I was recently asked by an Instagram critic what “land” I feel connected to after I described myself as African. I was born in KwaZulu-Natal and like a Durban mango, with ancestors from India, I feel connected to SA.
I asked the internet if Durban mangoes are different to Indian mangoes and it replied: “The specific taste and characteristics are influenced by the local soil, climate and growing conditions”. Like these fruits, no doubt anyone cultivated in this country has a South African flavour.
Schools here and beyond do not teach history about why the world looks the way it does. From people to plants to the “Columbian Exchange” (the movement of things from the “Old World”, Europe, Asia and Africa, to the “New World”, the Americas, including livestock, sugar, tea, tobacco, diseases that killed 90% of all native Americans, and the enslavement of 12.5-million Africans).
These colonial projects continued from European leaders in 1885, slicing up Africa and allocating territories in what became known as the “Scramble for Africa” in the pursuit of gold, diamonds and other precious metals and minerals.
Britain transported about 2-million indentured Indians to 19 colonies between the 1830s and 1917, including South Africa. The others were Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Malaysia, Windward Islands (Grenada, St Vincent, St Lucia and Dominica), Belize, Barbados, St Kitts and Nevis, Suriname, Fiji, Uganda and Kenya.
Wherever you are in the “modern” world, we have many of the same foods available, such as: chicken (originating in Southeast Asia), potatoes (originally from South America, present-day Peru and Bolivia), onions (originally from central Asia, modern-day Iran and Pakistan), corn/maize, a South African staple today (originally native to Mexico) and wheat (originating from the Fertile Crescent, modern-day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Turkey and Egypt).
Some ingredients are considered very African today, like plantain (originating in southeast Asia, modern-day Malaysia and Indonesia) and cassava (originally from South America, in the Amazon region of modern-day Brazil and Bolivia). Things like lemon originally came from northwest India, and chillies are originally from the Americas, around Mexico, but often associated with India and Thailand, and thought to be local to Africa.
In Southern Africa, local indigenous foods include watermelon originating in the Kalahari region (Botswana, Namibia and South Africa) and tamarind (originally from east Africa and Madagascar).
In food there is a term — “naturalised exotics” — for some plants like amadumbe (known as taro or dasheen, originating in Asia) and Amaranth (originating in South America) but are now considered indigenous to southern Africa. Many people are similarly naturalised/indigenised far from the origins of their ancestors.
In SA, indigenous sources of meat include, cows, rabbits, guinea fowls, springbok, steenbok, duiker, kudu and ostrich. As such, biltong is one of our oldest South African indigenous foods, readily available from all supermarkets and petrol stations.
Indigenous people like the Khoesan were nomadic hunter gatherers. They would eat some of the game after hunting, then cut the meat into strips, cure it with salt and dry it in the sun. With their nomadic lifestyle, this method provided them with nutrition all year round.
Later on, the Dutch adopted these techniques, adding other ingredients like vinegar and spices, which led to what we know today as the much-loved SA meat product — biltong.
An interesting parallel history:
In the Americas, “beef jerky” which is similar to biltong, can be traced back to the indigenous people of the Andes, the Quechua, who called it “Ch’arki” meaning “to burn meat”, which led to the word “jerky”. Ch’arki was produced by drying meat in the sun by day and freezing it by night.
Parusha’s Oven-dried Chilli Biltong
The recipe requires overnight marination and up to 8 hours in the oven.
Ingredients:
- 500g of thin lamb or beef, cut into 1cm slices
- 3 tblsps vinegar
- 3 tsp salt
- 2 tsp whole coriander
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp paprika powder
- 2 tsps chilli flakes
- 2 tsps mother-in-law masala
- 1 tblsp sugar
Method:
- In a bowl, combine the vinegar and dry ingredients.
- Place the meat in the bowl and make sure it is thoroughly coated.
- Cover the bowl and marinate in a fridge for 12 hours.
- The next day, preheat the oven to 50°C.
- Place the meat, spaced apart on a cooking tray.
- Put it in the oven for 5-8 hours, turning every hour.
- When the meat is dry, enjoy it as it is or slice into thinner pieces.
Parusha Naidoo is an artist, cookbook author and a Wanted food columnist.
