The sadza dilemma

Sadza, sadza, sadza. Everyday, sometimes twice a day, and a good chance of a thin version as porridge in the morning as well.

Sadza is a bit like a cross between a stiff mass of mashed potato and a heavy steamed dough - without the flavour. It is cooked en mass and served in huge amounts, accompanied by a relatively meagre amount of relish - nyama (meat) stew, beans or (usually) oily greens. It is made from coarse milled maize flour (mealy meal) mixed with water, and is basically a 'carrier' for getting the relish into your mouth. You eat it with your (right) hand, picking a lump from the outside of the hot mass of sadza, rolling it into a small ball with your fingers, making a scoop out of it, and then taking some of the relish with the scoop.
Sadza varies from place to place - dependent on the length of cooking time, the amount of maize meal used and the amount of stirring that goes into it - some sadza is definitely better than others. Like most things is is better with salt, and a large amount of it fills you up for a long time.

The nutritional value of sadza is around about that of cardboard - pretty much no nutrients of any value, besides highly refined carbohydrate. People eat masses of it so that they feel full, but they aren't actually getting any of their nutrient needs from it. There is an association with food for energy, but not food for health, and people are really addicted to the feeling of fullness that sadza gives. It is quite a contrast from living in the UK or Australia where we would eat a different thing every night of the week to hear where people literally subsist on sadza & greens. What the nutrition garden workshops showed us was that people are growing a fairly diverse range of vegetable crops, but most of these are for sale & not consumed - the wealth Vs health issue.

The real shame about sadza & the meals that people eat now is that maize sadza has replaced traditional grain crops of millet & sorghum, which are easier to grow and more nutritious. Maize was brought over by the farmers that followed the british colonialists. It is a crop from central america (if only they made tortillas and ate guacamole here!), and is unsuited to the soils and conditions here. To grow successfully maize requires large amounts of water and good soil, and is grown in the rainy season. If the rains are not good the maize doesn't do well. Maize & sadza have become such a huge part of the culture here that people don't even grown millet & sorghum as back up crops - both of which are more drought tolerant & don't require the fertilizer inputs (that few farmers here can afford anyway) of maize.
Sadza can be made from millet & sorghum, but people say that maize meal tastes better. Millet & sorghum can be mixed in with maize meal to increase the nutrition value of the food, but it isn't done.

Apart from encouraging people to grow, cook and eat more diverse and nutritious food, there is little that can be done to crack the sadza dilemma. The workshops that we helped to run raised provided some insights, and telling people not to eat sadza would be about as effective as the catholic anti-HIV campaign of telling people not to have sex.

We've had quizzical looks from a couple of people that haven't travelled when we tell them that no-one eats sadza in europe or australia, and I think the family that we live with thinks it funny that we eat a lot of different food & give the mealy-meal a miss most days. We know we're going to get it on any visits, so its best not to eat it at home as well - for sake of keeping the internal system moving!
Following the nutrition workshops we are going to sit down with the Kufunda kitchen team and help with some meal planning for better nutrition - starting with what else can we add to the sadza to make it better for the body!