Real Heroes don’t wear Capes

“I think a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people.”

Maya Angelou

While scrolling through my Facebook feed on my phone last Saturday night, Fatima Sydow’s cooking video popped up with her Cape Malay recipe for Soesys Bredie (Sausage Stew). Ah, a great idea for Sunday lunch, I thought, so I settled in and watched Fatima, the inspirational home cook whom I have been following lately, show me how it’s done. 

Fatima’s cooking videos are a far cry from the other professionally set up ones that have become popular: the ones with well-known celebrity chefs in well-lighted, state of the art kitchens with latest in colour, co-ordinated gadgetry and utensils and all the fine ingredients neatly measured, prepped and laid out in mini, cute, glass bowls. No, Fatima just uses a no-filter, amateur, video camera propped up above her stove cooktop and she literally just throws stuff into the sizzling pot from her plastic bowls or whatever as she talks and chuckles mischievously. With the absence of industry standard production techniques, the cooking experience is scaled down and so much more humbling and heartfelt - it is like you are right there in your favourite aunty’s kitchen.  It cuts back cooking to basics and for those that are still intimated and lacking in cooking skills, it gives you a sense that you can hack this too because everything is so simple and non-fiddly using familiar ingredients. 

In her Cape Malay accent, the lady who hails from the Mannenberg, Cape Flats district, attests to the simplicity of her cooking style: ”You know any good recipe is determined by what you have in your pantry, what you have in your fridge and what you can afford at that time and what’s available in your region. It will still taste lekker.”  I feel relaxed and nostalgic and get so much of joy while I watch Fatima cooking especially listening to the rustic, Cape Town accent: “That is going to fry until it’s DORK, DORK, DORK brown and we will be right back.”

I was looking for inspiration to shine the light on a phenomenal woman for my motivational piece this week in honour of Women’s Month celebrated in August in South Africa and what a perfect example of a local, honest-to-goodness soul sister bringing so much of joy to her over 45 000 YouTube subscribers, nearly half million Facebook followers, countless readers of her Cape Malay Style recipe books and her television show she hosts with her twin sister, Gajima, called “Kaap, Kerrie en Koeksusters”. She succeeds in changing ordinary people’s lives by using her gift of cooking to make people happy: 

“When I make food, I feel very calm and feel closer to the people who taught me to make it. So I hope I give the same energy to others to enjoy this whole process of cooking”. You sure do, Fatima, and thank you too to your late mother, Wasiela, who inspired you and your sister in her District 6 kitchen to be the awesome cook you are. 

What adds more to Fatima’s amazing success is her backstory. She grew up in a poor home in Mitchell’s Plain with her five siblings. She dropped out of school in Year 10 and then one day she just woke up and said ‘No, I want to make something of my life and do something and education is important’. With that determined promise she made to herself, she resumed her studies at school and “at 19 years old, I finished with flying colours,” she reports with her infectious chuckle. Although she had enrolled as an Archeology student, she had to withdraw because of lack of funds. She then opted to pursue her other passion of culinary arts and worked in a hospital canteen frying “slap chips” where she slowly introduced her own style of cuisine to feed the exhausted, over-worked medical staff. 

Fatima sought refuge in the hospital which became her second home as she tried to escape from her own home where she was suffering from an extremely abusive marital relationship. This miserable marriage was compounded by the fact that she couldn’t have children of her own so she gave all the love she had to the little ones recovering in hospital at that time. 

They say real heroes don’t have to wear capes; they are all around us rising above the terror of their barbaric experiences to sprinkle a little light and laughter to light up the lack-lustre lives of others that are also doing it tough. It is inspiring and reassuring to know that from the bottomless depths of despair, these living angels amongst us have been plunged like fresh tea leaves into scalding water to rise up on the other side with their aromatic scent of forgiveness to bequeath us the heart-stopping pleasure of a soul satisfying cup of tea. 

I hail from a humble but happy childhood home and I was not exposed to the cruelties of the world that many of my soul sisters have been through so while my heart bleeds for the unnecessary pain and suffering that you have been subjected through to abject poverty, substance abuse, domestic violence, molestation, emotional abuse or abandonment or disengaged parents, my heart sings sweetly when I come across the proverbial phoenixes like Fatima who is a living testimony that signals the universal truth that things can be turned around for the better. 

Thank you to all the phenomenal women that I interact with daily especially through social media who have been through turbulent times and still continue to put on brave smiles as you work through your challenges with health, professional, relationship and personal development issues. Life is bound to knock you down but you have to get up, stand up and show up like Fatima Sydow is doing it so beautifully and effortlessly. 

Have a phenomenal Women’s Month in South Africa and continue on your journey of being the authentic woman you already are. I don’t think I am going to wait for next Easter to make pickled fish that I used to love while I lived in South Africa or the hot cross buns - going to try many more recipes from her Facebook page Fatima Sydow Cooks. 

Have an awesome week and month and do your bit to honour and spread a little sunshine to a lovely lass or lady in your midst. 

#fatimasydow #Womensmonth #phenomenalwoman #heroesdontwearcapes