The Unwritten

Abstract

For many years, having searched for the foods with which I had grown up within the pages of published recipe books, I realised that there was a lack of written representation around what I had understood as ancestral foods. Neither could I find the voices of the mothers and grandmothers who had fed our bodies and spirits. Through the lens of Indian indenture, a colonial system of servitude that had introduced my ancestors to South Africa, I attempt to understand why. While published recipe books offer multiple readings, they are also powerful forms of knowledge production, contributing to narrow formulations of identity. Power dictates what is published and how. By exploring how recipes live beyond words on the page, I suggest that the possibility exists to revisit hidden food narratives while recognising the creativity, ingenuity, and adaptability of many women, who are usually rendered invisible within food texts. Through poetry, story, and my mother’s handwritten recipe book, I search for my mother and the taste of home.