Food brings people together, say Zimbabwean chefs in Jersey

Two Zimbabwean chefs are using food “as a way of connecting people together” as they take part in Africa Week.

It is organised by the charity Friends of Africa and involved visits to schools and care homes to spread African culture.

Tendai Chatama and Nyamwererei Chatikobo from the Taste of the Motherland restaurant will provide one of the food stalls in the Royal Square where the charity will be sharing food, music and fashion from the continent to the public.

Chatama said they “get to experience home away from home” in Africa Week, with Chatikobo adding: “For me, Africa Week is a way to recognise the unity between the different African countries.”

Chatama said: “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,” she added.

Chatikobo said “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 added: “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.”