The surgeon's superintendent's journal, compiled during the sea voyage of the SS Umzinto, which transported 483 contract workers to Natal in 1903, is of great interest for studying the cultural heritage of food and how this culture developed 166 years after the arrival of the first contract workers in Durban.
The SS Umzinto sailed from the port of Madras on December 11, 1903, and arrived in Durban on December 31, 1903, at 18:15. During the twenty days of sailing, children were served breakfast at 7:30 AM, adults at 9 AM, and dinner between 4:00 PM and 5:00 PM. Lunch was not provided.
On the first day of the journey, the superintendent reported having inspected all parts of the ship with the chief mate, who was ashore. He checked the storage rooms for 'dhal' and assessed the quality and quantity of the provisions by samples, noting that everything met the 'best standard' in his opinion.
The following morning, the superintendent reported good and clear weather with a calm sea; the daytime temperature was significantly high until rain cooled the atmosphere at 3:00 PM. Children were served soup—a thin rice porridge—with milk at 7:30 AM. Breakfast at 9 AM consisted of biscuits and chooras (cooked or flat rice flakes) with sugar. The evening meal was cooked rice with curry, served at 4:15 PM.
Subsequent days followed the same pattern: children were served soup with milk at 7:00 AM and 3:00 PM. Adults were served morning tea with biscuits, chooras, and sugar at 9 AM, and mutton curry with rice in the evening at 4:50 PM.
On other days, breakfast included cooked rice and water with pepper (rasam) and dhal at 9 AM. The afternoon meal that day was vegetarian and consisted of cooked rice, dhal, and potato curry, served at 4:15 PM.
On the fifteenth day, the weather was rainy and overcast in the morning, and the emigrants were kept below deck until breakfast at 9:16 AM. They were served cooked rice, dhal, mashed potatoes, tamarind chutney, and water with pepper at 9 AM. Dinner at 4:15 PM was standard—rice, dhal, and pumpkin.
By the nineteenth day, December 29, 1903, the weather was cloudy with strong north winds, which subsided by noon. Children were served soup at 7 AM, and adults were served a cooked dish of rice and vegetable curry at 9 AM. At 4:30 PM, they were served a cooked dish of rice, potato, and mutton. The next morning, the ship sighted Durban at 6:15 PM.
Analyzing the surgeon's superintendent's journal allows one to study voyages on 384 ships that brought 152,184 contract workers to colonial South Africa between 1860 and 1911. The voyage of the SS Umzinto in 1903 clarifies how the contract workers were fed and what dishes they were served.
After arriving, the contract workers were distributed among various plantations in colonial Natal. They were issued dhal, rice, and salted, dried fish as rations, as stipulated in the signed contracts. Many plantation owners replaced the rations with cheaper ingredients unfamiliar to the workers.
Cornmeal was used instead of rice, and food rations were often withheld for the slightest infraction, using power to increase labor production. Learning to adapt to foreign land, these workers learned to incorporate African ingredients, such as cornmeal and amadumbe, into their meals to make them palatable. For them, even a small amount was enough to constitute a feast.
Immediately after the harsh quarantine of the contract workers, they were sent to plantations, often located 50–100 miles from the point of arrival. The landscape and vegetation differed from those they had seen in South or North India.
Their main meals consisted of rations including dhal and rice or cornmeal. Sometimes rations arrived late or not at all, forcing people to forage in the forest, gathering all kinds of herbs, fruits, and tubers. Tasty yam, called amadumbe, was boiled, fried, or stewed. Similarly, green bananas were turned into fritters or grated into curry. Mangoes could be prepared in sweet, sour, or pickled curry. Gem squash served as a deceptive substitute for meat or fish, especially when acidified with tamarind or green mango.
Rice, the staple food throughout Asia, was scarce. Indians found a solution: corn was ground into fine grains. When slow-cooked, it closely resembled rice, and the dish 'millet-rice' or 'Khichdi' was a real favorite even among modern descendants of the contract lineage. Sometimes turmeric or tamarind was added for flavor.
Since meat was either too expensive or unavailable, salted and dried fish, added to tomato chutney, became a common accompaniment to millet-rice. In fact, this simple dish became so popular that it can be found on the menus of prestigious establishments such as the Britannia Hotel in Durban. Coarser grain, called samp, was part of Zulu cuisine. Indians seasoned samp with chili and other spices. Samp curry, often made today with beans or meat, is a valuable dish.
Grinding tools are also similar to Zulu and Indian methods. In Tamil, 'ammikal' is a flat granite stone accompanied by a pestle-type stone. 'Vorral' is a standing vessel made of stone, wood, or metal, whose contents are crushed with a stick. Variations of this tool are found in every traditional Zulu home.
One dish with the same name in both Tamil and Zulu languages is 'futhu'. The pronunciation may vary slightly, but the preparation method and taste remain the same. It is usually eaten with acidified milk, called 'amasi' in Zulu, which is little different from cottage cheese in Indian cuisine. Cottage cheese has a cooling effect on the stomach, and probiotics aid digestion. The overall foundation of culinary traditions is potentially a fascinating area of study, demonstrating what unites South Africans more than divides them.
In honor of the rich heritage of Indian contract workers, the 1860 Heritage Centre on Derby Street will hold a Heritage Food Festival on September 12.
