A Mother's Day Gift ....

For Mother's Day this past Sunday, my two (precious !) children gave me a beautiful wooden candle stand/holder made out of dhow wood as a gift. This wood comes from old dhow fishing boats which have sailed up and down the East African coast for years, and have reached the end of their life span, and are then recycled in to furniture and smaller items. We have quite a lot of dhow furniture in our own home. The dhow 'craze' hit Tanzania several years ago ... and most expats living here today have at least one dhow wood item in their home, as it is very popular here.

The candle stand (which was made here in Tanzania) can be mounted on a wall - I've put mine just above our bath .... so that I can have a relaxing, candle lit bath whenever the mood strikes (which, let's face it may also be when the mood does not strike, as power fluctuations and failures are quite common here - ha !) This way, I also don't have to worry about any of the cats getting their tails burned or knocking the candle over when I'm enjoying a deep bubble bath ... as I usually have a cat (or two !) sitting on the edge of the bath with me - dipping their paws in to the bubbles !


The candle stand also came with a beautifully scented candle containing beeswax derived from Acacia (thorn tree) honey found in the Maparasha hills in Southern Kenya. It has red and green Maasai beadwork around it, too. The dish which it came on (turned upside down in the photo above so that you can see the base) is made from pewter, and was also made here in Tanzania. It's a small community, and I happen to know the lady who manufactures the dhow wood furniture and other items, as well as the lady who makes all the pewter items (in fact, I've often given similar items to family in South Africa and the UK as gifts over the years).

So, I've been enjoying a few candle lit bubble baths this week .... there's nothing nicer, at the end of a day .... and a great gift from my children for Mother's day - as all Mum's out there will agree I'm sure, we all need a bit of 'me time' away from the kids now and then - no matter how much we love them !

Bao Board Lady

This large and quite unusual Bao board is carved in the shape of a lady

I took this photo on our recent trip to the Tanzanian coast. It is of a Bao board which has been carved to look like a lady, and is quite unusual.

If you are wondering what a Bao board is, you can read the post I wrote about it over here. Basically, 'Bao' is the Tanzanian name for a 'board' and this is a local type of 'board game', (although it is played in many different parts of Africa).

I'm not sure what type of wood this particular Bao board is carved from - all I can tell you is that it is HUGE and about the size of a (at least 10 year old !) child lying down. It was out on the wooden veranda deck of the beach house we stayed in, surrounded by comfy scatter cushions.

Instead of pebbles in each of the holes (which are commonly used), there were seeds instead- once again, I'm not sure what kind of seeds they were but they had smooth, shiny and very hard outer shells.

Next time I meet the owners of the house (who also happen to be friends of ours) I'm going to ask them where they got the 'Bao Lady' from, and what her history is - and I'll be sure to post an update for you :)

A Little Piece Of Africa ...........

A collection of traditional Maasai beaded and bone items which I purchased at the Ngorongoro Crater recently - read on to find out more about them !

I know that there are many of you who read this blog & follow it almost daily because you’ve either lived in or visited Africa before (& fallen in love with the Continent !), or because you plan to visit it sometime in the future, or because you know you cannot visit it, but would love to – so ‘visit’ it through the blog instead.

I must say that for whatever reason you read the blog, I always love having you all along with me and showing you parts of this beautiful Continent, and Tanzania in particular – over the (almost) 2 years I’ve been blogging, I have started looking at Africa through different eyes, thinking “Now, what would my blog readers like to hear about ?” and taking photos of, and writing about things, which I would have perhaps otherwise just have taken for granted.

So, when I was on my recent safari to the Ngorongoro Crater (you can read the first of the 3 blog posts I wrote about it over here), I wished that there was a way I could bring a ‘tangible’ piece of it back to share with at least one of you – who may never make it here yourself.

So - on the last morning of our safari, I bought some typical, traditional Maasai items at the Ngorongoro Crater, made by the people there. These are pictured above, and I am going to give them away to one of you, and will post them to you wherever in the world you happen to live !

Before reading on to find out how you could perhaps become the lucky recipient of these items, let me tell you what they are -:

- 2 traditional handmade Maasai beaded bracelets

- 1 leather beaded key ring/holder

- 1 leather beaded watch strap decoration (thread your existing watch strap through it) - or you could use this as a bookmark instead !

- 8 bone buttons – 4 Zebra, 4 Elephant. These are handcrafted from cow bone & have hand painted details on them

I tried to include items for both a man & a woman, as I don’t know who will get these. The bone buttons are included because I know that several readers are very ‘crafty’ people and make a lot of their own things, sew etc & these are quite unique.

If you’d like to read a previous post I wrote about the Maasai people and their beautiful beadwork, you can do so here.

If you’d like to stand a chance to ‘win’ these items, all you have to do, is to leave a comment at the end of this post and in it, tell me -:

1.) The title of your favourite blog post which appeared on ‘Food, Fun & Farm Life !’ during the past year/2009 (this is to prevent spammers or people just passing briefly through the blog !)

2.) Your name - or initials/nickname if you wish to remain anonymous

I’ll close the comments for this post at 11.00 am Tanzanian time on Monday 18th January, and will then draw a winner who will be announced on the blog on Tuesday 19th January at 11.00 am Tanzanian time. (I will print all comments out, cut them up & get my daughter to draw one for me - with photographic proof !)

I’ll then ask that winner to contact me via email with his/her address details (Don’t leave your email or contact details in the comments section as I would hate you to be hit by a spammer - I’ve had a few trying their luck on the blog lately !) and will pop the items in the post to that person within the next week or so - whenever I am next in the city.

I guess all that's left for me to say now, it - 'Good Luck' everyone !

'Return To Corriebush' - Another Great African Recipe Book !

"Return To Corriebush" by Lynn Bedford Hall is a book set in the fictitious town of Corriebush in South Africa and contains many lovely recipes - sandwiched in between the delightful stories of 4 local women

My parents gave me the South African based book ‘Return To Corriebush’ by Lynn Bedford Hall for my birthday this year. Those of you who regularly read my blog will know that I love reading and have a collection of recipe books from all around the world - including another written by the same author called ‘More Food With Flair’. In fact, I’ve featured recipes from this book on my blog in the past – some favourites of which include ‘Mousse Mocha Tia’ and ‘Lemony Crumbed Pork Chops’ (click on the name of each to view the accompanying recipe/blog post).

