The Cultural Politics of Food in South Africa - by Mehita Iqani & Sarah Gibson (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book explores the cultural politics of food in the South African context, bringing together a range of disciplinary perspectives on the links between media, nourishment, and inequality. It critically explores the many ways in which food is never just food but always linked to complex and shifting modalities of meaning and knowledge.

Book Synopsis

Food is both a material system of nourishment, necessary for human survival, and a communicative system that signifies multiple meanings across human cultures. This book explores the cultural politics of food in the South African context, bringing together a range of disciplinary perspectives on the links between media, nourishment, and inequality. The chapters all highlight the multiplicity of meanings that food has in South African society. These include historical perspectives on the impact of colonialism, migration and apartheid had on food and foodways in South Africa; sociological interventions on food and society; aesthetic practices in relation to food; and mediated food cultures in South Africa. Taken together, the book critically explores the multiple ways in which food is never just food, and always linked to complex and shifting modalities of meaning and knowledge in the South African context.

From the Back Cover

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.
Desiree Lewis, Professor, University of the Western Cape

Food is never just food. This interdisciplinary volume examines the cultural politics of food in South Africa, revealing how nourishment is bound up with histories of colonialism, apartheid, migration and enduring inequality. Drawing on perspectives from media studies, sociology, history and cultural studies, the chapters explore how food functions as a site of identity, resistance, memory and aspiration.

From Indigenous food systems and missionary food regimes to television, advertising and social media, the book traces how meanings around food are produced, contested and mediated. It considers the everyday and the symbolic, from home-cooked meals and community cookbooks to performances of culinary capital within foodie cultures.

Through this diverse and critical lens, the volume argues that food in South Africa cannot be separated from the power structures and social dynamics that shape it. In doing so, it offers a vital counterpoint to dominant narratives from the Global North, contributing to a richer understanding of how food intersects with representation, access and cultural expression in the Global South.

Review Quotes

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

About the Author

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