Manzi, madzi, maji

I thought that I might do a bit of a linguistic exploration...

...with the word water. In isiXhosa the word for water is amanzi. In chichewa the is word for water is amadzi (commonly said as madzi). In swahili, the word for water is maji.

I am sure you now see similarities. Xhosa is classified (along with several other languages such as Zulu, Sotho, Shona, Chichewa) as a Bantu language. Now for a bit of interesting info. Swahili is not the "original", "traditional" language of the Swahili coast (Northern Mozambique up until Southern Somalia). It is a mixture of the multitude of Bantu languages that used to exist in these areas, with Arabic. This is why I do not like the word traditional. What was traditional 50 years ago may not have been traditional 150 years ago.

In my third year when studying African Languages we discussed the issue of creating standardised languages that all people in a country can learn in. In South African we have 11 official languages but English still retains the highest prestige. The solution that we came up with (yes, us few people who want to change the world!) was that we needn't drop the status of English (it is after all the world wide language of... everything). We just ned to ensue that the other languages are elevated to the same level. So that if Sotho is you home language you do in fact have the option of learning in your mother tongue as well as English.

My lecturer then pointed out Tanzania and the University of Dar es Salam. One the the biggest obstacles in RSA tertiary education institutions is that students who have not gone fantastic English first language schools or indeed have but have received a substandard education is English terminology, struggle to grasp subject specific jargon at University. My lecturer pointed to the fact that if you want to study at the University of Dar, you need to be fluent in both English and Swahili. Which is great, elevating the local language as well as the international language. In South Africa we only have English Universities (with a few offering Afrikaans credits).

But then there is the fact that Swahili has in fact wiped out local dialects and languages. So is Swahili really local?

It is an interesting topic and one that can be argued round and round.

So back to the topic of similarities.

In Xhosa, when the speaker wants to refer to being in something, going to something/somewhere, or is already at the place, you need to add a "-ni" at the end. Therefore, to say "in/at/to the water" you would say e-manzi-ni (the 'e' replaces the 'a' so amanzi becomes emanzini).

This is the same in Sawhili. To say in/at/to the water, you say: "majini".

I am sure the same applies for Chichewa.

Madzi amphunga

- rice
- water
- salt
- sugar

1. in a pot put in the rice that you will be cooking for your meal. Add water, but add more than what you would usually use to cook the rice. We need excess water for Madzi amphunga. Add salt to taste

2. bring rice to boil and cook for about 5-7 minutes (not until the rice is fully cooked - it can be 10 minutes, but rice must still need to cook more)

3. at your chosen time, pour off most of the excess water into a container big enough to hold the water.

4. return rice to heat and finish cooking. We are finished with the rice. Now we turn to the Madzi (the water)

5. the water will be white and starchy. To this add sugar to taste. The water is not meant to be very sweet. The small amount of salt and sugar bring the taste out.

6. i prefer this drink warm to hot but some people drink it cold.

7. honey can be substituted for sugar

(Malawian recipes)

Sweet potato frutali

Last week thursday i learnt how to make groundnut flour.

You see i have kind of been assigned to work with the food and nutrition team at nature's gift permaculture. so i went for my first lesson and learnt sweet potato frutali. before you all start shouting for the recipe, hold on, delay your gratification, listen to the story and then you will get the recipe.

So it began with the entry request, "Odi!" followed by a, "yes come in". Odi is the Malawian equivalent of hello, knock knock, can i come in.

Inside was Carol and her sister-in-law, Delleah. The fire was already boiling, the sweet potatoes already softening, the courtyard a general smokey tinged.

I asked what i could do, and i was told that i could start making the groundnut flour. I was given a wooden pestle and mortar and about 500g of raw peanuts. Delleah showed me briefly how to go about pounding the nuts in the pestle.