“Return To Corriebush” is the sequel to “Fig Jam and Foxtrot” which was an international best seller written by the same author. (Unfortunately, I have not yet read ‘Fig Jam & Foxtrot” and was unable to find it when I looked for it – albeit briefly – on my recent trip to South Africa.)

The book is one of my favourite kinds – a story (set in the fictitious town of Corriebush in the Karoo, South Africa) about the lives of 4 women, with recipes at the end of each of the four chapters, divided into Starters, Mains, Desserts & Baking.

The recipes all sound delicious – how does ‘Mini Cucumber Cheesecakes with Avocado’ sound as a starter dish, followed by ‘Poached Fish with Anchovy, Mayo & Crunchy Sage’ as a main course and perhaps if you still have room for dessert - some ‘Chocolate Fudge Cups’ ? Or, you could just skip dessert and have some ‘Coffee and Spice Layer Cake’ with a nice cup of coffee (or tea) to round your meal off.

The book has delightful colour illustrations throughout the ‘story’ chapters about the 4 women, but my one criticism would be that none of the recipes are illustrated / have photographs. I don’t know about you, but no matter how mouthwatering the recipe sounds, I always like to see a photo of what the final dish will look like before I make it ?

This is a delightful book and I’m pleased to add it to my “African” recipe book shelf – I’m sure you’ll see a few recipes from it cropping up on the blog now and then and in the meantime, you can try a tasty recipe for ‘Rosemary Buttermilk Scones’ from the book which I’ve already published on the blog over here.

An Original East African Painting of Maasai Women & Kilimanjaro

The painting shows Maasai women gathering under an acacia tree, with Kilimanjaro towering behind them

I recently celebrated my birthday, and my husband gave me a wonderful gift of another original piece of East African art. (For a previous post on my favourite piece - which my husband gave to me for my birthday 5 years ago - you can click here).

This piece is by an East African artist by the name of E. Atatnas, whose work is stocked in a local art shop in the city – a shop which we’ve supported for many years now (the next time I’m in the shop, I hope to find out more about the artist who painted this piece and if I do, I’ll update this blog post).

My husband says that he chose this particular painting because it has Kilimanjaro in the background, and it ‘jumped out’ at him. I love it not only because of the mountain, but also because it reflects a part of the traditional Maasai tribal lifestyle here in East Africa – Maasai women in their traditional dress (note the colourful beaded necklaces they are wearing), with some carrying beaded gourds and resting under the shade of an acacia (thorn) tree.

In African tribal life, it is a women’s daily job to gather firewood (used for cooking) and to collect water (used for bathing & washing) for the family home. The gourds which you see some of the women carrying in the painting are typically used for milk, grain or water storage. It is not uncommon, as you are driving along a rural road here, to see groups of women walking through the bush together with bundles of firewood in their arms, or containers of water on their heads.

How much we take for granted – heat at the flick of a switch, water at the turn of a tap – when there are still women, in the year 2009, who live in homes without electricity or water – it seems unbelievable, almost !

I look at this painting and I like to imagine that the women in it are taking a break underneath that acacia tree. A much needed rest from their daily toils and struggles to just chat amongst themselves …. and although there are no shopping malls, leisurely lunches, ladies nights or book club gatherings in their community, the universal language of women – our hopes, fears and dreams – at the end of the day, when everything else is stripped bare, are pretty much the same. Don’t you agree ?

(If you’d like to read a post I wrote last year about Suzy, a wonderful Maasai woman who is trying to break the cycle of poverty and change the lives of other Maasai women, then you can read that over here.)

"Safari Living Recipes" - A Uniquely Tanzanian Book

The front cover of "Safari Living Recipes" - it makes a great coffee table book, too !

A page containing recipes from Serengeti Migration Camp (above), one of the camps my husband & I helped to rebuild & used to run here. The camp was situated close to the Mara river which separates Tanzania from Kenya. If you've ever seen documentaries of the annual wildebeest & zebra migration crossing the river, that is the river they used to cross ..... thousands of thundering hooves could be heard as they sometimes passed through the actual camp & between the tents at night. An experience that just cannot be described ! (None of the camps in our national parks are fenced, neither are the parks themselves - this allows for free movement of all the game).

The book also contains gorgeous double page spreads of some of the camps - here (above) the veranda of the honeymoon tent at Migration Camp is shown - my husband & I designed this (complete with outside bath sunk into the kopjies/rocks) & I did the interiors with fabrics & furnishings sourced in both Nairobi, Kenya and Arusha, Tanzania

Swala Camp (above) - the first camp we ever ran in Tanzania. This is the view from the main "mess tent" veranda where we used to serve meals to all our guests. We saw lion, leopard, elephant & wild dog from this veranda during the time we ran the camp. It was a truly magical spot .... a truly magical camp that holds a special place in our hearts to this day

The pages above show some of the recipes from Tarangire Tree Tops - a camp which we found the site for, designed, built and ran ourselves, along with our loyal staff who had moved with us over the years, from camp to camp ! Now owned by a large hotel group (& many of the rough edges which added to it's charm have been smoothed off !), my husband & I are proud to have left our mark in Tanzania & contributed to the country's tourism sector in some small way

There are not many books around which are 100% Tanzanian. By this I mean written & photographed here, and mainly about Tanzania. You’ll find lots of Kenyan books, though. So whenever a new Tanzanian book is published, I always buy it and usually a few extra copies too, to give to family as gifts.

Several years ago, a uniquely Tanzanian book was published called “Safari Living Recipes” by Javed Jafferji (who took all the gorgeous colour photo’s throughout the book) and Gemma Pitcher (who wrote and edited it). Javed Jafferji had already published a few Zanzibari/Tanzanian books at this time (and has since gone on to publish many more, and I am the pleased owner of many of them !) but this one interested me especially, because it was a recipe book compiled of recipes taken from top lodges, camps and hotels in Tanzania.

Three of the camps featured in this book were camps that my husband and I used to run and/or built and many other camps and lodges featured are ones that were either run/owned by friends of ours or places where we have stayed or eaten at over the years. So this book is very special to me – and as a result I have several copies of it, as everyone thought it would make a great gift and in Christmas 2003 there were a few of these under the tree for me ! (This book was compiled the same year that we started farming, so we were not actually running any of these camps at that time, although many of our old managers, staff, chefs etc were still there).

The book is broken down into sections which cover the different areas of Tanzania, and then into a selection of accommodation establishments in each area, with photographs of the properties & food served there, aswell as a selection of 4 – 5 recipes from each lodge, camp or hotel.

