Waterblommetjie

So I've written about Cape Malay cuisine as the distinctive regional cuisine of Cape Town, but there are, of course, older culinary influences that date back well before the Dutch imposed their victualing station at the foot of Table Mountain in 1652. The problem is, it's hard to experience them today as there are no written records from that time (save rock paintings) and most of the indigenous Khoekhoen and San people were either slaughtered, assimilated, enslaved or chased off, their cultures upended or destroyed and most of the old traditions lost.

There are some musical threads that have been re-constructed, but the culinary ones are harder to trace. One interesting exception is the waterblommetjie, which is the flower of the Cape Hawthorn (Aponogeton distachyos), which grows wild in vleis and on riverbanks in the Cape. This 'heritage food' was harvested seasonally from time immemorial, and today appears on winter menus, most often in bredies, soups and curries - which also form part of Cape Malay cuisine. Waterblommetjie tastes like artichoke leaves and stems, and some say a bit like green beans or the stalkier end of asparagus. I've taken to roasting it in the oven in a heavy cast-iron pan after tossing in olive oil - herbs or garlic will mask the lovely taste, so just plain is best (for me).

The flourishing Slow Food convivium in Cape Town is organising a farm visit, lunch and picking excursion on 21 August. It should be an excellent opportunity to get to know this delicious vegetable in the wild, and to chow down on some lekker kos. Check out all the info on their blog.

Images: Slow Food Mother City

Waterblommetjie

WTM World Responsible Tourism Day

Afrika T has been approved to use the official WTM World Responsible Tourism Day 2010 logo, based on my intention (and commitment) to run a series of special focus postings on the present (and the past 3 years) of WRTD. I think it's good to have the mainstream industry using one of its top showcase events (World Travel Market) to promote responsible tourism, even though the "annual __(insert cause here)__ day" kind of thing is gimmicky to say the least.

Of course, there is room for improvement and for more to be done, but Afrika T isn't excluded from that generalisation, and this year I'll try to make a more constructive contribution. Regular readers shouldn't panic - that doesn't exclude constructive criticism.

Save the date: 10 November 2010. And ask yourself whether there's something you could be doing to spread the word and make a constructive contribution. As always, suggestions for Afrika T are most welcome. Feel free to leave a comment.

WTM World Responsible Tourism Day

San ethno-botanical trail at !Khwa ttu

A new trail that showcases edible, medicinal and otherwise useful fynbos plants was launched at the !Khwa ttu San Culture and Education Centre, just 70km up the R27 from Cape Town, back in February 2010. I've been meaning to get back there myself to do the firsthand thing on the new trail, but haven't managed to do so yet, and rather than keep silent, it makes more sense to publish what information I do have, then follow up later with a more personal account.


The driving concept behind the botanical trail was that it "should make both San people and visitors aware of the multiple ways the San ancestors of the Western Cape used the indigenous flora, namely the fynbos plants." What I appreciate is that the process of creating the trail helped recover and disseminate this traditional knowledge within the San communities. That there are then tourists who come just to be exposed to this knowledge - for a fee - helps affirm the value of tradition and thereby San culture itself. (Yes, there's a lengthy digression about commodification and the risk of culture coming to have value only if it can be commercialised in some manner - or only if externally validated - but let's hold that for another time.)

More on the ethno-botanical trail, from the material I received from responsible tourism maven, Helen Turnbull:

It took an entire year to design and implement the plant trail as every small step was carried out by the !Khwa ttu reference group, whose members were in the majority San guides and trainee guides, their trainer – who is also a landscape architect - and the !Khwa ttu CEO. In numerous lively discussions the concept of both the trail and the exhibition were developed and finalised.

The implementation though took place on various levels. On the one hand the guides and trainee guides conducted intensive literature research into fynbos vegetation; on the other hand they manually cleared the area for the trail, which is nested between some rock outcrops. The research resulted in naming the themes of the plant circles ‘Teas and Beverages’; ‘Women’s Health, Beauty and Child Care’; ‘General Health Remedies’; ‘Food and Spices’ and ‘Hunting and Household’. It also led to identifying suitable plants in the !Khwa ttu vicinity, which were then transplanted and propagated at the newly established !Khwa ttu nursery. Some of the useful fynbos plants raised at the !Khwa ttu nursery are sold at the end of the plant trail.

The !Khwa ttu maintenance team also played an important role in setting up the plant trail. They installed the irrigation scheme, fitted the frames for the plant labels and constructed the wooden showcases.

Renowned San artists from Platfontein near Kimberley in South Africa, were invited to !Khwa ttu to paint a mural reflecting the different historical eras of the San. Their colourful mural was divided into the San’s early past, which was one of abundance; their recent past, which was sadly one of dispossession and marginalisation; and the current circumstances of revitalisation and participation. The same timeline is also mirrored in the poster photographs hanging on the wall opposite the mural and the artefacts displayed in the showcases.

There's also a lovely post on !Khwa ttu's blog written by a trainee guide and ‡Khomani woman from the southern Kalahari.

I've really enjoyed !Khwa ttu over the years and believe it's an under-appreciated experience in the Cape Town region (as I've written about previously). Happy to have another excuse to visit again!

I'm also keen to see the mural done by the !Xun and Khwe artists from Platfontein - there are several from this community whose paintings and prints are in the (exceptional and overlooked) William Humphreys gallery in Kimberley and in major collections around the world. (The Platfontein community's land also encompasses Wildebeest Kuil, one of the best rock art engraving sites in southern Africa!)

San ethno-botanical trail at !Khwa ttu

X Homes Johannesburg art project

The Guardian's David Smith wrote a compelling piece about an 'interactive public art project" held on 9 and 10 July in the Johannesburg neighbourhoods of Kliptown (Soweto) and Hillbrow. Called 'X Homes Johannesburg', it sounds remarkable: confrontational, provocative, challenging, odd and quite uncommon for South Africa. Some of the artists are ones I know and would expect to be exceptional in this kind of venue / format.

"Brilliantly irreverent" Smith calls it. The Mail & Guardian quotes a press release in its review:

"The message of X Homes", according to a press release, "is to change the perception of urban spaces, which many inhabitants of Johannesburg know only from rumours in the media, and to produce images beyond the projection of violence and fear ever present in this country."

Sponsored by the Goethe-Institut and a collaboration with South African and German artists, filmmakers and troublemakers, it strikes me as a fascinating approach to getting South Africans (and visitors) to venture into supposedly 'no-go' neighbourhoods and broaden their views of the people who live and work there. Would have been nice to see first-hand...and a bit unfortunate that it was held on the last couple of days of the World Cup.


[photo: Goethe-Institut/Susanne Burkhardt]

X Homes Johannesburg art project

Slum Tourism - one academic's perspective

I don't particularly like the term "slum tourism" but then again "township tourism" doesn't improve much on the concerns I have. However, some thoughts on the challenges and benefits of slum tourism were recently posted by a leading Responsible Tourism academic, Harold Goodwin, on his blog (with links to a pair of articles in which he discusses the issues further), inspired by an experience he had in Khayelitsha, right here in Cape Town. I'm not sure of the date of the experience he relates - as I don't hear of this kind of thing happening much, if at all, any more, but the posting and articles are worth a squizz.

My previous postings on this issue over the past few years can be found here.

Slum Tourism - one academic's perspective