Katima Mulilo
At the junction of Kalimbeza along the Katima Mulilo Ngoma road is a thriving eatery, called the Three-way Divorce Club.
Three-way Divorce Club is a family-run business that was initiated five years ago by former army chef Patrick Ntesa Salufu, who quit his job to gain commercially from his culinary skills.
When asked what inspired the name Three-way Divorce Club, which sounds intriguing for a restaurant, he wittily remarked, “Our food is simply the best. Some husbands may end up divorcing because they could find their wives’ food wanting, compared to ours.”
European and South African tourists and hordes of locals – craving mouth-watering African cuisine – usually throng this eatery, acclaimed for its pan-fried Zambezi bream and low-cost, but delicious African fare.
Salufu also cooks thick porridge, an African staple known by various names such as oshithima, buhobe, inkoko, ugali, sadza or nsima. Salufu cooks porridge with cassava flour that he imports from nearby Zambia.
Cassava porridge, served with beef or fried bream and some green vegetables, costs N$50 a plate and has become very popular. Depending on the size of the fish, or the chunk of meat some plates at Three-way Divorce Club sell from between N$15 and N$50.
Three-way Divorce Club employs five people and on any given day serves between 100 and 150 plates. It has a boon over homogenous restaurants in that they close earlier, while it only closes at around 23h00.
Tourists en-route to the nearby lodges of Kalizo, Kalimbeza and Impalila more often make a detour to this eatery where they order sizzling pieces of roasted beef or liver.
This industrious son of the soil, Salufu, runs a successful butchery, where he slaughters and sells fresh meat, and owns two shops. Salufu also sells bundles of sundried Mopani, which is popular at household level for cooking, heating and for braaing.
At 64, the sexagenarian is robust. He has ebullience and drive. His devotion would leave many people half his age envious. Steadfast, polygamist and prolific – Salufu is gleefully married to Kahimbi Kalonda and Namakau Mulike and he has 10 children.
Apart from his wives and children, like many of his peers, Salufu is an example of the sole breadwinner, as his earnings sustain twelve extended family members. His business also supports communal farmers at Muyako, Kanono, Sangwali, Lizauli and Kongola, where he sources the cattle for his eatery and for the butchery.
He started his career as an army cook in the then South West African Territorial Force (SWATF) at M’pacha military base in 1975. While at that military base under the South African occupational force, he was selected to attend several cookery courses.
In SWATF he used to make hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chicken rolls, hot dogs, Russian rolls, steak and kidney pies, egg and cheeseburgers for members of the army. At independence he was among the thousands of SWATF and Koevoet troops that were successfully integrated into the new Namibian Defence Force (NDF).
Several years ago he quit the army and used his savings to establish the eatery. Ever industrious, he is currently constructing a guest lodge that will open its doors in November, in time for the festive season.