The areas covered are the Ngorongoro, Serengeti, Tarangire (Lake) Manyara, Selous, Ruaha, Mahale, Katavi and the city of Arusha and the recipes cover everything from snacks to starters, salads, main courses, baked treats and desserts, all with simple & easy-to-follow instructions.

Tarangire Tree Tops, the camp which my husband and I designed and built features 5 recipes including “Tarangire Shamba Salad with Cheese Balls” (a ‘shamba’ is a farm); “African Beef Kebabs” and the universal favourite “Lemon Meringue Pie”. Serengeti Migration Camp, the camp which my husband and I renovated and extended/rebuilt new parts of before running it ourselves, features recipes such as “Aubergine Salad” and “Fish in Pastry” and our all time favourite camp in the Tarangire National Park, which was the first Tanzanian camp we ever ran, “Swala Camp” ("Swala" means "Impala" in the local Kiswahili language, as the camp had it's own 'resident' herd) features such delights as “Chargrilled Tarangire Vegetable Towers with Balsamic Dressing” and “Decadent Chocolate Mousse Cornets”.

The photography is brilliant, the recipes contain easy-to-get ingredients (even back in 2002/2003 when the book was put together & published, you could get much less here in the way of ingredients than you can today) and it’s a wonderful keepsake to take home with you as a memory of your African safari – or even if you’ve never visited Tanzania, it’s a lovely book for you to buy and use to sample some wonderful Tanzanian recipes – and best of all, it’s uniquely and beautifully 100% Tanzanian !

(For those of you who might like to look this book up online, the ISBN number is -: 9987-667-23-6 & it is published by “Gallery Publications” in Zanzibar)

Colourful Tanzanian Kitenge Cloths

One of my favourite kitenge cloths which I often use as a tablecloth when we dine 'Al Fresco' - or at Christmas time !

Kitenge cloths are so much a part of life in Tanzania that after a while you don’t even notice them anymore ! They are bold, bright & colourful and are worn by most women here, especially in the rural areas.

Typically a woman will wear 2 kitenge cloths of the same colour/design at a time – one around her waist and / or body and one around her head. She will usually wear these over her normal clothing – or around her waist with a t-shirt. They are also almost always used as baby slings, with women traditionally carrying their babies on their backs, strapped closely to them in a kitenge as they go about their daily duties, and the baby is then rather deftly swung around to the front of the woman’s body and hidden under the kitenge for breastfeeding.

I use this kitenge cloth as a chair cover in our office - so that the dogs don't get the chair cushions dirty when they jump up for a quick nap !

I’ve noticed that women tend to have ‘everyday’ kitenge (which are sometimes a bit old and not as bright) which they wear for everyday use as they go about their cooking, cleaning and livestock tending and then their ‘smart’ kitenge (which are bright, bold & always look new) which they wear for special occasions such as going to Church, weddings & Christenings.

I do know that often their husbands will buy them new kitenge as a special gift, in much the same way as we might expect a bunch of roses on Valentine’s day ! When any of my waiters (in the safari camps we used to run here) would get a good tip from a customer and wanted to buy his wife something special, he would always tell me “Mama Lynda, I am going to buy my wife a beautiful new kitenge when I next get to the market” (as they are typically sold in our local food/livestock markets here).

My Mum bought this kitenge tablecloth & napkin set for me in the curio shop of a guest house on a Tanzanian coffee farm, when we were on a safari to the Serengeti National Park, about 6 years go

Kitenge cloths are mostly found in striking patterns and bright colours like yellows, reds, navy blues, deep purples, oranges and greens and many of them have short messages or sayings printed onto them along the edges - usually messages relating to love or friendship. (There must be hundreds of different designs out there because I must say that you hardly ever see the same 2 twice !)

I think that in many African countries there are different versions of traditional cloths which are worn by local women, and I have heard many different names for them such as Kanga, Kikoy and Sarong.

These are bread baskets made from kitenge - I like using them for serving scones & muffins at breakfast time. I bought the brown/yellow one at a Christmas craft fair in Nairobi, Kenya and the red/black one was made in Tanzania by a local tailor who I sometimes use to make clothing for my husband

The Kitenge which we get here are all made in Tanzania and although they are not typically worn here my “Western” women, they are used for all sorts of things like tablecloths, chair covers, food covers and beach throws and the brightly coloured fabric is also used to make items like bread baskets, handbags, placemats, napkins, sunglass cases and even tea cosy’s. (I like wearing mine on the beach !)

Kitenge make great gifts and are light and easy to pack when you are traveling – I think that over the years each one of my far flung family members and friends across the globe have at some stage, been given Kitenge by me as a gift, and no two have ever been alike, which is how unique they are.

Longing For Darkness - Kamante's Tales from "Out of Africa"

"Longing For Darkness - Kamante's Tales From Out of Africa" is one of my favourite coffee table books

Laid out in a scrap book style, the book contains many original photographs & quotes of Karen Blixen's, aswell as Kamante's own illustrations

I’ve been meaning to write a blog post on this book for some time now, as it’s a really special book, and one of my standard “coffee table books” which I always have out on the table in our TV lounge, as it’s so easy to pick it up at any time and leaf through it and find something of interest to read.

Many people are familiar with Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen) who wrote the book “Out of Africa” about her life on a coffee farm in Kenya, and those who have read it will be familiar with her loyal staff member, Kamante, who features both in the book and in the movie. This book, “Longing For Darkness – Kamante’s Tales from Out of Africa” is a book which has been written by Kamante (and collected & put together by Peter Beard), about the time he spent with Karen on her farm in Kenya, at the foot of the Ngong Hills.

For those of you who don’t know, Kamante was a loyal staff member of Karen Blixen’s, who came to work for her when he was nothing more than a young boy, and stayed with her for all her time in Africa (and maintained contact with her once she left). She first met him when she helped him with medical treatment – she helped many of the local people this way, although she was not a trained medical professional, she simply helped out where she could (as many people still do here in East Africa today – although in the first world, we’d probably be arrested !)

She taught him to cook and care for her animals, and many other skills along the way, and he was eventually sent for training in some of Nairobi’s top hotels (many – like the Norfolk Hotel and the Stanley Hotel are still in existence today) and became an excellent Chef – the dinner parties she held, and the wonderful food served at them (and cooked by Kamante) were renowned all over Kenya.

I would say that this is more like a scrapbook than a novel or an autobiography (and was put together long before “scrap booking” as we know it became so popular) and has a very personal feel to it – almost as though you were reading through someone’s diary, and looking at their personal collection of photographs, newspaper clippings and drawings.

