“
Go jewa ke ntlo” (she was eaten by the house) is a Northern Sotho metaphor for maternal death in childbirth. While the majority of South African women survive pregnancy, many feel alternately consumed and nourished by motherhood. Cooking, eating, feeding, being fed and becoming the mothers and children that we are exists on a symbiotic biocultural continuum. South Africans often explain this relationship to ourselves and others by way of alimentary sayings (such as the one above) and a plethora of foodie folk lore. Some of our traditional food proverbs and practices are supported by science. Others are erroneous (and occasionally actively injurious). Most are unproven but benign and earnestly adhered to.