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WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE GOAN?
Issues of celebration and connection, reflected in food and song
Ruth DeSouza
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Food is one of the many things that make life not only
pleasurable but memorable. I recently met a young Goan man who
is completing a degree who asked me if I could come to his
birthday party and share some sorpotel and vindaloo recipes as
the celebration wouldn’t be a celebration with them, especially
with him being so far away from home. This led me to reflect on
the importance of food and consider writing something for Goanet
Reader.
As you all know Goans have been a highly mobile
population and are scattered all over the globe as a
result of colonisation, and in a bid for a better life
and education for their children. At the beginning of
the millennium I undertook a research project to
explore how Goan women in Auckland New Zealand coped
with the dual transitions of migration and motherhood
as becoming a parent in a new county is a common
aspect of migration which is also under-researched.
It is well known that migrants draw on cultural resources and
links such as the notion of homeland, language, religion,
everyday social rituals such as food, drink, dance and song,
family, morals, community, landscape, histories and occupations.
Researchers of migrant communities have found that connection
with one’s ethnic community is vital for collective cultural
maintenance. This takes the forms of being involved in
community-type social networks in order to maintain their
culture, taking part in ethnic institutions, making trips “home”
and marrying within the community. These were all identified in
my research as significant, but for this piece I have chosen to
focus on the importance of traditional food in maintaining Goan
culture and in relation to the perinatal period. I have also
incorporated words from the Goan women that participated in the
research (with deep and heartfelt thanks).
Food has a symbolic and social significance that is
deeply embedded in a culture and is used to express
many things such as love, friendship, solidarity and
the maintenance of social ties. The significance of
food is heightened with migration, where it is the
most resistant aspect to the acculturation process for
migrant communities. Frequently, food is integrated
into the host culture, as those Goans living in the
United Kingdom or from Africa will attest to as seen
by the incorporation of Indian foods into African and
British communities.
Traditional food and celebration are pivotal to the construction
of Goan identity and an important part of ‘everyday’ food,
religious festivals, weddings and special events. Food also has
historical significance as seen by the impact of Portuguese,
Muslim and Indian cultures apparent in Goan cuisine. Conversion
to Catholicism by the Portuguese meant that foods moved from
being taboo to consumable and differentiated Goans from other
Indians, making them more Western.
The special foods that go with events during the year
are very traditionally Goan, for example we have
Christmas sweets. Besides Christmas sweets, I
associate eating Pilao on a Sunday and not just any
other thing, very Goan. and having your fish curry and
rice as well (Lorna).
Fish curries and coconut curries and I had learn to
cook when I was quite young and I had wanted to get
into the kitchen and dad would go to the marketplace
and buy all this yummy fish and come home and cook it
up and basically you'd eat Goan and things like that
(Rowena).
Goan fish curry is ubiquitous in most households in Goa, eaten
regularly and served with rice. Pilao is possibly from Muslim
times prior to Portuguese rule, made with basmati rice and
flavoured with whole spices like cardamom and stock. The Goan
sweets that are mentioned by Lorna originate from Portugal and
the Konkan region and they are produced and exchanged with
friends and neighbours at Christmas time. Every sweet has
coconut in it in milk form or thinly sliced. In Rowena’s quote
below, food is a way of acknowledging the family and social
ties:
We often had picnics, which had all the favourite
dishes like sorpotel, xacuti, food were very important
in terms of being social and the family (Rowena).
Xacuti is a complicated and painstaking Goan dish made with
chicken or lamb that involves the roasting of all the seasonings
before they are ground to a paste. Sorpotel is a ceremonial dish
made from pork that is prepared for feast days, Christmas,
weddings and other special occasions. The following anonymous
poem does more to illustrate the place of sorpotel in the
connections of Goans to ‘home’.
SORPOTEL
For the hotch potch known as Haggis, let the Scotsman yearn or yell
For the taste of Yorkshire pudding, let the English family dwell.
For the famed Tandoori Chicken, that Punjabis praise like hell
But for us who hail from Goa, there's nothing like SORPOTEL!
From the big wigs in Colaba, to the small fry in Cavel
From the growing tribes in Bandra, to the remnants in Parel.
