During our time in Cape Town thus far, our class has scaled Table Mountain, improvised skits for the creator of a one-man-show, endured our quirky tour guide Zinzele’s calls to “just feel” the things we see, and attracted quite a lot of sun(burn). The trip has been an incredible adventure so far, but with that adventure comes with a lot of early mornings, late nights and squeezed-in naps. So what keeps us going?
Simple answer? Food – and a lot of it.
On our first day in Cape Town, we had our first taste of authentic African cuisine. At a restaurant called “Mama Africa” on Cape Town’s popular Long Street, my uneasy traveler’s stomach braved the Bobotie dish and its ostrich meat. I have been consistently impressed with the immense variety of flavor in the food we’ve had here.
As we interact with local South Africans, it’s clear that food serves as a major agent of community in the country’s past and present. There’s no surprise that good food is one of the few things that can bring people together, and the ritual of mealtimes reflect the community values of the South Africans we have encountered so far.
In Langa, Sheila Mahloane shared her story of empowerment by turning her township home into an incredibly successful tourist restaurant. Previously working as a maid and attending night school, Sheila remembers picking up a dusty receipt for something that would cost her more than a full day’s wages. For Sheila, food was a vehicle for turning her life and the life of her family around, as well as showcase to outsiders the joy found in Langa’s often desperate circumstances. As we toured the township, we saw, smelled (ands some tasted) “mqobothi” – a beer brewed by the women of the town for important events and rituals, like circumcision for the boys hitting puberty.
At the District 6 museum, former tenant Noor Ebrahim described his formerly vibrant and diverse community as linked together by food. Christian women would make fish for Jewish families for their holidays and people of all faiths would come together to eat the foods customary at another’s celebration. While this case showed a community strengthened by the bonds of food, the lack of it can be devastating. At the Namzamo Educare Centre, our class witnessed many of the children we distributed lunches to hoarding some items of food, so they could show their parents what was given to them that day.
In these many instances, I was reminded of the many rituals of food we share in the United States. During my internship this past summer, one of my co-workers had written “Good Grief: Southern Food to Die For,” exploring the ways that citizens of the deep South grieve the death of relatives through food. The rituals of food in South Africa so far reminded me of this healing exploration for her, and that people deal with every ordeal in life with food intertwined. From birth to puberty to death and everything in between, food can be an agent of community, empowerment or the lack thereof can reveal devastation.
