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Hunger for Freedom; The story of food in the life of Nelson Mandela
By Anna Trapido Price: $49.95 |
Timed to coincide with Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday in July 2008, Hunger for Freedom is not so much a cookbook as a gastro-political history of the life of Nelson Mandela, with recipes, an affectionate biography to cherish and savour.
About the Author
Anna Trapido was educated as an anthropologist at King’s College, Cambridge, and as a chef at the Prue Leith Academy, Pretoria. She uses both disciplines in her food writing. She has a doctorate in occupational health/medical anthropology from the university of Witwatersrand. She teaches the Pan African Cuisine syllabus at the Prue Leith Academy. She is currently the editor of Dine, Top 100 Restaurant Guide and recently won a gold medal at the 2007 World Gourmand Cookbook Awards for her book To the Banqueting House; African Cuisine. An Epic Journey, co-authored with Coco Reinarhz.Reviews
"A breathtaking new book that uses food, recipes and stories about cooking and eating to examine Madiba's life...it gives you a taste of the former president's experiences and memories linked to food. We move from the stone-ground corn of his rural boyhood to the cutties of his student days, the bleak meals of his prison life to the first meal he was served on his release, the lavish presidential banquets and the delicious seafood of his retirement years."
- Media24 (South Africa)
"Throughout his incaceration, Madiba wrote achingly beautiful love letters to his wife, reminiscing about the meals that had shared. I reread those letters and discussed the meals with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Her generosity in allowing the intrusion into a great love denied and thwarted provided lessons in graciousness that I hope to carry with me forever."
- Anna Trapido writing for TASTE magazine (South Africa)
"Sue Blaine finds herself weeping, warmed and well-fed with a book that makes Nelson Mandela more human than icon."
- The Weekender (South Africa)
"To look at an epic life through food cuts past the God mirage into the daily existence of a very real man..."
- Pretoria News (South Africa)
"Arguably, one of most heartbreaking of all the anecdotes was the story of the wedding cake which symbolised to Winnie what life might have been. Keeping the top tier of the cake for more than 20 years in hopes of celebrating at least one wedding anniversary together is typical of the couple's tenacity - but also a source of some family amusement."
- Cape Argus (South Africa)
"The story follows the young herd boy eating bush food; to his introduction to curry his favourite through his university friend Ismail Meer; to learning Communist theory by sharing sandwiches with law colleague and lifelong friend Nat Bregman in a Johannesberg firm where Mandela isn’t allowed to use the same teacups as the white lawyers.
It details his hunt for food on the run; prison hunger strikes and the swastika-tattooed warden “Suitcase” van Rensburg, who throughout 1968 insisted on urinating next to the prisoners porridge on Robben Island; it interviews the cooks behind the chicken curry and rum’n’raisin ice-cream at Bishop Desmond Tutu’s house in 1990, Mandela’s first meal as a free man in 27 years; or dining on elk, chateaubriand (steak) and morel sauce for his 1993 Nobel Prize.
Even the country’s reconciliation begins with Mandela taking tea and traditional Afrikaans pastries, koeksisters, with Betsy Verwoerd, widow of former prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd, the father of apartheid.
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- East Torrens Messenger
"Well Anna 'Hunger for Freedom' provides a fascinating and very different perspective on what remains an intriguing and inspiring life to so many people. Thank you very much."
- ABC News Radio with John Barron
"...a lady who knows a thing or two about Nelson Mandela, Anna Trapido has written a book called 'Hunger For Freedom' - part history book, part recipe book, part biography. There have been many books written about Mandela but this must be the first one about the importance of food in his life. Anna spoke to Mandela himself, his friends, his family, his colleagues, even his enemies to gain an insight into his life. It was a fascinating interview and insight into the madness of apartheid in South Africa - but we also found out a lot about South Africa's food.
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- ABC Perth radio with Geraldin Mellet
""Hunger for Freedom: The story of food in the life of Nelson Mandela" measures out Mandela's epic life through bitter-sweet morsels from stealing a pig as a herdboy, prison hunger strikes and presidential palaces. Author Anna Trapido gained access to Mandela's family, friends and even kitchen staff in compiling one of just two books sanctioned for the Nobel Peace Prize winner's 90th birthday this year."
- The Eastern Courier
"Food journalist Anna Trapido has explored the life of Nelson Mandela and his hunger for freedom, both literally and metaphorically.
It's a history book with recipes, and Trapido takes readers through Mandela's life, from his childhood, to his rising political ambitions, his time spent in prison, as the leader of South Africa and as a highly regarded public figure, as well as his marriages, children, family and friends.
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- Australian Senior Publications
"Music might be the best known universal language. But have you ever given much thought to how we communicate with food? (For example, what a friend or foe might be saying to you through the dish they serve up - whether it's a lover or a prison guard.)
Food can also be the sustenance that helps hatch political plans and ideas.
So, maybe it's not surprising that a former anthropologist and chef chose to pen a gastro-political biography of Nelson Mandela.
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- SBS radio - "World View" with Caroline Davey
"'Hunger for Freedom' will get you talking politics over the dinner table, if not just about anywhere food is served. In an unusual biography, author Anna Trapido tells the story of Mandela though the food consumed in his tumultuous life. And it works."
- The Advocate
"Hunger for Freedom..takes the reader on a journey through prison rations to the first meal he ate after being freed in 1990: Lillian Ngoboza's chicken curry...there's nothing trivial in Trapido's approach to her subject. She spent months interviewing, eating, cooking and collecting recipes with Mandela, his family, friends, fellow inmates and even former prison guards...Dozens of books have been written about Mandela..but none reveal this very human side of a man once vilified by the apartheid government and now deified by the world...this book could sit comfortably alongside any culinary classic. But its real value is in its use of food, tastes and smells to add flavour to the lives of Mandela and those around him. "
- The Australian
"For a man who admits he can't boil water without burning it, Nelson Mandela learned early about the power of food. Samela Harris reports on a new book which tells how the struggle for freedom was nourished."
- The Advertiser