Zimbabwean chefs use food to build community during Jersey Africa Week

Zimbabwean chefs use food to build community during Jersey Africa Week

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Two Zimbabwean chefs based in Jersey say sharing traditional dishes is helping connect communities and keep their culture alive as they take part in Africa Week celebrations.

Tendai Chatama and Nyamwererei Chatikobo, who run Taste of the Motherland restaurant, are among exhibitors expected to provide food at a public stall in Royal Square, where organisers will also showcase music and fashion from across the continent.

The events are organised by the charity Friends of Africa and have included visits to schools and care homes, with the aim of introducing African culture to a wider audience.

Chatama said Africa Week offered a sense of belonging for people far from home. “We get to experience home away from home,” she said.

She added: “Africa Week brings diversity on the island and it’s so important to embrace diversity because given the different challenges in the world.

“We are a thousand miles away from Africa; away from the sun, away from some of the colourful things that we experience in Africa, and Africa Week brings a lot of those things into play.”

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Chatikobo said the week also highlights the shared links between African countries. “For me, Africa Week is a way to recognise the unity between the different African countries,” she said.

She said serving Zimbabwean meals was a practical way to maintain identity in the diaspora. “Sharing our Zimbabwean food is basically our way of keeping our culture alive because it also makes us keep in touch with our identity and our culture,” she said.

Chatikobo added that holding the celebrations in the Royal Square made them accessible to a broad audience. “I love the fact that it’s held in the Royal Square, which is a very open space where everyone from every ethnicity or cultures can just come,” she said.

The charity’s public events were set to run from 16:00 BST to 22:00 on Thursday and Friday.

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