Cultural Politics of Food in South Africa

Mehita Iqani is Professor of Media and Communication in the Journalism Department and SARCHi Science Communication Chairholder at Stellenbosch UniversitySarah Gibson is Associate Professor in the Centre for Communication and Media in Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal

• Introduction: Never just food: An introduction to nourishment, inequality and media in South AfricaSarah Gibson and Mehita IqaniPart I: Historical and social perspectives1 Towards a decolonised food system in South Africa: Lessons from Indigenous food systemsBrittany Kesselman2 The women’s claim to uMqombothi from the Durban SystemRussel Hlongwane and Tammy Langtry3 ‘A square meal’: Food systems, security and anxiety in Southern and Central Africa through the eyes, and mouths, of missionaries, 1880–1910Amy Rommelspacher4 The right to eat: How black migrants in South Africa accessed food during the COVID-19 pandemicmpho ndaba5 Grounded, together, loved: Food and community in the temporary micro-utopia of Afrika BurnMehita IqaniPart II: Aesthetic and media practices6 Gardens of simple delights: Consuming food, consuming pleasureRebecca Pointer and Darlene Miller7 Eating well: Culinary capital and the South African high-foodie sceneWamuwi Mbao8 Recipes for the rainbow nation: Community and commensality in the 7de Laan televisual fan cookbooksSarah Gibson9 You are what you feed: Lunchbox spectaculars in middle class South AfricaMaya Loon10 Never just Father’s Day: Food, masculinities, and fatherhood in South African advertisingCarla Tsampiras11 The cultural politics of veganism on South African InstagramTanja Bosch and Liani MaasdorpIndex

I’m struck by the variety of historical and social experiences, representations and scientific and quotidian knowledge-making yielded when food is used as a lens in scholarship. This book straddles disciplines that are usually separated to provide an overview of how food both shapes and is shaped by interpersonal, psycho-social, socio-political and historical dynamics in South Africa. It courageously acknowledges and respects a very wide range of disciplinary and theoretical approaches to food in South Africa. — Professor Desiree Lewis, University of the Western Cape