NPR

South Africa's District Six Cookbook Helps Preserve A Lost Community

By the 1980s, 60,000 people had been forcibly removed from this mixed-race section of Cape Town. But the area's food traditions reflect the spirit of helpmekaar, an Afrikaans term for mutual support.
Linda Fortune's family was forced out of District Six when she was 22. Growing up, the family often ate crayfish her father caught as a hobby. "If you had an overabundance of fish, you would share it with the neighbors," she recalls.

You can tell a lot about a culture by its food, particularly if food is all that remains.

District Six was a mixed-race section of Cape Town, South Africa, that was home to Europeans, Asians, Africans, Christians, Muslims and Jews.

A half-century ago, District Six, which was just outside of downtown, was declared a whites-only area. By the early 1980s, 60,000 people had been forcibly removed from their homes.

To commemorate the anniversary of the order and as part of its ongoing work to preserve the culture of the lost community, the in Cape Town has released .

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