In my travels on the internet I came across the following site - a community
project where hugely under-priviledged people from Namibia are working
together to aid farmers and live stock and to make a living for themselves.
I quote from the homepage....

Kalahari Tussah is a development project in Namibia, Southern Africa,
focusing on utilizing the cocoons of an indigenous African silk moth,
Gonometa postica.

Though these cocoons have been utilized for millennia by the indigenous San
communities of the Kalahari as a delicacy, or for making dance rattles, they
have escaped the notice of the modern world until recently.

Though it was known that the cocoons consist of a high quality wild silk,
most of the cocoons was allowed to rot on the African veldt. However, with
the advent of commercial farming in the Kalahari the cocoons became
notorious for causing the death of livestock in some areas. Farmers started
to insist that something must be done to eradicate the scourge.

This initiative was born from the realization that a realistic solution had
to be found to resolve the problem; that communities in the Kalahari are
destitute with few opportunities for poverty alleviation; and that the silk
cocoons represented a valued luxury natural fibre resource.

The site is http://www.kalaharitussah.com/index.php

Interesting read.  

Micki
Scotland

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