It contains copies of original photographs spanning the years 1914 to 1931, and original quotations from Karen Blixen, and many of the stories which Kamante recounts are ones which readers of “Out of Africa” will be familiar with – only these ones are, rather charmingly, told from Kamante’s perspective.

Kamante tells tales of Karen’s adventures, his day-to-day life on the farm, the visitors which they had, the hunters, the places he went whilst working for her and the experiences he had – all peppered with his own magical drawings throughout the book. The last section of the book also contains many delightful fables (“The Fables – From Karen Farm Days”) with titles such as “The Frogs Who Demanded A King” and “The Leopard Without A Tail”.

If you enjoyed the book “Out of Africa” and wish to learn more about life on this famous Kenyan coffee farm from the perspective of a local African man, then Kamante’s “Longing For Darkness” is a must read, and his words and outlook on life will remain in your heart long after you have closed the book ......

A Story About A Malawian Table .....

Many happy memories (& lots of tasty food !) have been enjoyed around the table over the years

A close-up of some of the carvings on the table - here you can see a rhino, an elephant and a giraffe

I can honestly say that of all the furniture we own, this hand carved Malawian mahogany dining table is one of my absolute favourite pieces. (In fact, I think it IS my favourite piece – and it has a nice story behind it, too !)

Many years ago, in-between jobs here in Tanzania we were living in South Africa for a short stint, and it is there that we bought this gorgeous table. We had little money at the time, were trying to set up a home on a limited budget and just happened to stop at a petrol station in a country area on the outskirts of Johannesburg to fill up with fuel, when we noticed a small, rundown furniture shop which we decided to quickly take a look in.

I was drawn to this table right away. Actually, it called my name I think because it was not very visible at the time – stuck at the very back of the dark, overcrowded shop, it’s surface was covered with everything from books to ornaments to candles. I called my husband (then fiancée) over to have a look, and he loved it too !

The shop assistant told us that it was a hand carved Mahogany piece from the Southern African country of Malawi, and had been brought to South Africa with another table and some chairs on the back of a truck. The drivers of the truck needed cash to buy food in South Africa to take back to their families in Malawi, and had brought the furniture across the border in order to do this.

Now, there was only one small problem – we could not afford the table ! But I knew, it was a once-in-a-lifetime chance, so what could we do ? I called my husband outside the shop and had a quick chat to him. After some fast calculations, we decided that if we did without some other furniture items which we needed, and cut back on our grocery and fuel bills for the next month or two, we could probably afford the table. So, we took the plunge - and went ahead and bought it !

It is one of the best decisions we’ve made ‘cause although we battled at first (having a gorgeous dining table yet no lounge suite, stove or decent TV !) we now have all those things and, of course, this lovely table which we would never be able to replace !

The table eventually joined us in Tanzania by train all the way from South Africa, through Zimbabwe and Zambia - and made it to us in one piece & without so much as a scratch. Since then, aside from being quite well traveled (!!) the table has also lived with us in 3 different locations around Tanzania and has hosted both friends and family from all around the world and many great meals (and bottles of wine !) have been enjoyed around it. From birthday’s to Christmases, to New Year celebrations and Easter, Sunday lunches, lazy breakfasts and company lunches I bet this table could tell a few stories !

A few people have suggested to me that I cover the top with glass – but I kind of like it the way it is – rough and natural looking (even though it’s a bit tricky to clean around all those carvings !)

The scenes carved onto the table all involve animals – giraffe, elephant, rhino and buck – most of them grazing on the grass or on tall trees, some around water. I really love this table and it’s a timeless piece which hopefully one day, will be passed on to our own children for them to enjoy as much as we have !

Tanzanian Art - & Bicycles As Status Symbols !

Another piece of Tanzanian art by the artist known simply as "Mbata". It is made of hundreds of tiny pieces of torn magazine paper, glued together to form the picture.

I’ve been meaning to do another post on Tanzanian art for some time now. The picture above is by the same Kenyan artist, Mbata, who did a previous one I posted about of a hand drawn “Kokaten” cart. (You can read that post over here).

This picture, like the other one, is made up of hundreds of tiny pieces of torn up paper taken from old magazines and glued together to form a picture, and it is then lightly varnished over the surface. This lovely piece hangs in our bedroom and just like the Kokaten cart piece I have, is a typical Tanzanian scene.

There was a time here when very few people could afford a car. The fastest & most efficient form of transport for getting around the cities or from village to village was therefore by bicycle. Also, the roads were terrible for normal ‘cars’ to drive on (not so much for 4 wheel drive vehicles though) and even as recently as 10 years ago, the cities and bigger towns still had dirt roads running through them and remnants of old tar roads, peppered with potholes.

All that has changed now though, as these have all since been tarred (I could kick myself for not having taken photo’s of some of these roads and potholes before the towns were tarred as I now have no record of what it used to be like !) Now many people can afford small “saloon” cars (“saloon” cars are what vehicles which do not have 4 wheel drive are called here) and the most popular choice is something like a small Toyota or Peugeot. Almost all the cars are old models though, every time I travel to e.g. South Africa, England etc I am struck on leaving the airport at how ‘new’ all the cars around me look & my daughter is amazed at all the different car colours and shapes etc you can get (also at how clean all the cars look compared to our dusty, muddy cars here !)

Anyway, I’ve veered off the subject here as I was talking about bicycles and how popular they still are here. Think of all our farm staff, house staff and the surrounding villages around our farm – totaling 100’s of people - only about 5 of them own a car. You often see 2 people on a bicycle (as in the picture above) – most often a child riding with a father to school, or a husband with a wife sitting “side saddle” on the back. You rarely – if ever – see women riding bicycles here, and I’m not sure why – probably because, (like driving a car) especially in the rural areas, this is deemed “a man’s job”.

Bicycles are also a very popular means of carrying anything from planks of wood, baskets of fruit & vegetables or live chickens and even a single goat (this I have seen many times), all strapped on the back – though not all at once, of course !

Whereas there was a time when owning a bicycle here was a huge status symbol (in the rural areas, they still are) nowadays, especially in the cities, the ‘new’ status symbol is owning a mobile ‘phone.

I can only but wonder what will happen when Ipods eventually hit our shelves here ?!

