Nelson Mandela at the table

Among the Xhosa, the meal (isidlo) is not divided into starter-main-dessert: it is organized around a base of white maize — boiled as samp, mashed as pap, or crumbled as umphokoqo — accompanied by a relish (beans, vegetables, meat when available) and fermented milk amasi. People often eat with their hands, from a single large shared dish, sitting together. Major occasions and ancestral tributes add meat roasted over wood fire and maize beer umqombothi.

White maize, which became the staple food of the Xhosa countryside in the 20th century, comes in a thousand textures. Its natural companion is amasi, milk thickened and soured by fermentation in a calabash — the "signature" tang of the Transkei tables where Mandela grew up.