Ngongo Oil is an almost extinct product; it remains in fables and folklore, invoking deep
foregone emotions of vitality at its mention, and a sense of a culture lost never to be
recovered. The co-operative intends to bring back this product and revive the culture around
it.
The co-operative is very much aware that this culture, let alone the Ngongo Oil it embodies,
cannot be realised without conservation of the ecosystem/landscape where the Mungongo tree
grows. Currently it is the ?wild west? out there; over grazing, veld fires, indiscriminate tree
cutting, unsustainable farming methods, all that destabilise the ecosystem and threatening the
disappearance of the Mungongo tree and total disappearance of the oil culture around it.
The co-operative intends to show that Ngongo Oil is still alive, as long as the Mungongo tree
is alive; revive its use, and mobilise the voices of the Okavango behind better value and
conservation of the landscape where in this tree grows.
Ngongo Oil, the product fuelling and driving this interest, has through visionary aid, support,
and sponsorship, been submitted to the National food administration body (NAFTEC) for
analysis. A chemical content report was produced; which rates ngongo Oil as a very healthy
oil and particularly safe and beneficial to human consumption as food, thereby attracting the
consumer side of the Botswana Government and several corporate interests outside Botswana.