During a time when big media houses closed down esteemed magazine titles, one small, black, female-owned company – Mikateko Media – launched a new quarterly magazine called Koe’sister.
Remember when everyone was cooking and baking like crazy during COVID-19 lockdown levels 5 and 4? Social media exploded with images of freshly baked goods and food that brought all the nostalgic feels. Well, Ingrid Jones, co-founder and executive director at Mikateko Media, can spot a trend coming. So when her friend Ruby Marks, South Africa’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, shared a Facebook post about her attempt at making bobotie far away from home, Ingrid knew something bigger was brewing.
Ruby’s post was written in a way that made you miss your mom. She was inspired to create the bobotie when she saw Ingrid’s own bobotie recipe in a past issue of Woolworths’ Taste magazine. She narrates her cooking process vividly, invoking her late mother: “En net in time hoor ek my oorle’ ma se stem, ‘waassie liefde?’ En ek gooi gou sout en pieper oo’ die mixture en mix maa’ wee’. Daai vrou rescue my time and again.”
With her bobotie successfully made, she concluded that her dish could easily feature in Taste magazine. A publication that normally made her feel like an outsider. “Ma’ ek voel nogal dit kan feature langsaan Ingrid sń in Woolies se Taste magazine wat my altyd lat voel asof ń Cape Flats girl ma’ net kan kyk… totdat sy sien dat ha’ girl oek daa’ feature.”
An online conversation started and it quickly turned into an idea to publish a book to showcase recipes shared during lockdown, alongside the amazing stories and memories these evoked. “For the people, by the people,” Ingrid proclaimed. On 1 June, she created the Lockdown Recipe Storytelling Book (LRSB) group on Facebook, made a call for submissions, and off she went in search of a book publisher.
Almost immediately the stories and recipes came streaming in. The contributors shared generously and beautifully. Ingrid realised that this project couldn’t end with the recipe book, so the team at Mikateko Media created a business plan for a quarterly magazine – and Koe’sister magazine was born.
Ingrid explained: “Across communities and even continents, Facebook and food became the glue that kept people together. Some groups, initially formed to exchange recipes, went beyond sharing on social media. Pots were dusted off and soup and biryani were distributed where it was most needed. Ordinary South Africans stepped up to care for the thousands of people left without an income or a way to sustain themselves during the lockdown. Koe’sister was born from one such Facebook group: Lockdown Recipe Storytelling Book.”
South Africans will be familiar with the syrupy sweet, plaited treat called koeksister. A koe’sister, on the other hand, is an oval-shaped, sweet treat with a doughnut texture, infused with spices and naartjie peel and sprinkled with coconut. “Without saying anything, we are culturally speaking a language that people understand. Specifically the people who feel excluded. The ones who asked: ‘Where are our stories?’” Ingrid continued.
The recipes and stories included in the magazine remain in the languages as shared on the LRSB Facebook group. This vision has led to recipes from koe’sisters to amadumbe to jollof rice to skuimpiespoeding.
“It turned into a very democratic way of gathering content. But how does one launch a magazine about food at a time when so many people are going without it? Well, all the royalties of the recipe book and a percentage of Koe’sister merchandise sales will be donated to a national feeding scheme,” Ingrid shared.
Asanda Saule Ngoasheng, a member of the group, wonderfully summed it up: “Sometimes we have to write ourselves into existence. I am so proud of Ingrid Jones who had us cooking and sharing recipes we grew up with during lockdown on the LRSB group. Ingrid and her team then put together a cookbook and a magazine based on the submissions. I loved being part of the Facebook group, especially because it made me fall in love with our common story and ancestry as black people of South Africa – and I fell more in love with Afrikaaps (the Cape dialect of Afrikaans). The Xhosa, Zulu, Pedi and Khoekhoe, Griqua, and Nama are all one with slight variations of the same base culture, which centres around food and gathering people together in love. I even learnt how to make a smoortjie, which is the same as ibisto. Thank you for this historic project and your creativity in guiding us to find our creative cooking personas while trying to survive a pandemic. As my friend Nadine always reminds me, daar is werk (there’s work to be done)!”
To order your copy of the quarterly Koe’sister magazine, in print or digital format, head to www.mosadionline.com/online-store. The print magazine is also available at selected Spar and Pick n Pay stores, at a cost of R50. The holiday issue will be on shelf from 11 December.
To order the special edition Lockdown Recipe Storytelling Book, email [email protected]. The book costs R450, excluding delivery.
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