Vibrant culture

The AmaXhosa are part of three nations known as Nguni that are found in South Africa. The other two are AmaSwazi and AmaZulu.  The AmaXhosa settled in the Eastern Cape and over time spread to the Western Cape.

A food group born from the souls of slaves, in its heart, one motto: make sure our people are fed.

In the north-eastern corner of the Pilanesberg, where the Big Five roam the plains and platinum sits in abundance under the soil, you’ll find the ancestral home of the Bakgatla-ba-Kgafela people.

The Bapedi tribe (also known as Pedi and Basotho) arose from small chiefdoms that were formed before the 17th century.

Xhosa cuisine: the dishes and traditions

King Shaka kaSenzangakhona has been portrayed as a blood-thirsty dictator who ruled through coercion and instilled fear in his people. Contrary to these misrepresentations, early colonial accounts portray him as a keen international trader who went out of his way to protect the traders between 1824 and 1828.

Venda culture and traditions are rooted in the responsibilities of the royal leaders, who are referred to as mahosi or vhamusanda in the Luvenda language, which means chiefs or traditional leaders who are royal leaders.

The Zulu-speaking people are descendants of the Iron Age communities of Southern Africa who cultivated the soil and kept livestock.

African ancestors continue to give Africans a shared and personal sense of self-affirmation, identity and unfettered belonging.

Zulu cuisine is still very much influenced by tradition and its celebration of history and a commitment to culture.

The Cape Malay community has contributed to the vast tapestry of South African traditions.

It was an act that had played out many times in South Africa: a forced removal. In 1904 bubonic plague broke out in the town centre, in an area known as Brickfields. Once the brick makers had been removed 25km south, to Klipspruit, the area was fenced and razed to the ground. And so Soweto was born.