Cooking, the Crisis and Cuisines: Household Economies and Food Politics in Harare’s High-Density Suburbs, 1997–2020

Abstract

This article examines changing attitudes to afternoon and evening meals during the Zimbabwean crisis between 1997 and 2020. It uses household food economics in Harare’s high-density suburbs as an entry point into the historiography of the Zimbabwean crisis. By focusing on the management of household economics, the article analyses the affordability, typologies and naming of some meals or relishes that were eaten during the crisis period. It examines the vernacular concepts of tsaona meals that came to dominate afternoon and evening meals. It further analyses the ZANU(PF) government’s authoritarian vegetarianism – in which it took a pseudo-decolonial stance as it attempted to re-teach Zimbabwean palates and bowels to consume traditional small grains and vegetables in the context of food shortages and the crisis. Overall, the article provides a sensorial history of meals in Harare’s high-density suburbs during the Zimbabwean crisis.