makin’ sadza

I’m sitting in my kitchen making sadza, and it’s a very pleasant feeling. The venison meat in its soup is simmering (making a very nice thick soup), the rape (muriwo) is cut very thinly and waiting to be fried, and the sadza water is waiting to be boiled. And my “Over and Over” playlist is playing on my iPod.

As most of you know, I lived for two years in Zimbabwe more than ten years ago. Many of my best friends in Chicagoland (and far flung as well) are either people I met in Zimbabwe or who were in Peace Corps in some other country. (I’m a member of the Returned Peace Corps group in Chicago.) So, one of these friends, at our book club meeting last week, told us about her houseguest who is staying with her for two weeks, through one of these international exchange programs. Ann said she’s nice enough but doesn’t like any of the food here. I said, “Does she want sadza? I could make her some sadza.”

Sadza is a mushy cornmeal starch that is eaten with meat and green vegetables. We called it sadza in Zimbabwe, but most every African country has a version of it. I made it nearly every day when I was living there - the meal consists almost entirely of local ingredients, when your meat is freshly-killed goat or chicken, and locally available ingredients are important when you are a two-hour bus ride to town, and it takes all day on a Saturday to get there and back.

I love to make it here in the US, especially when my Zim-PC friends come over, or when I have an African around who can appreciate it. And, as you can well imagine, there are more friendly/homey connotations associated with the phrase “make someone sadza” — and tonight I’m making a new African friend some sadza.

Posted by Marie on July 26th, 2007 under Uncategorized

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