Preface: The brown bread I baked today flopped, but this article should go down nicely. Enjoy!
Today, the main types of bread that Namibians purchase are white, brown and whole wheat. Brown is the least the cheapest and least desirable of the three; one will always find it when all the white has run out at the local grocery store. White bread is bought by virtually everyone, while whole wheat is consumed by a select, mostly white, health-conscious stratum of society. Brown bread is the mutt, being neither white nor whole wheat, it looks like white bread dirtied by bits of dark wheat bran.
I just learnt that before Namibian independence – during apartheid days – white bread was for whites only. I saw a vivid representation of this in the film based on the autobiography of Sam Nujoma – the founding father of the Namibian nation. The scene I am referring to takes place in the late 1950s, when the anti-apartheid movements were just crystallizing. A young boy goes into a small shop (our word for grocery store) to buy a loaf of brown bread. Though he sees there is only bread left, he delays his purchase by looking at the other wonderful eats in the shop. When his eyes finally wonder back to the bread shelves, he notices the bottom brown bread shelf is empty. So he takes a white loaf instead. Immediately, the shop owner apprehends him and informs him of the status quo: “Don’t you know that white bread is only for whites?” before he sends him off with a warning to never set foot in his shop again.
Of course, the irony of this apartheid policy is that brown bread is actually healthier than white bread. There is a great deal of literature dealing with the health benefits of eating brown and whole bread. Organizations such as the Heart Foundation of South Africa can provide one with detailed information surrounding this fact. For our purposes, it is sufficient to note that since brown bread flour is less refined that white bread flour, it contains nutritional value that is lost during the refining process.
But in the eyes of most black people today, brown represents the inferior food they ate back in the days of the struggle. Akin to the, substandard Bantu education they received at schools, brown bread is part of all that was of no worth to whites and so it was allocated to the blacks. It is therefore no surprise that black self esteem in post apartheid Namibia is tied to the bread black people buy: “I think it is something subconscious, but I go for the white bread and not the brown… its probably because white bread was only for whites then and brown bread was all we could buy” tells Selma, a black medical doctor. It is ironic that even a medical doctor (who is fully aware of the fact brown bread is healthier than white bread) will consistently choose white bread. But Selma is aware that her purchasing choice underlies a deep, psychological desire to attain self worth through the consumption of ‘best foods’ – that which was reserved for whites.
Now I do not mean to belittle the point that certain people may just dislike the taste of brown bread. Individuals will have their preferences, irrespective of their race. What I am asking is that we examine the prevailing assumption in Namibia that black people will prefer to eat white bread if they are given the choice. The aggregate of individual distastes for brown bread produce a collective distaste amongst our black communities. Indeed, when we look at aggregate, we realize how individual preferences are dependent on collective representations. A dislike of brown bread is not just arbitrary, but is influenced by the culture one lives in; a culture that transmits untouchable values from one generation to the next.
The field of study which deals with the cultures of people is called anthropology.
In the case of black of black people who avoid brown bread, this culture is a product of racist laws of the past. This law was certainly a barrier that prevented black people from buying white bread and so anthropologists refer to it as a structure. This structure ensured that brown bread was the only bread black people could eat. Though this structure was dismantled at independence, it engendered a collective representation of brown bread as something undesirable.
As a result of independence, educated black Namibians became socially mobile and moved out of places such as Katutura, which were for blacks only. Accompanying the move from Katutura to former white-only neighborhoods, brown bread was exchanged for white bread. Here, social emancipation crossed the path of cultural construction and as the anthropologist William Dressler said, it left its mark on the human body.
Therefore, the anthropological perspective would be useful to understand the nutrition problem in Namibia, which is perhaps our biggest public health challenge. According to the United Nations, about 400 000 Namibians suffered from hunger and inadequate nutrition.
Given this startling statistic, how does Namibia engage with the international community in the fight against hunger? At the recent World Food Summit in Rome, the Namibian delegate called for our country to be reclassified as a low income country. He claimed that the reality on the ground shows that we are wrongly categorized as a middle income country. To what extent is this true? The anthropologist would be adept at tracing out the several realities people face in this land of contrasts. Indeed, through an ethnographic work the anthropologist would illuminate abstractions such as “middle income country” with true life accounts. Thus, we can fully capture how some people at the grassroots prevent hunger, while others are caught in a daily struggle for nourishment.
Through my discussion of black peoples’ choice of bread, I hope to have illustrated how health is influenced by the way individuals construct meanings about what they eat. Moreover, I hope to have shown how the anthropological perspective can uncover the nature of hunger and survival in Namibia . This idea has already been demonstrated by anthropologists internationally, such as the works of Joao Biehl about life on the margins in Brazil. In Namibia, anthropologist Debie LeBeau has done research on the roles of alcohol consumption and patterns of sexual relations in HIV transmission. LeBeau found that HIV transmission is exacerbated by the exchange of sex for food. Yes indeed, issues of food are central to understanding human health.
