Bolton CDP has been awarded a £45,094 grant by the Heritage Lottery Fund to explore memories of African Food in Bolton’s African Community.
We intend to carry out an oral history of African food which we’ve called Grandma’s Cooking Project. We are going to interview several people in some depth about their memories of how food was cooked back home in Africa when they lived there and how it is cooked now. This will involve younger people interviewing older people.
You have to remember that we never had recipes back home because nothing was ever written down. There were no cookery books. The way food was cooked was simply passed on from one generation to another. So, we want to explore that and hopefully at the end of our project will publish a recipe booklet, along with a film. It was very different to how we cook today here in Bolton.’
The project will involve numerous members of the African community in Bolton who remembers that cooking back home was often dependent on what vegetables and meats were available at the market and most importantly what the family could afford. Cooking was also a much more communal activity with family members and friends helping in the kitchens and chatting.
We’re really thrilled to have received this grant, ‘and I know that fellow members of the African community are also very excited about it.’
The project will take a year to complete and there is also a plan to hold events in various libraries, maybe even with some genuine African food on offer.
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