Stellenbosch University Research Shows Locally Foraged Foods Create A Culinary Story In Honour Of Krotoa
Alikrik, buchu, ox livers and mussels are just some of the locally foraged, indigenous foods served after this weekend’s (Saturday 20 May) renaming ceremony of the Krotoa Building at Stellenbosch University.
Seasonal ingredients were sourced from all over the country, to “connect guests to the ground and to honor Krotoa”, explains Shihaam Domingo, a creative producer who is known for her foraged food projects and love for plants.
Domingo says she is created a food story which replicates much of what Krotoa would have eaten when she was enslaved at the Cape in the 1600s. “My food story is based on what is indigenous as this is very possibly what Krotoa would have had as her nourishment.”
Ingredients were therefore sourced from both veld and sea, and from suppliers who as “custodians of their spaces”, still do things in the way of their ancestors.
The menu featured mussels sourced from a group of 30 small-scale fisherwoman along the West Coast, Makataan (edible melon) konfyt made by an ouma in Saron, and marula from a food scientist living on a farm in Polokwane. There was also Alikrik from the Overberg, Absinth Als from Suurbrak, buchu from the mountains in Betty’s Bay, Kei apples from Philippi, and wild garlic. Even the water served was locally sourced from a natural source near Rhodes Cottage in Muizenberg. Indigenous plants grown in the gardens of the Krotoa Building were also incorporated.
Guests were also treated to ox livers, usually served to the elders on ceremonial occasions. “Livers are seen as a source of strength and knowledge. As the ceremony was held at a university, the livers were served as a reminder to learn and remember the knowledge of the land.”
Krotoa was denied her initiation to womanhood, known as the! Nau, so a goat was slaughtered to mark the event, and eaten later on Saturday evening.
Ultimately, the “nourishment” provided was about connecting people from different backgrounds and generations.