Urban artisanal food design for regeneration and resilience in Johannesburg, South Africa

Abstract

The history of South Africa is one where, over almost the entire 20th century, minority white settler governments passed a series of land acts, culminating in apartheid as a legal system of institutionalised racial segregation. Over 80% of the land was taken from non-white South Africans, leading to their forced relocation to isolated and marginal land in artificially created apartheid townships and homelands. With memories of their families tilling the soil, through concern for food security, and as adaptive acts of defiance, urban farms emerged within these relocated communities. After over 30 years since a return to democracy, this chapter tells aspects of the stories of four small-scale urban farmers gathered through an embedded multi-case study. We meet Phila, Sakhile and Earl, who grew the Chilli of Soweto, recognised in Slow Food’s Ark of Taste, and Refiloe, an inner-city farmer who makes her own brand of vegetable juices, preserves and chilli sauce. The chapter explores artisanal food design by urban farmers who are lay designers, craftspeople and social innovators. In the face of growing ecological crises, the chapter shines a light on ingenious reconnection to heritage, tradition, community and land through food. It explores how expert designers can amplify lay design activities to support regeneration and ongoing resilience despite significant obstacles.