Traditional Foods of the Amadiba Community in South Africa

The Amadiba Community, on the Wild Coast of South Africa, strives to maintain its traditional lifestyle, which is based on a close relationship with their land. It is known for resisting mining, underwater seismic blasting, and other practices detrimental to the environment. But, as elsewhere, this rural community is undergoing a nutrition transition, with people increasingly buying processed food instead of producing their own. Local groups are working to preserve and promote traditional foods and to prevent loss of the elders’ knowledge. Brittany Kesselman will report on some of those efforts, in particular a traditional food festival held in Amadiba in February 2024. She’ll also share Amadiba recipes and describe ingredients and traditional cooking techniques.

Brittany Kesselman is a postdoctoral research fellow with the Bio-Economy Research Chair at the University of Cape Town, where her work focuses on the intersection of agroecology and Indigenous food knowledge. She is a cofounder of the food justice collective We Will All Eat, and in her spare time runs a plant-based food company, Jozi Uncooked. She received CHNY’s Scholar’s Grant in 2023 for her work on the Amadiba.

Host or Publisher Culinary Historians of New York