Suzy's Story - A Maasai Woman's Life

One of the beautiful, intricately beaded placemats I bought from the "Maasai Women Fair Trade Center"

The "Simanjiro Maasai Women's Group" was also represented at the fair - I met the most dynamic young Tanzanian man representing them, his passion for what he does was contagious ! (Have a look at all the beautiful beadwork they had for sale)

"Imagine you are born as a girl into the Maasai tribe. Imagine there being no money to be educated and if there is, having that money spent on your brother/s rather than on you, because you are worth more because you can be married off to someone (of your parent’s choosing) in exchange for livestock – the ultimate sign of wealth in the Maasai tribe.

Imagine that as a young girl going through puberty, you have to undergo a circumcision ceremony. Because if you are uncircumcised, you will not be as desirable a wife, nor will you fetch as high a price in livestock when you get married. Imagine having markings etched or burned into your face, to show that you are part of that tribe.

Imagine that you have to share your husband (who may be old enough to be your father or grandfather) with many other wives and bear him children year after year, as children are another sign of wealth. Imagine that if for some reason you cannot bear children (or stop having them) you will be returned – in shame – to your family.

Imagine spending your day finding food and firewood to cook for your husband, tending to the animals, having days where you do not have enough to eat because your husband has to always get the lions share.

Imagine a life of illiteracy, of not knowing how to read or to write, of having no education and no means of supporting yourself, ever. Imagine being caught in this endless cycle as you give birth to yet another daughter, who will grow up to lead the same life as you – and knowing that there is nothing, nothing that you as a mother can do to stop this cycle.

Imagine all this, happening not in years gone by, but in the year 2008. Just imagine ….."

At the recent Christmas Craft Fair, I met an incredible Maasai girl named Suzy (her English name) who’s mother managed to break the cycle for her, and get her an education. Suzy, (who is one of the most beautiful people – both inside and out – who I have ever met) was a little shy of being photographed, so I did not push the issue (I always ask permission before photographing people here). She is working for the “Maasai Women Fair Trade Center”, who’s aim is to empower & create opportunities for disadvantaged Maasai women, whilst still protecting the majority of the Maasai culture.

Suzy told me that she was working towards raising money for the education of young Maasai girls, so that they can break the endless cycle which they have been born into. Her stall contained many wonderful articles of Maasai beadwork, all created by these women who are trying to earn their own money for what is for most, the first time in their lives.

Of course not all Maasai children are born into this cycle, but in the more remote areas I think it is more prevalent. I asked Suzy how the Maasai really felt about having Western ideas and influences on their ancient ways & customs, and she said that whilst it is important to maintain these old traditions & beliefs, it is also important to find a balance between the two, and to find a way of adapting some of these old customs into newer and safer practices.

I also came upon another stall run by the “Simanjiro Maasai Women’s Group”. (Siminajiro is a remote semi-arid region in the north of Tanzania) and headed up by a wonderful young teenage Tanzanian Maasai man (I’m sorry that I never got his name !) who is passionately working to end this same cycle, and helping to spread the message to other young Maasai men & male members of his family. Wow, what a guy and I just couldn’t help but compare him to many teens today who are caught up in all sorts – crime, gangs, drugs, etc – yet here is a man who has very little & comes from an endless cycle of poverty yet has managed to break free of this & is using his voice to change the lives of others – dynamically – yet at such a young age, and is doing so much with his young life.

I made donations to both organizations, supporting them by buying some of the beautiful items they had for sale, and now that I am more aware, I can do more in the future. It also reminded me of the fact that although we live in a country where we have very little, it is life lessons and meeting people like this, that make all the difference. My daughter (who met these people with me, and listened to their stories) will grow up knowing of people and situations like this, and will realize how privileged she is to live the life that she does, and hopefully she will grow up wanting to help others less fortunate than herself, because of this.

As I said to Suzy when she thanked me for supporting her organization (please visit their wesbite here) as I was leaving “I am a woman, you are a woman, and although we come from different lives, we are very much the same – we are all sisters, and as women, it is our duty to help and support each other and to help other women in need wherever we can”.

So, far more that a fun day out of Christmas shopping & catching up with friends, the Christmas Craft Fair also really made me stop and think about how lucky I am of having the privilege, even as a woman, to be able to decide my own future. Something that so many of us take for granted and which I, too, had up until the day that I met Suzy, and heard her story.

Christmas Craft Fair

This past weekend, the annual Christmas Craft Fair was held by the community in our local city. The fair started several years ago & used to be quite a small, simple event - yet now it has grown to become one of the most looked forward to & well attended events of the entire year ! The photo above shows the school tent, where pupils were selling second hand goods & where the kids could have their faces painted or do crafts. (Can you spot my daughter & I walking through the tent ?!)

People came to exhibit their wares from all over the country & beyond - Arusha, Moshi, Dar es Salaam and as far afield as Nairobi, Kenya and Harare, Zimbabwe. Aren't these colourful bags above just gorgeous ?

It had rained the night before, the photo above was taken early in the morning of the following day so as you can see it was still a little overcast and cloudy - but luckily, not for long !

The fair was held at a local club, out on the rugby playing fields. This photo above shows the entrance/exit to the fair grounds - I loved the lush greeness of it all, coupled with the overhead archways.

I think that almost everyone turned out for the big day (although the fair ran for the entire weekend) and I bumped into almost everyone I know here, including some people I'd not seen for years ! In the centre of the field was a huge food & bar tent, where everyone sat at tables to eat lunch (barbecued chicken, hot dogs, pizza, salads etc) - this worked out well as all us ladies could take our time browsing & shopping whilst our husbands sat in the bar tent drinking beer & catching up with each other !

I bought some lovely items at the fair - there was a German lady & her daughter who had made traditional German Christmas treats like biscuits & cakes which I bought, I also got some lovely bush honey, Masaai beadwork items (key rings, jewellery boxes, Christmas tree decorations) & cake decorations, blue & white pottery bowls, coconut wood salt & pepper cellars, Zimbabwean lucky bean salad servers & jam pots - to mention but a few items.

It was a wonderful, social day and although we got back to the farm fairly late on Saturday (it was already dark) and quite tired, it was well worth it (not to mention all the wonderful Christmas shopping I was able to do) !

The Saffron Pear Tree - And Other Kitchen Memories ...

"The Saffron Pear Tree & Other Kitchen Memories" by Zuretha Roos

A while ago I mentioned that from time to time I’d feature some great African books on my blog. There are some incredible African writers out there who I feel don’t always get the credit they deserve, or perhaps their work is not marketed well enough internationally – I’m not sure, but I also find that sometimes the best books to read are not just the ‘best sellers’ but rather the ones written by unknown (or relatively unknown) authors, the ones which you never hear that much about.

