Tag Archives: South Africa

Justice and Peace, Primary 6, School News

Soweto comes to Broxburn

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Article 29

We can share our talents and abilities.

What a truly inspirational start we all have had. The Soweto Melodic Voices, a 30 piece youth choir from South Africa, visited the school to carry out workshops with us. After treating them to our version on Shosholoza, we were split into groups and taught a song using different harmonies as well as some dance moves.

In the afternoon, the whole school were invited to watch an absolutely amazing performance by the choir – they even asked us onto the stage to perform with them in front of everyone!

Click on the links below to see some snippets of the singing…

Soweto sings with st nichs

Primary 6A

Primary 6B

Soweto Melodic Voices

The choir are performing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and have asked if some of us would like to join them during their last show. How lucky do we feel?

Primary 5, School News

Bobotie Recipe

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It’s no wonder bobotie is considered one of the national dishes of South Africa. Spiced minced meat topped with a creamy layer of egg custard ticks all the boxes.

Ingredients

  • 1 kilogram minced lamb (or beef)
  • ½ onion (diced)
  • 25 ml cooking oil
  • 10 ml butter
  • 25 ml curry powder
  • 10 ml salt
  • 25 ml peach chutney (or apricot)
  • 15 ml apricot jam (smooth)
  • 15 ml worcestershire sauce
  • 5 ml turmeric
  • 25 ml malt vinegar
  • 1 handful raisins
  • 3 eggs
  • 375 ml milk
  • 1 slice bread (crestless)
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • bay leaves

Method

  1. Put bread into bowl with milk and leave to soak. Heat oil and butter in large pan and fry onions. When onions are soft add curry powder, slat, chutney, Worcester sauce, jam, turmeric and vinegar. Mix well.
  2. Drain bread, saving milk. Add bread, raisins and meat to pan. Cook over low heat until meat looses its pinkness. Remove from heat and add 1 well beaten egg. Mix well then spoon into greased ovenable dish and level the top
  3. Beat remaining 2 eggs into the reserve milk, add turmeric and salt, mix well. Pour over meat mixture and place bay leaf on the top. Bake uncovered in 180C for approximately 1 hour or until set (nicely browned). Serve with yellow rice, banana, coconut & chutney.

Primary 5, School News

Traditional Koeksisters Recipe

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How to make South African-style doughnuts

These much-loved South African doughnuts have occupied an honorary place at many a tea-time table, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a dessert more distinct to the nation’s Western Cape. Derived from the Dutch word for ‘cookie’(koekje), a good koeksister is crunchy and sticky on the outside, and moist and syrupy in the inside.

Although this koeksister recipe may not be the easiest to master, practise makes perfect…and you can be guaranteed a very delicious series of practise sessions in the least.

Ingredients for koeksisters

For the syrup:

  • 530ml water
  • 800g sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • 2,5tsp cream of tartar
  • 1tsp ginger
  • 1 tblsp lemon juice
  • 1 cinnamon stick

For the dough:

  • 300g self-raising flour
  • 200g corn flour
  • pinch of salt
  • 50g unsalted butter
  • 25g baking powder
  • 1\4 cup sugar
  • 200ml milk
  • 50ml cream
  • 2 eggs

Method:

For the Syrup (prepare the syrup the day before for best results)

In a pan, heat up the water. Add the sugar, salt, cream of tartar, ginger, lemon juice and cinnamon stick. Bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer. Stir occasionally. Simmer for 10 minutes. Allow to cool. Transfer to the fridge.

For the Dough:

Add the dry ingredients to a bowl and mix them together. Add the milk, butter, eggs and cream, mixing it all together. Knead with your hand for a couple of minutes. Wrap in cling film, and store in the fridge for 30 minutes. Roll out to a 1 cm thickness. Cut into strips thin strips and then short strips. To plait, tuck three strands together at the top. Fold the outer strips over into the middle, repeating until you reach the end and tuck them together.

To Fry:

Heat up half a pot of oil on a low flame. Place the bowl of syrup in a larger bowl of ice to keep it well chilled. Deep fry the koeksisters, don’t put too many in at once. When golden, transfer to the syrup using a slotted spoon, draining off as much oil as you can. Leave to soak in the syrup for a while. Transfer to a cooling rack. Cool completely before eating.

Justice and Peace, Primary 5, School News

Bags of Life

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Article 30

You have the right to enjoy your own culture, practice your own religion and use your own language.

We have been learning about the beautiful country of South Africa and comparing it with life here in Scotland.  We thought it would be a really good idea to share our huge diverse culture, traditions, history and lifestyles with some children in South Africa.  So, we decided to create ‘our life in a bag’ – a paper suitcase filled with pictures, photographs, coins, information etc. – explaining the rich environment we live in and send them to two primary schools in the Port Elizabeth area; Lorraine Primary and Herbert Hurd Primary.

The bags are now on their way and we have had a look at the websites of both schools online.  We have already had a response from one of the schools, who have emailed to say they are really excited about our projects and have started creating a collage to send back.  We can’t wait!!

