...Mice Hunting Techniques
Mice are hunted during the dry season from April up to early November. Men and especially boys have the responsibility of hunting mice. Catching mice requires tremendous skill and sometimes tenacity as when an individual is digging for the kabwanda that burrows really deep into solid dry hard clay soil. In this case the hunting party has do dig hard for long hours. The boys and men have to know what type of holes in the ground are likely to have what breed of mice, how to dig for them, how soil mixed with fresh mice urine smells like. If the odor is strong and fresh that is usually a good sign that the mice are in the hole. The boys have to know how to skillfully use short sticks or clubs, mphici, to strike the mice when they scramble out of the escape hole, known as mbuli, in their desperate search for new cover...
How to Cook Mice
The cooking of the mice is very simple. The mice are gutted, boiled in plain water for about half an hour and salted. They are then fire dried until they are nearly bone dry. Mice are never cooked any other way. In fact, there is a song among the Tumbuka, whose lyrics are in the Chewa or Nyanja language, which mocks a young modern housewife who did not know proper mouse cooking.
Ena sadziwa kuphika lelo Ku mbeba
Ena sadziwa kuphika lelo ku mbeba
Anyenzi, tomato, komweko lelo ku mbeba
Anyenzi, saladi, komweko lelo ku mbeba
Some do not know how to cook mice
Some do not know how to cook mice
Onion, tomatoes in the mice
Onion, cooking oil in the mice
In the song, the grave mistake the young housewife apparently committed was to assume she could add onions, tomatoes, and cooking oil to the mice. These ingredients are highly valued in modern popular Zambian cuisine such as beef and chicken stew. But they are a taboo in cooking mice.