I just learnt that before Namibian independence – during apartheid days – white bread was for whites only. I saw a vivid representation of this in the film based on the autobiography of Sam Nujoma – the founding father of the Namibian nation. The scene I am referring to takes place in the late 1950s, when the anti-apartheid movements were just crystallizing. A young boy goes into a small shop (our word for grocery store) to buy a loaf of brown bread. Though he sees there is only bread left, he delays his purchase by looking at the other wonderful eats in the shop. When his eyes finally wonder back to the bread shelves, he notices the bottom brown bread shelf is empty. So he takes a white loaf instead. Immediately, the shop owner apprehends him and informs him of the status quo: “Don’t you know that white bread is only for whites?” before he sends him off with a warning to never set foot in his shop again.
Of course, the irony of this apartheid policy is that brown bread is actually healthier than white bread. There is a great deal of literature dealing with the health benefits of eating brown and whole bread. Organizations such as the Heart Foundation of South Africa can provide one with detailed information surrounding this fact. For our purposes, it is sufficient to note that since brown bread flour is less refined that white bread flour, it contains nutritional value that is lost during the refining process.
But in the eyes of most black people today, brown represents the inferior food they ate back in the days of the struggle. Akin to the, substandard Bantu education they received at schools, brown bread is part of all that was of no worth to whites and so it was allocated to the blacks. It is therefore no surprise that black self esteem in post apartheid Namibia is tied to the bread black people buy: “I think it is something subconscious, but I go for the white bread and not the brown… its probably because white bread was only for whites then and brown bread was all we could buy” tells Selma, a black medical doctor. It is ironic that even a medical doctor (who is fully aware of the fact brown bread is healthier than white bread) will consistently choose white bread. But Selma is aware that her purchasing choice underlies a deep, psychological desire to attain self worth through the consumption of ‘best foods’ – that which was reserved for whites.
Now I do not mean to belittle the point that certain people may just dislike the taste of brown bread. Individuals will have their preferences, irrespective of their race. What I am asking is that we examine the prevailing assumption in Namibia that black people will prefer to eat white bread if they are given the choice. The aggregate of individual distastes for brown bread produce a collective distaste amongst our black communities. Indeed, when we look at aggregate, we realize how individual preferences are dependent on collective representations. A dislike of brown bread is not just arbitrary, but is influenced by the culture one lives in; a culture that transmits untouchable values from one generation to the next.
The field of study which deals with the cultures of people is called anthropology.
In the case of black of black people who avoid brown bread, this culture is a product of racist laws of the past. This law was certainly a barrier that prevented black people from buying white bread and so anthropologists refer to it as a structure. This structure ensured that brown bread was the only bread black people could eat. Though this structure was dismantled at independence, it engendered a collective representation of brown bread as something undesirable.
As a result of independence, educated black Namibians became socially mobile and moved out of places such as Katutura, which were for blacks only. Accompanying the move from Katutura to former white-only neighborhoods, brown bread was exchanged for white bread. Here, social emancipation crossed the path of cultural construction and as the anthropologist William Dressler said, it left its mark on the human body.
Therefore, the anthropological perspective would be useful to understand the nutrition problem in Namibia, which is perhaps our biggest public health challenge. According to the United Nations, about 400 000 Namibians suffered from hunger and inadequate nutrition.
Given this startling statistic, how does Namibia engage with the international community in the fight against hunger? At the recent World Food Summit in Rome, the Namibian delegate called for our country to be reclassified as a low income country. He claimed that the reality on the ground shows that we are wrongly categorized as a middle income country. To what extent is this true? The anthropologist would be adept at tracing out the several realities people face in this land of contrasts. Indeed, through an ethnographic work the anthropologist would illuminate abstractions such as “middle income country” with true life accounts. Thus, we can fully capture how some people at the grassroots prevent hunger, while others are caught in a daily struggle for nourishment.
Through my discussion of black peoples’ choice of bread, I hope to have illustrated how health is influenced by the way individuals construct meanings about what they eat. Moreover, I hope to have shown how the anthropological perspective can uncover the nature of hunger and survival in Namibia . This idea has already been demonstrated by anthropologists internationally, such as the works of Joao Biehl about life on the margins in Brazil. In Namibia, anthropologist Debie LeBeau has done research on the roles of alcohol consumption and patterns of sexual relations in HIV transmission. LeBeau found that HIV transmission is exacerbated by the exchange of sex for food. Yes indeed, issues of food are central to understanding human health.
Namibia before independence (1951 to 1990) were under SA law. And being a SA citizen myself,the statement that whites bread was only for the Whites is a big misnomer. White bread was and is still far more expensive than brown bread (made from unsifted flour), hence Whites could more readily afford it. However, Black people also prefer white rather brown, even today. Only recently is brown bread becoming acceptable to some Blacks as they realise the nutritional value thereof. Whole Wheat bread is also made is made of the same unsifted flour but mixed with crushed wheat.
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