Local Drinks

1. Gemere

   Gemere (home-made ginger drink)

   Usage

   A home-made drink made by boiling ground ginger with sugar and other ingredients, then leaving it a day. Served at weddings and celebrations. If you must avoid alcohol, ask whether it has fermented

   Grammar Note

   Setswana Wikipedia presents gemere as a favourite home-made drink without alcohol. The spelling gemmere also occurs (4 cases). It corresponds to English ginger beer

2. Khadi

   Khadi (strong home-brewed beer)

   Usage

   The name of a strong home-brewed drink. Its sale is regulated, and visitors need not try it

   Grammar Note

   The 1993 dictionary (Matumo) calls kgadi (khadi) a drink "prohibited by law". A later Setswana Wikipedia news item lists khadi among traditional drinks whose sale is allowed in fixed hours

3. Chibuku

   Chibuku (packaged maize and sorghum beer)

   Usage

   A factory-made cloudy beer of maize or sorghum, sold in cartons. The carton is shaken before drinking

   Grammar Note

   Setswana Wikipedia calls Chibuku a factory-made drink popular in villages and towns. The logo reads Chibuku Shake Shake

4. Majalwa a setso

   Traditional drinks (mokuru, khadi, morula, setopoti, ila)

   Usage

   A collective phrase for locally brewed traditional drinks. Their sale is controlled by rules such as fixed hours

   Grammar Note

   Majalwa is the plural of bojalwa (alcoholic drink) and a is the "of" agreeing with the ma- class. A Setswana Wikipedia news item names mokuru, khadi, morula, setopoti and ila as the traditional drinks allowed for sale

5. Madila

   Madila (soured milk)

   Usage

   A sour fermented milk. It is drunk on its own or mixed into bogobe

   Grammar Note

   The dictionary (Matumo) gives "thick milk; sour milk", a ma- class noun that is always plural. It has its own article in Setswana Wikipedia

6. Dino tse di tsididi

   Soft drinks (Fanta, Coca-Cola and similar)

   Usage

   Cold soft drinks sold in shops. Many are made inside Botswana

   Grammar Note

   Dino is the plural of seno (drink). Tsididi means "cold" in the dictionary. Setswana Wikipedia writes dinotsididi as one word, but this card writes it in separate words

7. Dibiri tsa Castle le Lion

   Castle and Lion beers (local brands)

   Usage

   Lager brands that Setswana Wikipedia lists as local, seen in bars and bottle shops

   Grammar Note

   Dibiri is the plural of biri, a loan from English beer. Setswana Wikipedia lists Castle and Lion as local brands. Le means "and"

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