SOUTH AFRICAN CULINARY HERITAGE
The book South African Culinary Heritage by Eunice Rakhale, is about local food history and traditions interlaced with family conversations. It illustrates the culinary diversity of Southern African cuisine and some neighbouring countries, comparing the similarities and unique palatable heritages thereof. Written in a conversational style, the book is a handy culinary compilation which will bestow the reader with explorations regarding local African lifestyles history, art, clothing, music and perhaps even some song and dance. For tourists visiting these African countries – possessing a diversity of ethnic cultures, it is a worthy read regarding heritage and of-course African cuisine. A guide which should be included in any tourist’s travel pack and families. It is about a genuine story told with an extraordinary ability that draws parallel between the author’s struggle in the restaurant industry and in her personal life. Ultimately, her passion for food is where she finds solace to learn, heal and grow. Mother Daughter relationships can be extremely complex and Eunice is no exception. In the book, besides a plethora of authentic recipes and history, she shares candidly about her strained relationship with her daughter Mothei Makhetha. Being estranged for seven years, Mothei writes her mother a letter, in a desperate cry for help, which she hopes will begin the healing process. After receiving the letter, circumstances of her life took Eunice back home to her mother in Moletsane, Soweto. This happens while she is researching her culinary book authenticating the recipes through the help of her mother. This handing down of recipes from her mother gets them connected on a very deep level, thus, creating compassion and trust they never had. In desperation Eunice seeks counselling from her own mother to try and mend the relationship with her daughter. Their journey is one of true and sincere conversations handed down from one generation to another, around family meals and prayerful family meetings.
The book South African Culinary Heritage by Eunice Rakhale, is about local food history and traditions interlaced with family conversations. It illustrates the culinary diversity of Southern African cuisine and some neighbouring countries, comparing the similarities and unique palatable heritages thereof. Written in a conversational style, the book is a handy culinary compilation which will bestow the reader with explorations regarding local African lifestyles history, art, clothing, music and perhaps even some song and dance. For tourists visiting these African countries – possessing a diversity of ethnic cultures, it is a worthy read regarding heritage and of-course African cuisine. A guide which should be included in any tourist’s travel pack and families.
It is about a genuine story told with an extraordinary ability that draws parallel between the author’s struggle in the restaurant industry and in her personal life. Ultimately, her passion for food is where she finds solace to learn, heal and grow.
Mother Daughter relationships can be extremely complex and Eunice is no exception. In the book, besides a plethora of authentic recipes and history, she shares candidly about her strained relationship with her daughter Mothei Makhetha. Being estranged for seven years, Mothei writes her mother a letter, in a desperate cry for help, which she hopes will begin the healing process. After receiving the letter, circumstances of her life took Eunice back home to her mother in Moletsane, Soweto. This happens while she is researching her culinary book authenticating the recipes through the help of her mother. This handing down of recipes from her mother gets them connected on a very deep level, thus, creating compassion and trust they never had. In desperation Eunice seeks counselling from her own mother to try and mend the relationship with her daughter.
Their journey is one of true and sincere conversations handed down from one generation to another, around family meals and prayerful family meetings.
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Eunice Rakhale-Molefe
to see the humorous side of the story. Laughing about this
situation showed us how far the family had come.
Unlike me, Monki, who is actually my older sister, has a
good memory of our childhood and, as such, in her
conversations she always uses childhood incidences as a
point of reference. Quite often, I am taken aback when she
says something that makes me realise how often she thinks
about us when we were growing up together as children, and
as young adults. A colleague of hers had just lost a dear
friend and she had explained to me how she was making
sure that this colleague would be sound, emotionally. She
went on to explain, “I am doing this, Eunice because – when
you were young, in your twenties – you lost a dear friend,
and I saw you suffer from this loss, while our family was
oblivious to your pain. And I had always wondered how you
had coped.”
Monki, like my mother and her mother my grandmother,
Ma-Hlallele, has a great sense of humour; and will always
bring out the funny side to a problem at hand, no matter
how deep and painful the situation was, at any other time.
Also, Monki was very lonely as a result of her suffering in
her marriage. As a family that had never eaten together and
talked, we were incapable of listening out to her pain.
Thankfully, in her loneliness, there was always humour to
keep her afloat.
In fact, it is Monki, herself, who had encouraged me to write
the book and document my personal story, which had come
through a moment of devastation and immense sorrow. I
had just been evicted from my home in Lonehill, and I had
called Monki to make an appointment to see her. Because I
knew my mother was with her, as she was visiting for a few
days, I needed to break the news of my dire situation, gently,
and in a way that was not going to crush her spirit.
“Let us go for a walk,” I had asked them. My mother
enjoyed taking walks, so she had obliged, jubilantly. We had
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