{"id":22783,"date":"2011-07-18T08:38:41","date_gmt":"2011-07-18T06:38:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=22783"},"modified":"2011-07-20T23:41:59","modified_gmt":"2011-07-20T21:41:59","slug":"happy-birthday-mr-mandela-chefs-cook-for-madiba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/cape-town\/happy-birthday-mr-mandela-chefs-cook-for-madiba\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy birthday Mr Mandela: Chefs cook for Madiba!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Today is Nelson Mandela’s 93rd birthday, and the Western Cape is celebrating his special day with a meal prepared at his last home before his release from Victor Verster (now Drakenstein) Prison today, with 67 school children,\u00a067 farmworkers, and 67 senior citizens being f\u00e9ted by four chefs to mark the 67 years that Mr Mandela sacrificed to ‘make the world a better place’.\u00a0\u00a0 Today has been declared International Nelson Mandela Day by the United Nations.<\/p>\n

Chefs Jenny Morris, Reuben Riffel,\u00a0Uncle\u00a0Merv and Marco Radebe are preparing the birthday meal, making a difference to a cross-spectrum of South Africans on Mandela Day.\u00a0 The event was organised by Cape Town Routes Unlimited, the Cape Winelands District Municipality,\u00a0and the Department of Correctional Services.\u00a0 The menu includes Mr Mandela’s meals at Victor Verster and\u00a0Robben Island, and those prepared by his present cook, to represent Mr Mandela’s favourite food.\u00a0The menu is as follows:\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Cream of Tomato soup with wholewheat bread<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Chicken liver on mash, or hake<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Roast chicken, brown rice, carrots and beans<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 Salad<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Trifle, in rainbow colours<\/p>\n

Journalists and writers invited to the media conference at Mandela House at Drakenstein Prison on Thursday were privileged to be shown around the house in which Mr Mandela lived for the 14 months leading up to his release.\u00a0 If we did not know it before, we were reminded of the humility and statesmanship of our country’s greatest leader.\u00a0\u00a0He was often taken out of the grounds on secret outings, to assimilate him into the world he had missed out on for 25 years, and this included the\u00a0Taal Monument on Paarl Mountain.\u00a0 He had a television set, and read the daily newspapers.\u00a0 We were shown the lemon tree which Mr Mandela planted on the property.\u00a0 I was impressed with the size of the prison grounds, which appears to be a working farm.\u00a0 Mandela House is a national heritage site, we were told, and we sat at the table at which the historic draft constitution was signed by then-President FW de Klerk and Mr Mandela.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Calvyn Gilfellan, CEO of Cape Town Routes Unlimited, said that it was due to\u00a0Mr Mandela that South Africa had an upsurge in tourist numbers, only surpassed by last year’s World Cup.\u00a0 Given that Mr Mandela was released from Victor Verster, it was felt that the function to celebrate the birthday should reflect the Winelands’ reputation of being the Gourmet Capital.\u00a0 Giggling Gourmet Jenny Morris became very emotional when she shared with us how special\u00a0an honour it is for her to be preparing the meal with her chef colleagues.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Manfred Jacobs, Communication Officer of the Department of Correctional Services, was most informative when he showed us around Mandela House.\u00a0 Mr Mandela was brought to the house at Victor Verster\u00a0late at night, and the area over the prison grounds was declared a no-fly zone, to prevent a bomb from being dropped onto the house, we were told.\u00a0 Mr Mandela spent the last 14 months of his incarceration there, and impressed the warders with his humility, and the interest he showed in them as persons, congratulating them on their birthdays, and assisting them with their studies, where he could.\u00a0 Politics was never discussed.\u00a0 We laughed when we were told that Mr Mandela thought he had two TV sets, referring to his microwave oven as one of them, something he had not seen in the 23 years of his time at Robben Island.\u00a0 Mr Mandela was taught to swim in his swimming pool, but he sat on the edge of the pool most of the time, as he was frightened of the pool cleaner!\u00a0\u00a0Mr Mandela’s policy was to change people’s hearts, and not to attempt to change their minds.\u00a0 We laughed when we were told the story of the wood running out for the fireplace in his house,\u00a0with no further wood being allocated.\u00a0 Mr Mandela encouraged his doctor to address this shortage, and the doctor promptly wrote out a prescription for wood!\u00a0 Mr Mandela loved looking onto the Simonsberg mountains from his house, a source of inspiration.\u00a0 He had a replica of the house built in Qunu,\u00a0where Mr Mandela is celebrating his birthday today, so that the inhabitants of his ancestral village could experience his prison house. A bar was stocked in the house,\u00a0with lots of alcohol, in the hope that Mr Mandela would imbibe heavily and spill the beans, but this never happened.\u00a0 Having been incarcerated in a\u00a0small cell on Robben Island for\u00a023 years, Mr Mandela felt uncomfortable in his massive bedroom, and asked to be moved to the study, and this was turned into his bedroom. Mr Mandela was given the nickname ‘Nelson’ after the Admiral, as his teacher could not remember all the Xhosa names of the children in her class. Mr Mandela said that ‘big doors hang on small hinges’, his way of saying that everyone can make it in life.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A statue of Mr Mandela was commissioned by businessman, politician and Franschhoek wine-farmer Tokyo Sexwale, and proudly stands at the entrance to the prison gates.\u00a0 Mr Mandela agreed, on condition that the plinth not be too high, so that he does not appear elevated.\u00a0 Marble for the base came from Robben Island.\u00a0 Black and white stones represent the people of South Africa.<\/p>\n

Congratulations Mr Mandela, ‘humble servant of the people’!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>POSTSCRIPT 19\/7<\/strong>: I attended the opening of a photographic exhibition of the Lalela (to listen)\u00a0Project in the Goodman Gallery at the One&Only Cape Town last night, to coincide with the celebration of Mr Mandela’s birthday.\u00a0 Pupils from Hout Bay High School, coming from the Coloured community of Hangberg and the Xhosa community of Imizamo Yethu, got to know each other and connected through taking portraits of each other, mentored by photographers Hasan and Husain Essop.\u00a0 The Lalela Project was founded by Andrea Kerzner, daughter of the owner of the hotel.\u00a0 Portraits can be seen outside the hotel, and in the city center too.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

POSTSCRIPT 19\/7<\/strong>:\u00a0 The Eastern Boulevard, the highway which leads to the N2 in Cape Town,\u00a0was renamed Nelson Mandela Boulevard last week.\u00a0 Brand new silver signs have been placed at regular intervals to remind one of the new name.<\/p>\n

Whale\u00a0Cottage\u00a0Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com<\/a>\u00a0Twitter: @WhaleCottage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is Nelson Mandela’s 93rd birthday, and the Western Cape is celebrating his special day with a meal prepared at his last home before his release from Victor Verster (now Drakenstein) Prison today, with 67 school children,\u00a067 farmworkers, and 67 senior citizens being f\u00e9ted by four chefs to mark the 67 years that Mr Mandela […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[12371,6843,602,108,1275,240,32378,12376,12372,5243,2857,12421,12420,12373,1461,12419,1457,12377,12382,12374,12370,12379,32392,9091,1094,12380,12383,1347,87,12378,945,12381,12375,2058,5157,32387,32373,531],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t