Extract from my book:- Suppers, which we found delicious and filling, comprised sadza[1], vegetable relish and roasted or braised doves or brisket. This was prepared by Aunt Elizabeth on our Welcome Dover stove that we were all so proud of. When it arrived we built a kitchen from bricks scavenged in the local brick field. The roof comprised corrugated iron sheeting, weighted done with bricks, concrete slabs and other building rubble. Eating was communal. After washing our hands, we would all sit in a circle and, taking a dollop of sadza from a dish in which it was set in a round mound, one would form it in the hand before dipping into the bowls of relish and meat, before transfer to ones mouth. The relish often comprised the leaves of a weed that grew freely in the surrounding hedges. Sometimes we got a guinea fowl or a rabbit. That was more than a blessing. We also netted fingerling fish in nearby stream using our vests as nets. On Sunday we had chicken. Those meals, that we shared in a smoke filled room, were truly delicious and felt like a feast for kings. It never did feel that it was all about survival for a woman earning £5 a month as a nanny in the White suburbs, to feed and clothe a family of five. It was home and we were family. [1] Sadza - also known as “pap’ - A thick porridge made from maize meal.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 05:34:35 +0000
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