Just Like Mama Used to Make: Recipes and Traditions from an African Kitchen

When it comes to food the Italian cliché “it’s real food just like mama used to make” denotes pleasure with the first bite of an evocative and hearty dish full of flavor.

I love food and I love Africa specifically my motherland Zimbabwe, and this love has motivated me to try and share recipes and tips with others on this blog, which may help bring the smell of Africa into the kitchen with it the colorful, and rich vibrant flavors of African cuisine just like mama used to make!

Most Zimbabweans living in the Diaspora miss many things about the motherland but for most at the top of the list would be food, simple well made comfort food like a plate of hot steaming sadza, vegetables nenyama.

Nothing says the taste of home more than a warm plate of sadza on a cold wintery British evening, indeed when I moved to England as a lonely young man, during the dark, cold winter months I used to get homesick and really missed my family and the warm, sunny climes of Zimbabwe, however a steaming plate of sadza made life seem better.

When I had friends over for a visit, with all the material comforts of the West at our fingertips nothing connected us better to the motherland than plate of sadza nenyama and a bond was created over food and nostalgic memories of a childhood past. The memory of mama’s sadza was the taste of home, not all mamas were the best cooks of course, but the fact that theirs was food cooked out love not a sense of duty elevated the taste of mama’s food to gourmet proportions.

I suppose the point I’m trying to make is that food is interwoven in the fabric of our culture and upbringing as Africans and as such is an integral part of our lives that we only realize when we are adults and look back on our childhood from a distant haze of memories. Our food culture as Zimbabweans and Africans provides a clue to how we socialize and social structures. Zimbabwe is a family and gender based culture, and this can be seen in how the social structure is mirrored in the way people eat; who they eat with, how they are served and who prepares the food, At family gathering and funerals man huddle in separate groups away from the women and build and renew relationships over food and drink, while for the women. In many African families, the kitchen is reserved as the women’s domain, where mothers and daughters gather together to prepare family dinners.