One such book is the cookbook/memoir “The Saffron Pear Tree and Other Kitchen Memories” by the South African writer, Zuretha Roos. It spans the author’s life from childhood to the present day and is best described as the story of her life and the role which food has played in it at each stage, interjected with recipes (& delightful hand drawn sketches) which span 3 generations of her family. Most of these are traditional South African recipes – how wonderful to have these precious family recipes down in black and white so that they are not lost forever.

The name of the book comes from the Saffron Pear tree, which is perhaps one of South Africa’s first cultivated trees & is believed to have been brought from Europe in the 1600’s. The leaves used to be used to dye wool a saffron yellow colour & the fruits were used in pickles & preserves. There is one of these trees which is over 300 years old (in the Company Gardens in Cape Town, South Africa) which is still bearing fruit today !

Zuretha was born & raised in the heart of the South African Boland & her story spans farm kitchens at the turn of the century to sleepy seaside villages along the South African coastline to the “Superwomen” years of the 1970’s. Her recipes are delightful & relate to each chapter of the book – for example the chapter “Beach Sand & Beskuit” (biscuits) has a recipe for “Ouma’s Snoek Tart” (Grandma’s Snoek/Fish Tart) & “A Sheep At Large” has a recipe for “Leg of Lamb the Old-fashioned Way” & “A Midnight Peach” explains how to make “Peach Brulee” or “Brandied Peaches”.

I guess what I loved most about this book was the fact that not only was it a fascinating account of the author’s life and how food has influenced it, but the superb collection of recipes it contains (my “Malva Pudding” recipe - still one of the most searched for on my blog today - also comes from this book). It gives you an insight into life in Africa, and the influences and progression of traditional cooking through several generations. If you can get hold of a copy of this book, I promise that you won’t be disappointed !

I’ll leave you with a delightful quote from the book, which really rang true for me -:

“Food and kitchen and the cycle of life : in the lives of most ordinary women these three concepts are almost inseparable. Invisible threads connect womankind to kitchens : their mother’s, their own, those of their friends”

"We All Went On Safari" - A Children's Book Set In Tanzania

"We All Went On Safari" is a delightful children's counting book set in Tanzania

The illustrations are superb - this is one of my favourite pages, set around a gate in the Serengeti with a delightful family of warthog trotting past !

I love reading. I mean, I absolutely adore reading and cannot imagine a life without books. We have overflowing bookshelves in most of the rooms of our home and my daughter has a rapidly growing collection of her own books, too. My parents (especially my Dad) read to my sister and I all the time as we grew up, and I have been reading to my daughter since the day she was born and we were still in the hospital together !

Many Tanzanians cannot read, and many do not have access to books on a regular basis. According to UNICEF the adult literacy rate here is around 69%. How many of us take for granted the fact that we can read ? To many people in the world, being able to read is something we take for granted.

I have always lent my staff books to read, and they really appreciate this. Their favourite fiction books are usually anything by Wilbur Smith (!!) and non-fiction books about people on adventures or expeditions in other African countries.

From time to time I've decided to feature some really good African themed or written books which I have enjoyed, on the blog. This idea came to me when I was reading my daughter this book in bed the other night, and I knew that I just had to share it with you, because it is a real gem !

I bought this book in Nairobi, Kenya last year. It is called “We All Went on Safari – A counting journey through Tanzania” and is written by Laurie Krebs and illustrated by Julia Cairns (ISBN 1-84148-782-1). It is published by “Barefoot Books” who's lovely website you can see here.

This is a delightful book which teaches children to count in both English and Swahili (Kiswahili), our local language. It follows a group of Maasai children in traditional dress going on safari through typical Tanzanian landscapes, and counting the wild animals which they encounter along the way.

For example “We all went on safari, past an old acacia tree. Nearby giraffes were grazing, so Tumpe counted three” then it has the letter 3 and “tatu” (the Swahili version) written next to it. The book counts up to 10 and then includes pages on the animals featured in the book, the Maasai people, Swahili names (e.g. “Tumpe” – who counted the giraffe - means “friendly, funny, a leader & organizer”). It also has a page on facts about Tanzania, a simple map & a page on counting in Swahili.

The illustrations are bold, colourful and very true to life and the detail in them is superb. My daughter loves this book, and truth be told - it's one of my favourites, too !

I will leave you with a beautiful quote seen on the back of staff uniform t-shirts at a well known bookshop in Nairobi, Kenya .....

"Richer than you I will always be .......

For I had a mother who read to me"

Wooden Zanzibari Boxes - Little Treasure Chests !

From jewellery box size to linen trunks, these hand carved wooden boxes with the beautiful inlaid brass are made on the island of Zanzibar, which lies just off Tanzania's coastline

You’ll notice that I’m including some posts here and there about local Tanzanian artwork and curios/crafts. This is because I thought that it would be interesting to ‘showcase’ these from time to time. I know that whenever I travel or read up about a new country, some of the first questions I ask are things like “What grows there ?”, “What do they export ?”, “What is the country known for ?”, “What do they make there ?” and “What can I buy there, to bring back home as a memento of my holiday ?” So I guess I’m just recording on my blog some of the lovely items that are created here in Tanzania, that I thought you might find interesting.

The picture above is of a beautiful hand carved wooden box which I bought some years ago when I was on holiday on the island of Zanzibar, which lies just off Tanzania’s coastline. It has an inlaid brass design on it, & this is a typical Zanzibari style. The design of the boxes I am told, are Arab influenced and inspired.

This is a small sized box – which can be used as a jewellery box. (Or a place to keep all your secrets !) It sits on top of my fireplace and I use it for storing matches inside. (Okay I’ll admit it, sometimes the odd ‘escaped’ curtain runner or broken button will end up in there too !)

These boxes however, are made in every size – right up to large trunk size, for storing things like linen and spare crockery in. Some of the trunks have softly rounded brass ‘spikes’ on the lids too, and are quite beautiful and very East African.

They're so pretty, and quite unique - don't you think ?

(If you’d like to read a recent post I wrote about Zanzibar spices, you can see that here.)

Handcarved Tanzanian Chess Boards

Each chess piece (aswell as the board) is carefully carved by hand

Following on from my recent post about the Tanzanian Bao Game, I thought I’d post a photo of a typical hand carved wooden Tanzanian chess board. Isn’t it lovely ?

