Back to my African roots in rural KZN

US student explores different delicious food, interacts with prisoners, visits Hluhlwe-imfolozi nature reserve

GETTING to stay in a deep rural community in South Africa, eat traditional local food and socialise with township folk has given me a glimpse of my African heritage.

Finding a fully grown sugar cane in the US is rare if you don’t live in a southern state. When I got my opportunity to try it out in South Africa, I made sure to send a picture of me eating it, to my family back home.

After enjoying a full piece of the sweet snack, I check my phone to see my grandma’s response.

The picture brought such joy since it brought back memories of her childhood eating sugar cane back in Uganda.

Born and raised in Uganda, my grandparents had three children, including my father. They raised their children, in the country for about 12 years until August 1972, when Ugandan dictator Idi Amin demanded that Ugandans with Asian ancestry leave the country within 90 days.

That included my Indian father and the rest of his family.

Since then, not a single person in the family has made it back to Africa until now.

Thanks to a four-month programme by my university, I can spend the majority of my time in South Africa, based in Durban.

With Durban being home to over a million South African Indians, there was no better programme, besides a non existent Ugandan programme, that could’ve brought me closer to my family heritage in Africa.

I can explore much of South Africa with two 5-day trips to Joburg and Cape Town, as well as a week-long home stay in the deep rural area of Amatigulu on the Kwazulu-natal north coast.

Despite many learning opportunities being given in the programme, nothing stands out and gives as much of an eye-opening experience as the three home stays in Cato Manor, Amatigulu and Newlands East.

The three weeks in Cato

Manor, who many referred to as a “dangerous” township, allowed me to take a closer look at the community and see the close bonds among residents in the area.

I visited local bars and interacted with many of the locals from the township about life and how they find it in Cato Manor and South

Africa as a whole.

As this is a Zulu dominated area, it was no surprise that I was greeted with plenty of traditional African cuisine.

Some of the food I experienced varied from delicious Phuthu

(crumbly maize meal) and beans, to Jeqe (steamed bread).

Although these dishes were different, every meal was as delicious as the next.

With such an eye-opening experience, it wasn’t a big surprise that the deep rural of Amatigulu would only add to the brand new experiences.

Living in such a rural area with no running water, didn’t stop mama Thabile from cooking delicious traditional Zulu meals. Even when she made Jeqe (steamed bread) three days straight, we didn’t complain as it is such a delicacy to us since we come from a country that doesn’t even know what steamed bread is.

Something back in the US we don’t know much about, is how to treat prisoners. We figured that out when we visited Mtunzini Correctional Services during the rural stay. We had a close-up conversation with multiple prisoners enrolled in the Phoenix Zululand programme.

We came face to face with prisoners, who are at the end of their sentence, and talked about why they were imprisoned and what they learned during their incarceration.

The final stop of our rural stay was a trip to Hluhluwe–imfolozi Park where we got to see wildlife including elephants, water buffalos, and rhinos in their own habitat.

This once-in-a-lifetime experience, allowed me to see animals that I’d never meet outside of a caged zoo in the States.

Being in Africa as a whole, has been one eye-opening experience after another.

Being in such a vastly Indian part of this continent has allowed me to not only taste an authentic Indian bunny chow, but search more into my own identity and the history of my African-indian heritage that comes from my father’s side.

With two months left and a whole month in Newlands East, Durban, I’m sure there’s plenty more new food I’m about to eat and new interactions I will cherish forever.

Jared Sumar, a communications student from Pennsylvania, US, is in South Africa for four months as part of his study abroad programme with Goucher College.