Hunger For Freedom: The Story of Food in the life of Nelson Mandela Book

Hunger for Freedom: The Story of Food in the Life of Nelson Mandela

Author: Anna Trapido

First published in 2008

colourful pictures in book with recipes.

Trapido describes to the book as “a gastro-political history with recipes” explaining that Hunger for Freedom is not an attempt to trivialize history (as some might assume) but rather a different way of looking at the past. Trapido says that “food tells you about who people are — socially, culturally and economically.”

As much a rigorous historical exploration as a culinary reference, this book offers a delicately compiled biography of Nelson Mandela through the recipes that have been the backdrop, and occasionally the primary cause, for momentous personal and political events. From the corn grinding stone of his boyhood and prison hunger strikes to presidential banquets, tales told in sandwiches, sugar, and samoosas speak eloquently of Nelson Mandela's intellectual awakenings, emotional longings, and constant struggle for racial equality.

An engaging, moving, and rewarding read, Hunger for Freedom is as much an in-depth historical and biographical account of South Africa's and Mandela's struggle to freedom as it is a culinary window into the country known as the Rainbow Nation. From his childhood as a herd boy in his native Transkei (one of my favorite places in the world), it was clear that Mandela was indeed a foodie. Memories of roasting corn under the stars, acquiring a love for Indian curries and friends, longing for the humble Xhosa food of his childhood, and making meals out of nothing during the painful years at Robben Island

Book is in good condition