I think the ladies laughed briefly inside, as i slowly started crushing the nuts. After a while Delleah took the pestle from me and shook the not yet smooth flour out. Into a flat bottomed bowl they went and she began shaking and separating the fine powder from the large bits. she put the large bits back into the pestle. and then she repeated this twice or three times again to get only the flour out. This she put into another bowl and i continued pounding.

After a while again, without a word, Delleah took over from me, saying something a little while later that i must be getting tired. this time i did the sifting. "But you can do it", carol exclaimed and patted me on the back.

A while later, again without word, Carol took over from Delleah, also something about getting tired.

And so we shared the process of making lunch. No one got tired, we all made the flour.

we chatted while we worked. I learnt that her son had not actually been born with malaria but had contracted it a few days after he was born because in the hospital they slept without a mosquito net. Her son got something like 17 injections in the first few days of his life.

I also learnt that in all her life in malawi, she had never been to the lake.

i was going to the lake over the weekend.

I learnt that Delleah was working at Escom (yes, also electricity suppliers) and studying Human Resources. And that she was 24 (my age) and had amZING dress sense.

Then we actually started making the frutali.

I tried to do some stirring but the smoke blew into my eyes so fiercely that i had to give it back to carol. she said i was lucky, that is smoke blows onto you, the "elders of her village" would tell the children that it meant they were lucky. she didnt seem to believe it. i got a tingling in my tummy. i hope it is true.

i was sent to make the salad dressing. it was okay, nothing worth mentioning. (however, the salad dressing that i made today - baby, it was a killer!)

carol asked me if i was happy here, and if i was that i should stay here longer than three months, many 6 months, or a year. my gut twisted and renched. i felt so guilty, because i was planning on "resigning" the next day. (which i have - which means i am leaving in a week to travel up north and to stay in nkata bay for a while).

then i was made to learn how to dish up the meal. well, i did the salad. carol dolled out the sweet potato and the soup.

and finally here is the recipe:

Sweet Potato Frutali

- sweet potato (however much you want to make for however many people)
- raw groundnuts (peanuts), about 500g for 12 people (adjust accordingly)
- a good, strong pestle and mortar
- salt and pepper
- water (4 or 5 litres for 12 people, adjust accordingly)
- leeks, as many as you would like

1. start with groundnuts. take a few handfuls and put into pestle. Begin pounding the groundnuts so that they break up. The nuts will not become smooth after one round. Pour the semi-pounded nuts into a container and begin sifting through, picking out the large bits. This is done in a flat dish: shake the contents and the large pieces with jump to the top. Repeat this exercise until what remains is a smooth flour consistency, like maize meal or wholemeal flour. Return large pieces to the pestle and repeat the pounding and the sieving until there are no more large pieces. Do this with all the ground nuts. Set aside an hour at first to make the groundnut flour. The more skilled you become, the quicker it will get.

2. In the mean time cook the sweet potatoes (with a little bit of salt is desired).

3. Once you have your groundnut flour, get the water boiling on the stove or fire and add the flour, stirring continuously to avoid clumping and to make a smooth paste. Cook the flour. It will thicken to the consistency of maize meal porridge (in other words a thick runny consistency, like a soup), the type you eat for breakfast with milk and sugar). Therefore adjust water/flour consistency accordingly) Add salt and pepper to taste.

4. A minute or two before serving slice in leeks.

5. Serve hot groundnut soup over still warm sweet potatoes.



And then the next day i resigned and i went to tell carol. while all the others who i told left my explanation at "this isnt the right place for me now, i have personal things to deal with and that i am not in the right space to do the project", made me sit down and tell her why. and so on friday afternoon i sat at her house again, cried a little at leaving her. and i understood what i had just read in a book. that love is about extending yourself to a person, with the sole intention of helping that person to improve themselves spiritually. it felt okay to tell carol all i had been thinking. and she didnt try and convince me otherwise (except for a bit at the beginning), she just understood.

And that was just by making an effort to learn how to cook sweet potato frutali.



PS - please excuse the typos and small letters, typing on a bit of a broken computer!