And Literature

Esther de Beer 1 Spicing South Africa: Representations of Food and Culinary Traditions in South African Contemporary Art and Literature by Esther de Beer Thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Stellenbosch Supervisor: Prof. Meg Samuelson Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Department of English March 2012 Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za Esther de Beer 2 Declaration By submitting this thesis/dissertation electronically, I declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the sole author thereof (save to the extent explicitly otherwise stated), that reproduction and publication thereof by Stellenbosch University will not infringe any third party rights and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification. March 2012 Copyright © 2011 University of Stellenbosch All rights reserved Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za Esther de Beer 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis echoes a multitude of voices. Most of them are referenced in my bibliography, but there are some integral ones which need to be acknowledged, thanked and referenced individually here. For making this project possible I thank the National Research Foundation of South Africa for bursary support linked to Meg Samuelson’s research project “South African Subjectivities: Roots and Routes in Literary and Cultural Studies”. Thank you to my supervisor Prof. Meg Samuelson, for being the guiding voice for this thesis. Your boundless knowledge and tireless encouragement has significantly shaped and influenced this thesis, but also me as an individual. I could not have asked for a more competent, supportive or inspirational supervisor. Thank you to Riaan Oppelt for generously sharing his work-in-progress with me. Also, I am extremely grateful to Gabeba Baderoon for providing me with an extensive reading list for this thesis. I am indebted to my brother and sister and my immediate family for their continuous support both directly and indirectly throughout these two years. Johann, thank you for your unwavering love, patience and attention. For granting me this opportunity and for believing in my potential I have to conclude by thanking my parents. To my mother, your strength is astounding and truly inspiring. Your generosity and support throughout this time could not be repaid in a lifetime. To my father, thank you for teaching me to take time to laugh, play and savour life’s soul food. Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za Esther de Beer 4 CONTENTS ABSTRACT/OPSOMMNG ………………………………………………..…………. 5 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS …………………………………………………...…….. 8 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................10 1.1 Historical Context ……………………………………………………..………… 11 1.2 Theoretical perspective ………………….……………………………........17 1.3 A note on terminology used ………………………………………………. 22 1.4 Chapter organisation and choice of primary texts ….. ………………… 25 CHAPTER 2: CREOLISING THE CAPE ................................................................. 28 2.1 Representations of the “Malay” figure in cookery books (1890-2004) ...31 2.1.1 A.G. Hewitt’s Cape cookery: Simple Yet Distinctive (1890)…..………………………………………………………….….…32 2.1.2 Hildagonda Duckitt’s Where is it? Of Recipes (1891) & Diary of a Cape Housekeeper (1902)………………………..……..………….……….33 2.1.3 Hilda Gerber’s Traditional Cookery of the Cape Malays (1954)……………………………………………………………35 2.1.4 C. Louis Leipoldt’s Cape Cookery (1976………….………….... 37 2.1.5 Laurens van der Post’s First Catch Your Eland: A Taste of Africa (1977) …..………………………………….…………….…. 39 2.1.6 Renata Coetzee’s The South African Culinary Tradition (1979)…………………………………………………………40 2.1.7 The insider view: Cass Abrahams and Faldiela Williams .…....41 2.1.8 Rayda Jacobs’ The Slave Book ………………………………….44 Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za Esther de Beer 5 2.1.9 Conclusion ………………………….………………………… 45 2.2 The mobilisation of Creole identities in Berni Searle’s contemporary art...................................................................................................................... 46 2.3 Conclusion..................................................................................................58 CHAPTER 3: THE INDIAN KITCHEN …………………………………………...59 3.1. Indian Delights and the articulation of diasporic identity …………..… 61 3.2 Duplicit domesticities: Imraan Coovadia and Shamim Sarif...................72 3.3 Conclusion………………………………………………………………… 85 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION.......................................................................................86 5. ILLUSTRATIONS …………………………………………………………………. 