The era
  • The people
What a bush is worthRooibos grows in only sixteen South African municipalities, holds about a tenth of the world herbal tea market, and since 2019 the industry that sells it pays a levy to the people whose knowledge it rests on.9 min

The lessons in this chapter

  1. 1The woman who followed the antsGrowing rooibos rests on two kinds of knowledge: a Khoi woman's, who found the seed by following ants, and a doctor's, who worked out that it had to be cracked open to imitate fire.10 min
  2. 2One and a half per centOne and a half per cent of the price paid at the farm gate, paid by ten processors, split in two: the first year produced just over twelve million two hundred thousand rand.11 min
  3. 3What a cup costsThe designation protects a name and the agreement pays for knowledge, but neither touches what happens on the ground: thousands of hectares of fynbos ploughed a year, and seven per cent of the land in coloured farmers' hands.11 min

How these lessons are written

Each lesson starts from first-hand sources: Wikisource, Gallica, Persée, archives, museums and institutes. A fact without a source does not get written, and every lesson lists its own as direct links.

The rhythm

A lesson is five minutes of cards and four questions. Those questions then come back the next day, then at 3, 7, 21 and 60 days, and that return is what makes it stick. One a day is enough, and you can do several in a row.

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