What Is Sadza In Zimbabwe

[Olimpia Sawaia]

WhenI started in the Peace Corps in October of 1998, as a youth and community resource volunteer, I was adopted immediately as sisi (Shona for sister) and given a Shona name (Chipo, meaning gift). Poor by international standards yet rich in generosity and tolerance, my family displayed warmth in every aspect of life.

They taught me to cook sadza, a thick porridge made from corn meal. Under my mother's supervision, I killed and removed feathers from a chicken, then boiled it for dinner. I lived without running water and electricity, bathing with water from a bucket and reading and writing by candlelight. I plowed fields and ate bugs. I sat beneath the African sky, with the moon and stars for light, listening to Shona spoken around me.

Instead, upon hearing a salutation in his language, he stopped abruptly, nearly spiraling over the handlebars. A moment later, he was standing next to me. "Masikati," he finally echoed. "Maswera sei?" ("How are you?")

We continued in Shona, conversing about where I was from, where I was staying, and what I was doing in Zimbabwe. Excited, as well as puzzled by this white female from America who was speaking his language, he bade me farewell.

In subsequent travels around Zimbabwe, a country the size of Montana, I discovered the same warmth. While posted in the east-central portion of the country, I lived and worked in a rural village, the only American among hundreds of Zimbabweans. The area was desolate except for town-council offices, a store with a meager selection of goods, and three bottle shops the Zimbabwean equivalent of a bar.

Homesteads fenced-in plots consisting of thatched huts and gardens sprinkled the rolling hills. Impoverished as the area was, co-workers, friends, and strangers looked after me as though I were family. I was invited into homes, fed sadza and tomatoes and onions, as well as tea and biscuits. Sometimes I was given the luxury of meat. I was also invited to accompany people on journeys, to town, to a nearby school, to a family member's homestead.

Severe problems were evident throughout the country well before the ruling party's resort to violence and intimidation. Zimbabwe has one of the world's highest rates of HIV/AIDS infection, a crisis not helped by a male-dominated culture that resists awareness and early treatment.

Bureaucratic bungling blocked many social programs, including a youth and recreation effort by Peace Corps volunteers. While relations between the small (1 percent) white population and black people were peaceful, old colonial attitudes persisted. White farm managers often spoke to or about their black employees in a derogatory, patronizing manner.

But, as a Peace Corps volunteer, I experienced a side of the country and its people that few observe. Those I encountered welcomed me into their homes, their cars, and their hearts. The people of Zimbabwe shared their love of their country, wanting me to take the same pride in their beautiful nation.

It is these people who have been overshadowed by the harsh news. I hope that, some day, the people of Zimbabwe will be freed to live their good lives, serving as an example for the rest of Southern Africa.

Monitor journalism changes lives because we open that too-small box that most people think they live in. We believe news can and should expand a sense of identity and possibility beyond narrow conventional expectations.

Ugali, also known as posho, nsima, papa, pap, sadza, isitshwala, akume, amawe, ewokple, akple, and other names, is a type of corn meal made from maize or corn flour in several African countries: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, DRC, Malawi, Botswana and South Africa, and in West Africa by the Ewes of Togo, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria and Cote D'Ivoire. [1] It is cooked in boiling water or milk until it reaches a stiff or firm dough-like consistency.[2] In 2017, the dish was added to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, one of a few foods in the list.[3]

The word ugali is an African term derived from Swahili; it is also widely known as nsima in Malawian languages such as Chichewa and Chitumbuka. In parts of Kenya, the dish also goes by the informal name of sembe or ugali. In Zimbabwe it is known as sadza in Chishona or ishwala in Ndebele[13] The Afrikaans name (mielie) pap comes from Dutch, in which the term means "(corn) porridge".

