In South Africa, cooking and eating together with forced migrants helps foster solidarity. According to research by sociologist Miriam Ocadiz, such practices can nurture care, justice, and dignity within and beyond the academic world.
Migrants are increasingly excluded in South Africa, particularly those from other African countries and with working-class backgrounds. Ocadiz investigated to what extent universities are responsible—perhaps even complicit—in sustaining these patterns of exclusion, and how academic institutions might instead support justice, and wellbeing for displaced communities.
Power and Participation
Ocadiz analysed how power operates within academic spaces and how decolonial collaboration is practised in real terms. “This research revealed that forced migrants have historically been silenced within academic environments,” Ocadiz explains, “and that even well-meaning attempts at inclusion often fail due to underlying dynamics of competition and inequality within marginalised groups.”
Struggles for Justice
Yet there are also examples of solidarity. “The concerns and aspirations of forced migrants are closely connected to the broader struggle for justice in South Africa,” Ocadiz observes. She continues: “Participatory research with women and LGBTQI+ migrants demonstrates how food-related activities—such as cooking and eating together—can open up new pathways for academic engagement.”
The Pandemic Context
For her study, Ocadiz conducted interviews and observations with twenty-two academics and fourteen professionals—activists, advocates, and artists—who aimed to work in partnership with communities of forced migrants. These interactions took place both during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Grassroots Initiatives
As part of her research, Ocadiz initiated two grassroots projects that centred food as a tool for co-creation: Food for Change, an online collaboration with eight women from forced migrant backgrounds, and The Chakalaka Sessions, a series of brunch gatherings with LGBTQI+ migrants. “These meals not only nourish a sense of belonging, justice, and dignity,” she explains, “they also generate valuable knowledge about identity, gender, connection, and lived experience.”
photo: NGO The Fruit Basket