Moumo / Common Wild Fig

"Friendship is a sheltering tree."
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Looking across the wide open plains of the Bushveld, it is easy to spot the imposing Moumo (Common Wild Fig) trees dotted around the countryside. The branches of this large, single-trunked tree, form a wide-spreading, semi-circular canopy sought after by the pastoral people of this beautiful land as shelter against the sun and rain.

As an integral ‘companion’ for the nomadic inhabitants of the Bushveld, the fruit of the Moumo is edible and is used to make beer, the bark fibre is used for making mats, and twined bark is used to make a strong rope. An extraction of the bark was used for colds and throat infections, to prevent constipation, to stop nose-bleeding and to stimulate lactation and the milky latex, dropped into the affected eye, was used to treat cataracts.

The strong and well-rooted Moumo tree, which is prevalent in the Bafokeng mountainous areas, was often used by wary travellers for its shade or travellers took cover for the night under the canopy formed by the Moumo’s branches. The Moumo tree is therefore a fitting symbol for the activities of Moumo Integrated Development (Pty) Ltd (Moumo), which has been established to create an enabling environment for progress and collaboration of the Royal Bafokeng Nation (RBN).

Moumo is primarily responsible for the implementation of the Master Plan and the RBN Integrated Development Strategy through planning, financing and partnership development.