Life Lately...

I have been making my own jam for a few months now and I tell you once you start making your own jam or buying homemade jam you may never want to go back to mass factory produced commercial jams...I can assure you of that. So far I have made Pineapple jam, Mango jam, Apple jam...

Blueberry Jam

Red plum jam

And I mastered my absolute favourite marmalade which makes me sooo happy. You see I am not really a jam person like that but you see marmalade...you can kidnap me using marmalade as bait! I absolutely love love love marmalade and it gives me soooo much joy to finally be able to make my own.

Marmalade 

Oh and I even made another favourite mango chutney! Looking forward to making pineapple chutney next.

Mango chutney 

Don’t know what to call this era but I have been in the kitchen a whole lot rediscovering my love for baking, which I haven’t done in maybe three years and in a span of three weeks I have made chocolate cake, carrot cake, these two are my favourite, and banana bread. As a bonus I even made samosas (we call them sambusa) from scratch as in I made the pockets/sheets myself, something I haven’t done in a couple of years I usually just buy readymade sambusas. Whatever this era is I am loving it because I am rediscovering parts of myself that had been lost or hidden away maybe due to trauma and doing things that make me happy and I love that for me.

Not my best work but hey it had been a few years since I made these from scratch!

Sambusa 

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Variety...

I grew up in and still live in a pretty much multicultural society, I guess this is part of the reason why I find homogenous societies fascinating. Like what do you mean you grew up in or live around people who look like you, eat the same food as you, share the same religion, have the same culture I find it intriguing. Maybe because all I have ever known from young is variety, listen it was the norm in my neighbourhood, to get a tray of sweet treats during Diwali, tasty snacks during Ramadhan from our neighbours and go carolling at Christmas. The funny thing though is I hadn’t realised how multicultural I was until I realised that these foods have become a staple in my house they feature on the menu at least once a month;

Jollof rice

Jerk Chicken

Curry Goat

Filipino Adobo

Trinidadian Pelau

Afghan Pulao

Rice and peas

Festival

Fried dumplings

Egg fried rice

None of which are native to me....

 

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Of Traditions...

 

I got into a Christmas traditions rabbit hole this holiday season thanks to YouTube, and it was quite fascinating learning about the history of most of the staple Christmas traditions widely practiced worldwide, like the Christmas tree and its decorations and Christmas cards among others. Traditions some of which are quite recent most being just a little over a century old. In my learning and unlearning it was interesting to discover how these traditions were shipped from their native lands and on to other lands who now firmly hold on to these once “foreign” traditions. I mean you hear of statements such as “what is Christmas without XYZ” from people all the time around the festive period.

 

All this talk about traditions got me thinking about some of the traditions which some African people hold on to for dear life, and so I ask;

Dear African person, is it really your tradition or does it have its roots somewhere in Victorian England or medieval France? Is it really your tradition or can you trace it back to Arabia if you squinted hard enough?

It’s crazy to think that we are just a few generations removed from colonialism going by when the majority of African countries got their independence in the 60s, and we have lost quite a bit of our native customs and spiritual beliefs. Anyway what do I know I am just a girl relearning her African tribes’ traditions and spiritual beliefs and connecting with my ancestors.

Happy New Year People!

 

 

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