DudUzile Libazia Sfiso Mathonsi

Mat og meg intervju med Duduzile LS Mathonsi om hennes sørafrikanske matkultur. Hun forteller om hvordan det var å vokse opp i nøttehovedstaden i Sør Afrika, og å alltid ha tilgang til fersk frukt, grønnsaker og urter fra familiens hage. Videre forteller hun om et stort utvalg retter basert på ferske lokale ingredienser, og hvordan forberedelsen av disse rettene er en integrert del av stammen hennes sin historie. Videre snakker Duduzile om hvordan mat og det å forberede mat inngår i en større historie, ikke bare om det sør afrikanske folk, men også kolonialisme og en global bevegelse. 

00:00: My name is Dudizile LS Mathonsi. I am in Johannesburg, South Africa. I was born in Tzaneen South Africa.

01:26: Mostly my mom cooked, sometimes my dad and siblings and then me when it was my time to cook. chicken stew and rice, pap. Pap is our main starch and you mix the cornmeal and water into a bucket and it ferments. I'm from the nut capital of South Africa. We use a lot of nuts. 

04:29: Monday to Saturday we eat normal foods. But on Sunday we have Sundaykos. You always look forward to Sunday after church to eat. We eat battered chicken, rice, chutney, butternut is huge in South Africa.

05:54: South African food is the most underrated cuisine in the world. We are a mixture of Malaysian, Indian, African tribes. We have over 20 different African tribes. And the Dutch and English colonial influence. We are one of the few countries that has all continents in our food cuisine. Chakalaka is like an Indian curry: onion, green pepper, garlic, grated carrots, baked beans.

08:02: My tribe traditionally has mopane worms. They are basically caterpillars, they are green and then you dry them and they turn black. Some people eat them with grass in it, some people cook them or eat them as a snack. Some of my cousins ate termites with a little salt. Chicken feet is a huge South African cuisine. 

10:18: We have a special foot for cooking outside called the three feet pot. We put tripe in there and eat it with pap. 

11:05: I am half Tsonga and half Zulu. MY mother is from the Tsonga tribe and they are mostly vegetarians, insects and worms, plants, nuts are traditional food. We eat Samp, dried corn with ground nuts and red kidney beans and that is a form of starch. 

12:50: We have a lot of different fish cuisines. Snoek is a fish that has a texture of chicken and has long stringy bones. Hake is a soft delicate fish. we have giant prawns that we cook in butter lemon herb and garlic. Over time we had a lot of Italians and French, that is how we got influenced in wine and why we produce a lot of wine. 

14:25: My home supplies 40% of the vegetation to South Africa. It's a lush tropical area. We have red fertilized soil so anything you put in the ground grows. Our living conditions are that everyone has a house and a big garden so we got vegetables and herbs from our garden. Our food waste goes back into the earth by digging a hole in the ground and putting all discarded food there and makes the earth fertile. 

17:20: We only got a few items from the fruit and veggie store. Butternut is used at many occasions, funerals, weddings. You expect butternut, creamed spinach and chakalaka. 

19:00: In my household the men cooked more than other households traditionally. My Dad had his one special meal, powdered pap, it's fluffy and you eat it with sour milk and a bit of salt. Traditionally the women mostly cooked. But I had four brothers who had to cook. I was encouraged and given space to try cooking, you weren't reprimanded for getting it wrong. 

21:09: Now me and my partner both equally cook. He is Norwegian. We cook mostly my dishes because I find Norwegian food bland. But we take turns, he chops and I cook. But sometimes he gets tired and doesn't want food that is spicy or heavy. 

23:00: For me cooking is a moment of peace where I don't have to talk to anyone, focus on anything and I can be mindless in pleasure. I think the differences between our cultures is food is a necessity versus an experience.

25:30: Norwegian baking for me is good. When it comes to savory food it's very few dishes I enjoy. But cakes, pastries, apple cake, pepperkaker, pumpkin spice I enjoy. 

27:00: I come with my own spices from home. I thought Norway would have a variety of spice but I quickly realized that spice is different. In South Africa we are very spoiled, we have a spice mix for everything. But Norway forced me to learn what was in the spice mix and make the spice mixture myself. 

28:30: I'm a person who enjoys entertaining. I would always invite my schoolmates and they were so amazed by the flavor of South African food. There's a lot of negative stereotypes of what African food taste like. I think it is an overwhelming of flavors. And it is an opportunity to talk about history and how it is connected to food cuisine. Our food is made with love and pain, the salty tears that are somehow sweet when they hit the lips.