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IIn South Africa, sampling different types of indigenous cooking can give you an insight into who we are as a people. South Africa is a culturally diverse society, with many cooking methods unique to specific ethnic groups.
The San people were the earliest known human inhabitants of South Africa. San people lived as hunter-gatherers without the capacity to work iron, relying on stone, bone, wood and fibre for their technology, and their culinary preparation methods reflect the tools available to them.
Historical accounts from 17th century Dutch settlers provide evidence of San techniques, many of which have subsequently fallen into disuse. These include indigenous roots used as sources of water, ostrich eggs as storage vessels, poultry cooked in a clay coating over the coals, and bread made from dried-tuber flour baked on hot flat stones.
!Khwa ttu, the San Culture and Education Centre on the West Coast of Western Cape, offers fascinating tours and food, and a living museum of San heritage.
Zulu, Xhosa Sotho, Tswana and Venda people share a range of indigenous cooking techniques. Common cooking methods reflect their shared ancestry as iron-working, cattle herding peoples who migrated into southern Africa from Central Africa over millennia.
Iron-working skills facilitated the manufacture of agricultural tools and the production of cooking pots, which in turn allowed for the production of stews, the fire-roasting of meat and the slow cooking of starches such as Xhosa umngqusho (dried maize and beans).
The cattle-based culture promoted the use of dairy and fermenting of milk in a hollowed-out calabash gourd. The calabash is both vessel and a method of infusing flavour into the milk.
Afrikaans cuisine is classified as indigenous South African cooking because it is a food genre created in Africa. The Afrikaans style of cooking known as boerekos (farmers’ food) reflects the pioneer culture of those Dutch, French and German settlers who first trekked away from Cape Town in successive waves to avoid direct oversight by the Dutch East India Company, and eventually out of the Cape Colony entirely to escape British rule.
The popularity of cooking over an open fire – known as braaivleis in Afrikaans (and shisa nyama in isiZulu) – and the considerable effort put into preserving boerekos such as rusks (dried biscuits) and biltong (dried meat) are indicative of such a lifestyle. You can learn more about traditional cooking methods at the HC Bosman Living Museum in Groot Marico, which holds regular demonstrations of the cuisine.
Did You Know?
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Who to contact
!Khwa ttu!
Tel: +27 (0)22 492 2998
Email: info@khwattu.org
Marico Tourism
Tel: +27 (0)14 503 0085
Email: info@marico.co.za
Tours to do
Apart from the listed sites, there are other excellent open-air museums and cultural villages around the country where you can explore the methods, utensils, ingredients, techniques and tastes of various cuisines. To find other options, search online for phrases like “indigenous cuisine”, “local food”, “township food”, “authentic rural cuisine”, or “regional speciality” along with the location you’ll be visiting, or see what choices are listed on regional tourism sites.
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