Ugali was introduced in Africa shortly after the Portuguese had introduced maize. Maize was introduced to Africa from the Americas between the 16th and 17th centuries. Before this, sorghum and millet were the staple cereals in most of Sub-Saharan Africa. African farmers readily accepted maize as its cultivation was very similar to that of sorghum but with significantly higher yields. Eventually, maize displaced sorghum as the primary cereal in all but the drier regions. The full replacement of these crops with maize took place in the latter half of the twentieth century.[14] In Malawi, they have a saying 'chimanga ndi moyo' which translates to 'maize is life'.[15] Nshima/nsima is still sometimes made from sorghum flour though it is quite uncommon to find this. Cassava, which was also introduced from the Americas, can also be used to make nshima/nsima, either exclusively or mixed with maize flour. In Malawi nsima made from cassava (chinangwa) is localized to the lakeshore areas, however, when maize harvests are poor, cassava nsima can be found all over the country.[16]

Ugali (when it is cooked as porridge, it is called uji) is served with sweet potatoes, ripe bananas, Irish potatoes and even bread. Solid ugali is usually served with traditional vegetables, stew or sukuma-wiki (also known as collard greens).[17] It is the most common staple starch featured in the local cuisines of the African Great Lakes region and Southern Africa. When ugali is made from another starch, it is usually given a specific regional name.[18]

The traditional method of eating ugali (and the most common in rural areas) is to roll a lump into a ball with the right hand and then dip it into a sauce or stew of vegetables or meat. Making a depression with the thumb allows the ugali to scoop, and wrap around pieces of meat to pick them up in the same way that flatbread is used in other cultures. Leftover ugali can also be eaten with tea the following morning.[19]

Ugali is relatively inexpensive and thus easily accessible to the poor, who usually combine it with a meat or vegetable stew (e.g., sukuma wiki in Kenya) to make a filling meal. Ugali is easy to make, and the flour can last for a considerable time in average conditions.

The maize flour is first boiled with water into a porridge,[25] and, in Zambia, left to simmer for a few minutes before it is 'paddled', to create a thick paste with the addition of more flour. This process requires the maker to pull the thick paste against the side of a pot with a flat wooden spoon (nthiko in Malawi, m'tiko/umwiko in Zambia) quickly whilst it continues to sit over the heat. Once cooked the resulting nshima/nsima is portioned using a wooden/plastic spoon dipped in water or coated in oil called a chipande (Malawi), and chipampa (Zambia). In Malawi each of these portions is called a ntanda.[25]

Nsima is always eaten with side dishes, known as "relish". These can be mushrooms such as kabansa, tente, chitondo, and ichikolowa; protein sources such as game, beef, poultry, fish, groundnuts (peanuts), chikanda (orchid and peanut dish), beans; and vegetables such as pumpkin leaves, bean leaves, white garden eggs known as impwa in Zambia (these are small oblong shaped white solanum fruit), amaranth leaves, mustard leaves, cabbage, etc. In Zambia, side dishes are called ndiyo in Nyanja/Chewa and umunani in Bemba. Ndiwo in Malawi refers to the protein dishes and the vegetable sides are known as masamba. The protein dishes are usually grilled, or in the form of stew. In both Malawi and Zambia, nsima is often eaten with dried fish (utaka, Malawi) or dried vegetables. Hot peppers or condiments like homemade hot pepper sauces from peri-peri or Kambuzi chili peppers or commercial chili sauces like Nali Sauce are usually served with the nshima meal.

Traditionally, diners sit around a table or on the floor surrounding the meal. The diners have to wash their hands as nshima/nsima is eaten with bare hands. This is done with a bowl of water. Alternatively the host or one of the younger people present pours water from a jug over the hands of the elders or guests into a bowl. Eating is done by taking a small lump into one's right palm, rolling it into a ball and dipping it into the relish. Using the right thumb to indent the nshima ball is a technique used by advanced nshima diners in order to easily scoop the relish or sauce of the dish. In Zambia, umuto (Bemba language) refers to the drippings/broth/sauce of a side dish or stew; and the act of scooping an ample amount of it with a nshima ball is called inkondwa. The statement, "umuto wankondwa" loosely translates to "sauce to allow for inkondwa". As with many African traditions, age is very important. Washing before the meal, eating, and washing after the meal generally starts with the oldest person, followed by everyone else in turn by age.

In Nigeria, akamu, ogi or Koko has a consistency similar to that of American pudding.[26] Ogi/Akamu in Nigeria is generally accompanied with "moin moin", a bean pudding, or "akara", which is a bean cake.There is also the thicker variety, called Eko among the Yorubas, Agidi among the Igbos. The pudding is cooked on heat until it is thicken. It is traditionally wrapped in leaves with botanical name Thaumatococcus daniellii.[27] Yorubas call it Ewe Eran while the Igbos call it Akwukwo Elele.[28] It is usually paired with a variety of vegetables soups and sauces for a light meal or it can be eaten with beans or its by products.

3a8082e126