Africa: Zimbabwean Family Dinner

Working hands

Our first evening in Zimbabwe, we also attended a "family dinner” at a private home. 

While this is designed to be a cultural experience that gives us a glimpse of what real life is, I found it to be a rather uncomfortable experience.

Plus I didn’t really care for the food.

The group was our seven plus two couples from another GAdventures tour (in fact, Patience’s tour).

The home was in a suburban residential area with concrete block houses, many with fenced yards. The yards tend to be red dirt – no ground cover at all. I suppose that is an outcome of years of drought – or perhaps it’s a function of a climate that had a pro-longed dry season. For those of us used to some kind of grass or xeroscaping, it seems incomplete.

Ouch!

Before I cover the meal, a few disclaimers ...

First: it had been a full day with flying, lengthy immigration lines and a walking tour of Victoria Falls and I was tired. In retrospect, I think that's why GAdventures tried to re-schedule our Victoria Falls tour in the first place.

Second: I had a broken finger that, while not terribly painful, was starting to throb a bit. I had even considered bowing out, but I was trying to not let my finger slow me down (plus, it had already cost me two group dinners).

When Becca and I went to New Zealand back in 2009, our tour included an authentic dinner at a New Zealand family’s home and I enjoyed that quite a bit. So, I am examining what was different. 

I will get back to that.

Mahewu; Photo: Zimbokitchen.com

When we arrived, our hostess, Flatter (apparently a common name for children who were breech deliveries!), greeted us with mahewu, a fermented drink made with sorghum, malt, yeast and water.

Thick and slightly sour, it tastes a bit like ground up toast with a vinegary aftertaste. I guess it’s an acquired taste. I don’t think any of us had more than a polite sip.

Flatter, who was widowed when she was in her early 40s, explained that she and 13 members of her family live in adjacent houses on the property. She is the essential head of this sprawling household. She then took us on a tour of her gardens that surround the house. She has avocado, mango, papaya and banana trees, okra, kale, peas and some additional vegetables. 

Avocados, mangos, papayas and bananas on the tree; Photos: Unknown

Flatter had planted peppers throughout the garden to ward off Elephants. Yes, Elephants routinely raid her garden. The week before they had taken a bunch of bananas and Flatter was concerned she’d lose another bunch that was close to ripe.

On the side of the house, there was a low burner with two pots of water furiously boiling. Flatter said they had to hear water outdoors because they don’t have a “geyser” – pronounced “geezer” and meaning hot water heater. Once again, there seemed to be that disconnect between the dire warnings from GAdventures about drinking local water or anything washed in it and taking us to a private home without a hot water heater!

Next, they gave us a demonstration of making sadza – the Zimbabwe equivalent of pap – ground maize porridge. It is made by placing the maize in a wooden bowl and repeatedly pounding it with a big wooden pole. Flatter did a demonstration and some of the attendees, including Becca and Kristen, gave it a try (for video, click here).

Making pap

Flatter drafted the men in the group to go in the house first. She said in her culture men eat first so they can keep their strength up to work and hunt. Plus, they always leave or enter a house first to check for danger. I guess that makes sense in a place where Elephants (and Baboons and Warthogs) steal your crops. She made the two gentlemen in our group give the all-clear before we went in to the house.

Flatter had a large table set up on the front room with another table behind holding all the dishes.

Photo: AfricaGuide.com

The room was rather bare, with concrete walls and floor and a beautiful quilt hanging on the wall. Flatter had made the quilt, which depicted her grandmother’s story of being abducted by another to be married and her eventual return to her family. 

Directly above me on the corrugated ceiling was a huge spider – with a leg span of about three inches. I wanted to take a picture, but I didn’t want to call attention to the spider. Kandice was having a fit throughout dinner.

We started with two appetizers – a melange of black-eyed peas and boiled peanuts and a hominy dish – I liked the first, but didn’t really care for the latter. We also had a small glass of fresh orange juice that was delicious.

Caterpillars; Photo: Pinterest

The buffet included cooked dried kale (tasted like cellophane), spinach with peanut butter (I didn’t try it, but heard it was very, very salty), potatoes, dried mopane caterpillars (I ate one that had the consistency of a French’s French-fried onion and a slightly salty burned taste – not bad; then, I ate the second half of Becca’s because she didn’t like it; it was thicker and juicier and downright nasty), a chicken dish, eland stew, salad, a delicious tomato and onion sauce, sweet potatoes, dried herring, probably a few dishes I forgot and

Sadza and Kale; Photo: Pinterest

sadza (similar to pap, but not as good). Sadza is served at almost every meal, used as a utensil as well as a starch. Flatter showed us how to roll it into a ball, make an impression in the middle and use it to scoop up food.

For dessert we had simple, but delicious, vanilla ice cream.

So, learning about the culture – and tasting the food was interesting, but I felt rather uncomfortable the entire time. Part of it was physical exhaustion and having to sit in an uncomfortable chair with no place to raise and rest my injured hand. Part of it was a feeling of looking in on someone’s private life. 

Granted, we were invited and Flatter was cordial, but somehow it felt invasive. 

African foods at the market

Flatter told us that she worked six days a week cleaning the home of a wealthy family and then she did these dinners several nights. That mean she was up and working from 4:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. most days. 

I just wanted to go back to the hotel so that poor woman could get some rest. 

Her nonchalant description of her life underscored for me the privileged bubble in which I live. And, ultimately, I think that’s what made me uncomfortable – privileged white folks being somewhat “amused” at a culture in which poverty and struggle are so much more prevalent. And, perhaps that is why the New Zealand dinner was more comfortable for me – there was no socio-economic rift. We were all equally middle class.

I struggle with the concept of exploring other peoples’ cultures without feeling like I am prying. I was raised to not ask personal questions or delve into people’s personal lives unless they offer up information. It makes me a bit uncomfortable, even though I find the actual information fascinating. It’s the same thing that stops me from photographing local people – it just seems intrusive. And, then, I go home wishing I had captured pictures of women walking down the street with huge baskets balance on their heads! I have to work on this if I am to truly capture the essence of the places I visit.

I think another issue that made it uncomfortable was that there were 11 of us spread out down a long table. It was difficult to hear everything being said, so it felt more like a show than a dinner party. Perhaps had I not been at the very end of the table, I would have felt more in it.

Linda, however, had a much different reaction – it was one of her favorite parts of the trip. Her interests lie more in art and culture where mine are in wildlife and nature. This helped balance out the trip for her. 

GAdventures/National Geographic Journeys always include these cultural activities in their tours in an effort to bring cultures together and build understanding among peoples. I think that is a worthy goal and I did learn a lot during the dinner. 

But, a part of me would have loved to return to Victoria Falls for the full moon walk!

Victoria Falls

Trip date: August 25-September 9, 2017