Windhoek
When 40-year-old Kredula Nashima migrated to Windhoek from Oshikuku three years ago she did not have a job or means to survive.
Instead of hopelessly sitting idle at home waiting for free hand-outs, the mother of four decided that selling dried meat to people in her community was worth exploring.
“Unemployment and poverty forced me to start this business,” she explained from her home in the densely populated Okahandja Park. Nashima also sells kapana and cow heads whose meat is a delicacy.
It is not difficult to spot Nashima’s house, which is also where she operates her business from because of the strips of dried meat that are visibly hanged on wires as well as the bones of cow heads that are scattered all over the yard.
She explains that she sells the bones from the cow heads to a company at Brakwater that grinds them into stock feed.
“I don’t make that much money from the bones. The bones are weighed and based on that I get paid. Sometimes I only make N$200 from more than 10 bags filled with bones. But, it is better than nothing,” she says.
Nashima wakes up at 04h00 every morning to start preparing the meat. “I start preparing kapana for people who are going to work at 06h00. Business is progressing but not at the pace that I want. The profit I make is not that much but it is enough to sustain us. Still, it is better than not having anything to survive on,” Nashima adds.