93 CODA ...........................................................................................................................102 I. Drawing South Africa into the larger Indian Ocean world: The Chinese influence - Darryll Accone and Emma Chien ..……………..…. 102 II. Shubnum Khan’s Onion Tears ………………………………………….102. III. Shaida Kazi Ali’s Not a Fairy Tale ………………………………….... 106 WORKS CITED ...........................................................................................................109 Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za Esther de Beer 6 ABSTRACT Francoise Vergés comments in her essay Let’s Cook! that “one could write the history of a people, of a country, of a continent by writing the history of its culinary habits” (250 ). Vergés here refers to the extent to which food can be seen to document and record certain events or subjectivities. Exploring a wide range of texts spanning the late 1800s up to the post-apartheid present, this thesis focuses in particular on the ways in which “spice” as commodity, ingredient or symbol is employed to articulate and/or embed creole and diasporic identities within the South African national context. The first chapter maps the depiction of the “Malay” figure within cookery books, focussing on the extent to which it is caught up in the trappings of the picturesque. This visibility is often mediated by the figure’s proximity to food. These depictions are then placed in conversation with the conceptual artist Berni Searle’s photographic and video installations. Searle visually interrogates the stagnant modes of representation that accrue around the figure of the “Malay” and moves toward understandings of how food and food narratives structure cultural identity as complex and mutable. Chapter two shifts focus from the Cape to the ways in which “Indian Cuisine” became significant within the South African context. Here the Indian housewife plays a role in perpetuating a distinctive cultural identity. The three primary texts discussed in this chapter are the popular Indian Delights cookery book authored by the Women’s Cultural Group, Shamim Sarif’s The World Unseen and Imraan Coovadia’s The Wedding. Indian Delights. All illustrate the extent to which the realm of the kitchen, traditionally a female domain, becomes a space from which alternative subjectivities can be made. The kitchen as a place for cultural retention is explored further and to differing degrees in both The Wedding and The World Unseen. Ultimately, indentifying cultural heritage through food enables tracing alternative and intersecting cultural identities that elsewhere, are often left out for neat and new ethnic, cultural or national identities. The thesis will in particular explore the extent to which spices used within creole and/or diasporic culinary practices encode complex affiliations and connections. Tracing the intimacies and the disjunctures becomes productive within the post- apartheid present where the vestiges of apartheid’s taxonomical impetus alongside a new multicultural model threaten to erase further the complexities and nuances of everyday life. Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za Esther de Beer 7 OPSOMMING In haar artikel Let’s Cook! wys Francoise Vergés daarop dat die geskiedenis van ‘n mens, ‘n land of selfs ‘n kontinent saamgestel sou kon word deur te skryf oor die geskiedenis van hulle kos en eetgewoontes (250).Vergés skep hier ‘n besef van individuele en sosiale identiteit wat deur kos geleenthede vasgevang kan word. Deur bronne vanaf die laat 1800’s tot die post- apartheid periode te bestudeer, fokus hierdie navorsing spesifiek op die wyse waarop speserye as kommoditeit, inhoud of simbool gebruik word om die kreoolse en diasporiese identiteite in Suid Afrika te bevestig of te bevraagteken. Die eerste hoofstuk lewer ‘n uiteensetting en beskrywing, soos verkry uit kookboeke, van die stereotypes wat vorm om die Maleise figuur. Daar word konsekwent gefokus op die mate waarin die sigbaarheid van die Maleise identiteit verstrengel word in ‘n bestaande raamwerk van diskoerse. Die Maleise figure word dikwels meer sigbaar in die konteks van kos en eetgewoontes. Berni Searl se fotografiese en video installasies word gebruik om hierdie stereotiepiese visuele kodes te bevraagteken. Searle ontgin die passiewe wyse waarop die Maleise persoon visueel verbeeld word en beklemtoon dan hoe kos en gesprekke oor kos die kulturele identiteit kompleks en dinamies maak. Hoofstuk twee verskuif die klem vanaf die Kaap na die wyse waarop die Indiese kookkuns identiteit kry in die Suid Afrikaanse konteks. Die fokus val hier op die rol van die Indiese huisvrou en haar kombuis in die bevestiging en uitbou van ‘n onderskeibare kulturele identiteit. Die drie kern tekste wat in hierdie hoofstuk bespreek word is

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