Vol 66 April-June 2026 : Social

Those who grew up playing house (mantlwane) would remember that chicken offals were once considered play food used by children to mimick adults cooking in the kitchen.

That was then. A lot has now changed in Batswana’s dietary habits with that same play food frequently found packaged neatly in supermarket shelves these days. 

Chicken offals such as chicken feet, intestines, livers, hearts and heads are now weighed, packaged and sold to customers to cook family meals, not to give to children to play games.

 Carefully prepared and served with pap or bread, what once symbolised childhood play food now reflects a deeper social and economic reality; survival in difficult times. 

In many communities, particularly the low-income neighbourhoods and places such as bus ranks, offal dishes have become staples. 

“With the rising cost of living, unemployment and shrinking household incomes, cheaper protein options are often the only choice people have. A dish prepared from offal meats (intestines, liver, hearts), chicken skins, bones and heads cost less and can feed more mouths,” says Professor of Human Nutrition from the University of Botswana, Maria Nnyepi.

Prof Nnyepi points out that this growing dependence on chicken offal meals is driven less by culture and more by economic hardships. 

She adds that some adults, who once played with these foods during their childhood now eat them daily, not by preference, but because circumstances leave families with few alternatives.

Prof Nnyepi says retailers have responded to the growing demand, with supermarkets now selling chicken offal products in large quantities and routinely featuring them in cooked-food and takeaway sections. 

What was once discarded, or sold cheaply in informal markets, has increasingly become commercialized and this trend serves as a reflection of widening inequality, according to Prof Nnyepi. 

In one side of the town, chicken offals are marketed as traditional delicacies or trendy street food for a few who might ocassionally crave them. 

In another side, they are a must have product, which are in high demand by struggling households.

“The same product carries different meanings depending on who is buying it and why,” she says. “For the poor, choice is often an illusion.”

Even though offal meats contain protein and minerals, Prof Nnyepi however cautions that they are high in total and saturated fat. 

For many low-income households, these foods are not eaten occasionally as part of a varied diet, she says, “they make up the bulk of daily meals and predispose them to non-communicable diseases (NCDs).”

“Also they are rarely served alongside healthy portions of fruits and vegetables. They are commonly eaten with fried bread (magwinya) for breakfast or with pap for dinner-combinations that promote higher energy intake,” she explains, warning that overreliance on such diets may increase the risk of NCDs, particularly when combined with processed meats such as hot dogs, links, smokeys and Russians. 

These products, she says, are often made of low-quality meat, excess fat, colouring and additives, making them nutritionally higher in fat than in protein. 

As a healthier alternative, Prof Nnyepi encourages a return to traditional wholegrain foods such as dikgobe and pap prepared from whole-milled maize or sorghum, served with low-fat cuts of meat and green leafy vegetables. 

She says diets rich in morogo, legumes and fruits can improve nutrition and help fight NCDs.

A nutrition desk officer from Gaborone City Council, Mr Baeng Ntime emphasizes that the transformation of chicken intestines from playground props to dinner plates is not merely about changing tastes.

“It is a quiet but alarming bell, it raises uncomfortable questions about how a society feeds its children, how dignity is tied to diet and how poverty reshapes what is considered normal,” he says.

Although children still play mantlwane, the innocence has thinned and the scraps are no longer for games, they are too valuable.

“In that small shift lies a bigger truth, that when play food becomes survival food, something in the system has gone very wrong,” Mr Ntime says.

He explains that people ate more varied diets back in the olden days even when money was scarce, saying backyard gardens, shared meals and stronger support systems were used to fill some of the gaps. 

Mr Ntime says urbanization has now erased many of those buffers, with almost all foodstuffs bought from shops nowadays and nutrition becoming the first casualty when money runs out. 

A vendor from Mogoditshane, Ketsile Taukobong points out that chicken hearts, lungs and the bare back that often get discarded in formal retail chains, usually find a second life in the hands of street vendors who turn them into both income and affordable food options. 

For many sellers, the trade is rooted in necessity, Taukobong says, adding that with limited access to formal employment, selling low-cost poultry parts offers a way to earn a daily living for vendors. 

“These items are usually inexpensive to source, sometimes bought in bulk from butcheries or processing plants and occasionally collected as leftovers that would otherwise go to waste,” she says.

Another vendor, Maipelo Amos notes that there is a strong cultural and culinary demand of chicken offal, pointing that chicken feet, hearts, intestines, necks bones and skins are considered delicacies in many communities, and are enjoyed for their flavor and texture. 

The sale of chicken skins, feet and bones is more than just a street-side transaction. It is a window into how communities adapt, survive and make use of every available resource in the face of economic hardship. ENDS

Buy Online Now!