The English South African
There is English music.
Here I certainly do not refer to modern pop/rock “music” in any of its forms. Nor do I refer to folk music, for although Scottish music has been popular with those of Scottish descent, English South Africans have neither retained the folk music of England, by and large, nor developed a distinctly English South African folk music of their own. Afrikaners developed a rich, distinctly Afrikaans folk music, but the English did not. The musical heritage of English South Africans, however, is that of western Europe. It is not specifically English, but it is the music that has defined western Europe for centuries, the timeless, exalted music of the great western composers. In this, English South Africans are heirs to the same great, classical musical genius as are other nations with western European origins.
There is English cuisine.
The food of the English South Africans reflects their cultural origins in Britain, but also reflects the influence of various other cultures in South Africa. But this is no different from the Afrikaner, Zulu, Indian or other South Africans! All South Africans have traces of their place of origin in the things they eat, plus influences from other South African cultures.
The British Empire ensured that the British would be more cosmopolitan in their cuisine than many other nations. This in itself would explain the fact that English cuisine in South Africa is often difficult to define precisely today, as opposed to, say, Afrikaner or Indian cuisine.
But there is another reason: the world has, in so many ways, become English! And this is true in its eating habits as well. One just has to think of the good old sandwich, invented by Lord Sandwich and now eaten the world over; English scones, cakes and pastries, the tea-time foods of choice for multitudes of non-English people around the world; fried bacon at breakfast; fish and chips. All these things are English, and yet millions of those enjoying them every day would not know it. The world has become English in so many ways, not least in much of its cuisine.
English South African cuisine is in fact a very rich one, although many people would not even realise it today. Foods such as roast beef or lamb, bangers and mash, steak-and-kidney, toad-in-the-hole, shepherd’s pie, mutton pie, pork pie, apple pie, Yorkshire pudding, smoked haddock, smoked trout, Welsh rarebit, Cheshire cheese, Cheddar cheese, blue Stilton cheese, shortbread, a condiment like mustard, and the daily ritual of drinking tea at certain stated times reflect the origins of the nation in Britain; but other things, such as curries, boerewors, etc., show that the English, no less than all other South Africans, have borrowed extensively from the other peoples living within the country and calling it home, and have made these dishes their own, sometimes with some alterations and sometimes not. Cuisine around the world is never a static thing. The British, today, are eating more Indian curries than their old traditional favourite, fish and chips. Times change. Tastes change. This is true of the English South Africans as well. But even so, one can definitely discern an English cuisine.
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Filed under: History without the humbug