Primary 5, School News

A Taste of South Africa

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Article 30

You have the right to enjoy your own culture, practice your own religion and use your own language

Primary 5 had a fantastic afternoon on Thursday after they received a visit from Lizette Dredge as part of our South Africa topic.

She began by telling us some stories about her life growing up, including how strict her school was.  Lizette explained that some of the rules still exist today such as; if your hair touches your shoulder or longer, it must be tied up at all times; skirts must be no shorter than knee length, but that, thankfully, smacking on the hand with a ruler has now been banned.   One of the most impressive stories that Lizette told us was that at her friends wedding in the Union Buildings in Johannesburg, she had met, shaken hands and spoken to Nelson Mandela!!!

We learned about the gold and diamond miners in South Africa and their unique language – Fanagalo.  It was used because the South African mining industry employed workers from across southern and central Africa: including Congo, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Malawi and Mozambique. With workers originating from a range of countries and having a vast range of different mother tongues, Fanagalo provided a simple way to communicate and is still used.

Then came the best bit – the food tasting.  Thanks to Lizette and her husband we enjoyed a big selection of foods traditional to South Africa such as biltong, droewors (beef and ostrich), rusks, bobotie, mieliepap with a tomato dipping sauce and Koeksisters.

We would like to say a huge thank you to Lizette for giving up her afternoon to spend it and share her experiences with us.

Primary 5

Sounds from South Africa!

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Article 30

You have the right to enjoy your own culture.

This term in music primary 5 have been learning to play the African drums! Miss King and Mrs Buchanan Coutts were amazed listening to us all play beautiful rhythms using so many unusual and wonderful instruments! We are enjoying listening to lots of African Music in class while we work as well!

Justice and Peace, Primary 5, School News

Ladysmith Black Mambazo

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Article 8
Your right to a nationality and identity.

Some of the Primary 5 children have asked about the concert in Edinburgh by South Africa’s Ladysmith Black Mambazo.  Details are below:
Saturday 9 August
  • Running time:
    2 hours approximately

Tickets

Grand circle: £30 £25 £20 £15
Stalls: £30 £25 £20 £15 £12 £10

Described by Nelson Mandela as ‘South Africa’s cultural ambassadors’, Ladysmith Black Mambazo has been delivering exuberantly energetic performances around the globe for decades.

To complement its collaboration on Inala, it gives a special one-off concert that offers the chance to experience one of the world’s finest vocal groups.

Combining traditional Zulu musical styles with gospel music, it contrasts powerful, passionate choruses with soft, soulful sweetness in quieter music, bringing a symphonic richness to its a cappella performances, all delivered with an infectious sense of rhythm and flamboyant dance moves.

Undulating rhythmic phrases that push and pull…harmonising that is both ethereal and earthy”

Justice and Peace, Primary 5, School News

Primary Five Experience… APARTHEID

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Article 41

You have the right to any rights in laws in your country or internationally that give you better rights than these

On Sunday the 27th April, South Africa celebrated 20 years since the end of apartheid when Nelson Mandela became the first black president following his 27 years spent in prison for fighting against this segregation. Apartheid happened for many years in South Africa and was when people with different colours of skin were not allowed to be together. The country had separate schools, banks, buses and even laws for white people and non white people. People who were not white were treated very unfairly.

To gain a better understanding of apartheid and how unfair and unjust it was, last week primary 5 actually experienced it first hand!

We had a long discussion about equal rights and how unfair it is when people are discriminated against, we agreed that everyone no matter who you are should be treated equally and everyone is entitled to their rights. To gain a better understanding of what it would have been like to live in South Africa during apartheid we were separated into 2 groups. People that were born in January to June were in group one and people born in July to December were in group two. We talked about how we didn’t get to choose what month we were born in, just like babies do not get to choose the colour of their skin, eyes or hair, or the country they are born in, who their parents are or if they have a disability.

Then we were told the ‘Apartheid Laws’ for the day. People that were born in the first half of the year were treated fairly but the laws for the people born in the second half of the year were very different…

A person born between July to December…

  • could not sit with or play with people born between January and June
  • could only play in one small area of the playground
  • had to work until the bell
  • could not take part in class discussions
  • went last for break and lunch
  • had to ask permission to use classroom resources
  • could not receive stickers, rewards and points
  • had to wear an identity badge at all times

Children who were born in the first half of the year wore bibs so both groups could be easily identified.

Children born in the second half of the year were not treated fairly at all, during P.E. even though they won the curling game 7-2, the teachers insisted that the other team won. It made the people in group 2 very frustrated! The unfairness also had an effect on children in group 1 who felt guilty and were angry that people were being treated so differently. We stopped throughout the day and we shared how we were feeling, it gave us a real insight into what life would have been like during apartheid.

On day two the groups swapped over so everyone had a chance to experience both sides of apartheid.

At half past two on Thursday we stopped our segregated P.E lesson and celebrated the end of apartheid and a very challenging couple of days. We scrunched up our idneitity badges and threw our bibs in the air and danced around the hall with our friends who we had been separated from for two days. This was a very valuable lesson, we vowed to always treat each other equally, never to discriminate and to stand up to injustice and unfairness.