I got this ages ago and it sits on the coffee table in my main lounge. The cats – Ollie especially – love tapping the chess pieces with their paws and knocking them over so that they scoot across the tiled lounge floor and then they pounce on them with glee ! (This is also an endless source of amusement to my daughter !)

You can find these wooden chess sets all over the country in all sorts of different sizes and styles. Some of the boards are even made into side table tops, for display and use in your lounge, and the chess pieces are then kept separately.

In many places you can actually watch local craftsmen carving the little figures with a knife under a tree on the roadside. Each piece is then carefully smoothed and polished before being placed on the board and put out for sale. (They are reasonably priced too, especially considering all the work that goes into making them.)

They make excellent presents for family and friends in far flung places and as they are handmade, each one is completely unique.

I was watching a programme on CNN the other day, filmed in Zanzibar (which lies just off our coastline) about local craftsmen and curio shopping. It was presented by Richard Quest (I think he’s great !) and in it he was saying something that really rung true with me and that is that when people come on holiday to Africa they do expect to get good bargains in the local markets but that one should only bargain the craftsmen down to a reasonable amount as very often the difference of a few dollars to you can make all the difference to a local craftsman between whether or not his family get to eat that night.

It is true, most curio prices here are inflated for the tourist & you are expected to bargain down … it’s part of the whole experience of curio shopping here, but the idea is to not go so low that the poor craftsman is forced to give his carefully made item away for next to nothing simply because a small amount of cash is worth more to him than returning home to his wife and children who have perhaps not had much to eat that day at all.

Something to think about and something that I too, even as a resident here, need to always consider when perhaps, say, my Vegetable Mama tells me that the price of tomatoes have increased this week because the rains are bad and I get annoyed by it. Food for thought.

Where There Is No Doctor

This book was my "Bible" when we first moved to a remote part of Tanzania 10 years ago, & I still refer to it today

One of the things that we don’t have here is sufficient medical care. There is medical care available but it is extremely basic and for medical emergencies our best bet is the city of Nairobi in the neighboring country of Kenya. From the farm, this is a 6 to 8 hour trip – over potholed & unsafe roads (especially if we are traveling at night).

We also have Flying Doctor membership - in case of a dire emergency we could call them up on the radio (although with recently erected mobile telephone networks all over the country, even in the remoter areas you can still get patchy ‘phone coverage) and they would send a light aircraft to our airstrip on the farm and from here, airlift us immediately to Nairobi. (In theory.)

During the 10 years I’ve lived here, I’ve had 2 medical emergencies. The first one was on the remote farm we first stayed on, & as we were within a 2 hour driving distance of an African Mission Hospital, and had our own car, they refused to fly out to our farm to airlift me out. As a result I spent 2 days in the Mission Hospital which was basic, to say the least (in hospitals here you have to provide your own food/water and often, clean bedding too).

The staff at the hospital were dedicated and kind though – so much so in fact that this was the hospital I then used for most of my pregnancy check-up’s when I was pregnant with my daughter, and where she went as a newborn for her early vaccinations.

My second medical emergency was a complete disaster & one I certainly won’t go into on this blog, but lets just say after horrifically botched local treatment I was raced through to Nairobi, Kenya & just got there in the nick of time.

Thank God (& touch wood) we’ve had no emergencies since, my biggest worry being if anything were to ever happen to my daughter.

Having said all that, medical care is much better here now than it was in the ‘90’s even, and before my husband & I came here we completed a basic and an advanced first aid course. We were also taught a few things by a Doctor that the courses didn’t cover (like how to perform an emergency tracheotomy, how to administer a drip etc) as we were living in some of the remotest parts of the country at that stage, in places where even an airstrip was hard to come by and a couple of day’s drive to the nearest (extremely basic) medical care, & we had a camp full of staff who relied on us.

Which brings me to this wonderful book pictured above – “Where There Is No Doctor” by David Werner. This book is a BIBLE for laymen like myself – living in remote parts of Africa. For in this book you will find everything you need to know about basic medical care – from how to examine a sick person, to how to work out medicine dosages & how to use antibiotics aswell as the usual things like how to perform CPR or move an injured person. It also contains pages of symptoms/illnesses and which medicines to administer !

This book was my trusty companion during my early years in Tanzania (along with a medicine box stocked with every kind of medical supply you could imagine !) & was used regularly. Of course I would only treat staff for basic problems or in emergencies & we would ensure that they got to proper medical care as soon as possible …. of course in some places in the world, if you did anything like this and weren’t a qualified medical professional, you’d get sued due to all sorts of healthy & safety rules and regulations etc !

This book now sits (gathering dust) on a shelf in my office, but I had to take it out & dust it off last week when both my husband & I were struck down with a nasty chest infection & I had to prescribe us both a course of antibiotics. Which made me think that I should write a blog post about it, as I’m sure that you’d be interested to hear how we handle medical issues here in Tanzania.

After publishing this post, I was contacted by the assistant publicist of Hesperian, the publisher of "Where There Is No Doctor" who has provided me with the link to their site where free books can be downloaded, including one called "Where There Is No Dentist". If you're interested, you can visit their site here.

Tanzanian Bao Game

Tanzanian Bao Game - a popular game played here, especially in the coastal areas

Even in this day and age, there are still places in the world (Tanzania being one of them) were many people do not have things like mobile phones, internet access, play stations, ipods, television or even the ability to read and instead they find ways to occupy their spare time and keep themselves entertained the ‘old fashioned’ way.

Church is probably one of the biggest social events of the week for people and many people have told me that the main reason they attend Church on a Sunday is because it is a means of meeting each week with neighbours and people from other villages and a chance to get dressed up in their smart clothes and out of the house and the daily grind of chores (like herding livestock, chopping firewood, collecting water). Market day is another one of these days, and is treated here as a real social event.

Football (soccer) is a great pastime here for the men. Not many people have access to footballs here, so it is common to see children especially kicking homemade balls around which have been made from rolled up bits of newspaper and old plastic bags. Women enjoy sitting for ages under the shade of a tree and braiding each other’s hair and catching up on the local gossip.

In the camps, our staff amused themselves in their off time with card games and draughts – made from a simple piece of old wood (or the side of a cardboard box) with soda bottle tops in 2 different colours as the ‘draughts’. More serious games would entail “betting” with match sticks and the object was to see who had the most matchsticks at the end of the game !

Board games are popular here and the photograph above is of a Tanzanian game known as Bao. It is played all over Africa although I only ever became aware of it when we moved to Tanzania. I have seen it played here mostly in the coastal areas, and it also seems to be quite popular on the island of Zanzibar.

