Makgarebe: On my Love of food and weddings and food

Over Easter weekend I attended a wedding with one of my closest friends, Kay. Truth be told it wasn't a particularly exciting wedding. I barely knew the newlyweds and didn't know anybody there besides Kay and a few high school friends I hadn't seen in ages. Such reunions are always fun at first and then you slowly remember that there’s a reason why you haven’t spoken to these people in over 10 years. But girls being girls we made the most of it and turned it into a mini-photo shoot. This seems to occur at any event where females and camera phones are present. We meet, eat and then proceed to document everything in picture form in case we ever get interrogated and need irrefutable evidence of where we were and what we did. Looking back over the photos that evening I remembered the food I had eaten and how it was exactly the same to almost every wedding I've attended in Botswana.

This isn't a bad thing, it’s actually very comforting, you go to wedding knowing exactly what you’re going to get and become an expert at navigating wedding menus and avoiding the stuff you don’t like and don’t eat. In fact if you ever have a hankering for any of the food I’m about to mention just go to a wedding. On any given weekend or public holiday chances are there’s a wedding near you and chances are you’re related (however distantly) to somebody related to the bride and groom. Even if you’re a third cousin thrice moved by marriage, you know you’re welcome.

The standard Menu for any wedding in Botswana is pretty standard. There’s meat and then the stuff that isn’t meat. Any African will tell you if there’s no meat, there’s no food. There’s always Seswaa and for you "bougie" peeps some kind of Beef stew and/or Fried Chicken. There will be Beef Seswaa and Goat Seswaa (for those who have issues with beef), who those of you unfamiliar with Seswaa its basically meat that is cooked for hours then pulled or shredded and served as is. Then there’s the Carbs. Rice, Samp/Samp and Beans and Pap(Maize Meal). Finally comes the pinnacle of gastronomic enjoyment. This literally turns a funeral into a wedding, a somber event into a full on party. The salads! To say they are always the same is an understatement. It’s as if some kind of meeting was held and it was decided. “From now on we will always serve butternut, beetroot and coleslaw at all our celebratory functions, wedded or otherwise”. Everyone nodded, the judge pounded his gavel and it became law.

I love weddings. I especially love weddings in Botswana. The predictability of it all is what makes them so awesome. You could be surrounded by strangers and yet it would all seem familiar. Now I know there’s lots of reasons behind this. Firstly our weddings are hardly ever catered, it’s a chance for all the women in the family to get together and celebrate the bride and groom with their hard work in the kitchen. Secondly certain foods are easier and more affordable than others and nobody wants to serve expensive and fancy food that nobody will like. Its always best to stick with a tried, tested and approved formula for success. Our wedding “fare” probably came about as a result of all these factors. Whatever it is I’m a fan. I love how you don’t need to be personally invited and how it’s not a closed off private affair but a celebration involving cousins you haven’t seen in years, aunts and uncles you've never met, old school friends... even a couple of randoms. A lot of people find this kinda annoying and if i’m completely honest I probably won’t want that many people on my big day but we’re not talking about my wedding or the food i'll serve are we? So for now i'm content with the status quo, the food, the atmosphere its all part of this beautiful country I call home and I wouldn't change a thing.