The word “Bao” means “board” in the local Kiswahili language and the game consists of a wooden ‘board’ which has rows of holes carved into it and each player has his own stones (or seeds) which he must “sow” into the holes of 'his' row. (Although I have also seen it being played on the roadside, where the holes are hollowed out of the dry Tanzanian soil under the shade of an old tree, and the stones are just pebbles collected nearby & placed into the dusty hollows).

Bao is based on a Mancala game – the word ‘Mancala’ covering a large range of board games consisting of ‘pit and pebble’ games - or ‘count & capture’ or ‘sowing’ techniques.

The object of the game is basically to empty your opponents row of stones whilst protecting your own.

This Bao board above is one I have had for 10 years now – the stones are kept in a hand made leather bag (sewn with fine wire) with Maasai beadwork on the side. I have it as a decoration in my main lounge - it sits happily on top of an old railway sleeper box and every time I see it, it reminds me of the time I first learnt of the game, and of our camp staff playing games like this by the light of a hurricane lantern late into the night, as the campfire slowly died down and the haunting sound of the hyena echoed across the otherwise still night air …………..

Some More (Exceptional !) East African Art ...

I fell in love with this original painting by the talented Zachariah Mbutha when I saw it in Nairobi, Kenya 4 years ago

Well, I promised that I would write some more about East African art after my last post about it (which you can read over here), so here you go ….

Of all the paintings we have in our home, this one is my absolute favourite. It hangs above our bed (truth be told, I changed the entire décor/colours of our bedroom to fit in with this painting - using the gorgeous deep rust colour of the clothing which the lady in it is wearing as inspiration).

The lady in the painting (there is a man standing some distance behind her) is taking water in a tin bucket to quench the thirst of drought stricken wildlife, which include a rhinoceros, an elephant and some kind of buck.

The artist is an extremely talented Kenyan man by the name of Zachariah Mbutha, & we bought this piece in Nairobi, Kenya 4 years ago. Zachariah is a contemporary artist and has been painting images of sculpted figures since 1979. His paintings are made up of a patterned mosaic of paint marks, and most depict the struggle of modern African life. He likes to cover the issues of conservation, hunger and poverty in his works and his paintings can be found in art collections around the world.

As with everything in my home, there is a story behind this painting and how we came to own it …………

When I was 4 months pregnant with my daughter, my husband & I were in Nairobi for a few days break as I was having one of my check-up’s at a hospital there to see that everything was on track. It was around the time of my birthday, and we were staying at The New Stanley Hotel which is one of our favourite hotels to stay at when we are in the city. It is in the centre of the city, and is within walking distance (not even a block) of one of our favourite Nairobi restaurants, the Italian ‘Trattoria’ Restaurant.

Anyway, during the walk to/from the hotel and the restaurant, there is a small, simple shop which sells original Kenyan art that we always pass. We would often stop and browse in the window both on the way to and back from the restaurant, and it was during one of these (midnight !) walks that I spotted this painting displayed in the window, and I commented to my husband that I really liked it.

A couple of days later, it was my birthday and the hotel baked me a surprise chocolate birthday cake, which they had delivered to our room with a card and a gorgeous glass bowl filled with fresh fruit. (Chocolate cake or fruit ? It was a hard decision to make – ha ha !) My husband disappeared downstairs a little while later, and then returned with a gorgeous bouquet of flowers for me, and a long gift wrapped cardboard tube. Imagine my surprise when I opened it and found the painting which I had so admired inside !

We had it framed in a Mninga (local wood) frame when we returned to Tanzania & I was really happy with the way it turned out – it’s very special to me & always reminds me of that special birthday I spent in Nairobi, and of course, has a wonderful story behind it which I plan to relate to my daughter one day when she’s old enough to understand !

Birthday Celebrations !

One of the wonderful birthday gifts I received - "Hunger For Freedom - The Story of Food in the Life of Nelson Mandela" by Anna Trapido

July is a month full of birthday celebrations in our house ! First it is my beloved Zonde’s special day (she’s just turned 12), then Dibble’s (the baby of the family - he has just turned 1), then when we were in South Africa my husband celebrated his birthday, and I celebrated mine back in Tanzania on Monday !

My husband & I were born within a mere week of each other – although almost a decade apart – in the same small maternity hospital in what was then Salisbury, Rhodesia (present day Harare, Zimbabwe) - although we only met many, many years later as adults in South Africa. What makes our common birth place even more unusual, is the fact that my mother-in-law was a midwife at this particular maternity home, and was working there when I was born and the chances that she was actually present at/around my actual birth are pretty high !

In a few more year’s time we both approach “milestone” birthdays as I will be turning 40, and my husband will be turning 50. I honestly don’t know where the years have gone – it feels like just a few years ago I was celebrating my 21st birthday ! I know that I am still young, but life is just so fleeting & I honestly don’t know where all the years are going, they seem to speed up the older one gets ?! (Approaching my 40’s makes me want to just slow the years down a little, put the brakes on and take time to savour each passing day … hey, no one wants to grow old too quickly now, do they ?)

I was thoroughly spoilt on my birthday and I wanted to share with you one of the lovely gifts which my husband gave me. It is the recently published book “Hunger For Freedom – The Story of Food in the Life of Nelson Mandela” by Anna Trapido. (As a side note, Nelson Mandela also celebrated a birthday this month - his 90th - Wow !)

I love this book not only because it has some amazing African recipes in it, but also because I have the greatest admiration and respect for Nelson Mandela. I think that he is one of the greatest men to have ever walked this earth. I only wish that there were more people in this world (and especially here in Africa) who had his outlook and philosophy on life, & I count myself lucky to have seen him in the flesh (he has the most incredible presence in person) many years ago at a charity event in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Anyway, the book is … incredible … to say the least. It is described by Zindzi Mandela as “ … an historical food-print whose passion and integrity offers a refreshing insight into the simple tastes of a great man”. (I love the idea of a “food-print” and of people leaving "food-prints" behind them – don’t you ?)

The book covers the significance and role which food has played in Mandela’s life … from when he was a young boy right up to the present day. It is an absolute delight and is peppered with quotes, precious photographs & copies of handwritten recipes and letters throughout.

You can be sure that I will be trying out a few of these traditional African recipes to post on the blog in the future. In the meantime, if you can get hold of a copy of this book, you must read it – I promise you won’t be disappointed !