From the lovely girls in Glaxo, to the boys in Burma Shell
There's no Goan whose mouth won't water, when you talk of SORPOTEL!
And Oh! for Christmas dinner don't you think it would be swell
If by some freak of fortune or by some magic spell
We could, as they have in Goa a bottle of the cajel
And toddy leavened sannas to go with SORPOTEL!
In this poem, sorpotel becomes a metaphor for migration and
connection to home. The names of the Mumbai (Bombay) suburbs,
with their differing social capital, in the second verse
illustrates that no matter where in the world a Goan is,
sorpotel is the social leveller. Cajel refers to a distilled
liquor made of cashew and toddy is fermented coconut or palm
juice, which is frequently used like yeast to make sannas, a
type of rice cakes made in moulds with a batter of ground rice,
toddy, coconut and sugar and then steamed. The predilection for
sorpotel has been influenced by the historical context of Goans
being a colonised people and as such it is an apt metaphor for
the richness of the culture located in a small geographic area.
Food plays a significant part in weddings as well, as seen by
these words by Flora:
The day after the wedding, It was in my
mother-in-law's house they made that plain white rice
with samarachi curry with dried prawns that is
supposed to be a typical dish for second day wedding
lunch, then third day at my mums place, it was the
three days festivities. You must be knowing about that
(Flora).
The samarachi codi refers to a curry made with coconut milk.
Food is significant from the most private and everyday to the
ritualised public celebrations like weddings. Such events and
networking with other Goans or Christian Indians were another
strategy for cultural maintenance.
Perinatal Rituals
Having a child is one of the most culturally and spiritually
significant events for women and their families and the
significance of this transition is validated through ritual. It
is thought that cultures that have supportive rituals for new
mothers have lower rates of postnatal distress (PND) and that
women in Western countries are at high risk of developing PND
Rituals reflect the vulnerability and special status of the new
mother and include being restricted to the home, being given
assistance, being given special foods and massage.
In Indian communities the experience of pregnancy and birth is
traditionally marked by nurturing and celebration of the status
of women who are to become mothers. This nurturing is
highlighted through the giving of special foods and assistance.
Movements of new mothers are restricted to the home for forty
days due to their perceived vulnerability postpartum. During
this forty day period, assistance is given with personal care
and the physical body is taken care of through massage and
ensuring the mother has an opportunity to relax. Parturition is
thought to generate a state of hotness and therefore weakness.
Grandmothers can play an active part in the preparation of
special food and ensuring a nourishing diet that includes foods
such as ghee, nuts, milk and jaggery1 which are given to return
the body to balance.
This attentiveness and “endless care” that is received from the
extended family (Shin & Shin, 1999, p.611) can be lost in the
process of migrating. This celebration of the status of the new
mother in ‘developing countries’ subverts the notion of ‘West is
best’ and the backwardness of the East, that was taken for
granted in my post-colonial upbringing. A recent article in NEXT
magazine in New Zealand have suggested that rituals need to be
re-instated to celebrate the status of motherhood (Sarney,
1999). Greta found that the shift from a social process of
pregnancy to an individualised one a painful loss:
Everyone else does things for you and you know in that
way you are just pampered. You get all these
supposedly nourishing treats and foods and things you
know. Like all these pulses and the sweets that you
normally have. I’m not very sweet tooth, but I think
they do help in a way you know. The nourishing
factors. You know things like that. At the same time
being here makes you think of all these things that
you take for granted back home (Greta).
Focused individual care is given to new mothers, and family
members take on roles in relation to food preparation and
hospitality as in Lorna’s story:
You know you get your massages and things. Mum looks
after the cooking because that takes away a lot of
time and then you don’t have to worry about that. Goan
things like moong, godshem and other lentils millet,
tizan2, and things like that, you know what that is. I
guess you would have had that if you were coming from
the traditional villages I’m sure, but ahh we have
lost a lot of culture on the way. Yeah yeah I guess
you also have many more people around you in India so
that if you are busy with doing something someone else
can entertain make the tea or conversation (Lorna).
Migrating reminded Lorna of the loss of traditions that began
with the move from traditional villages to urban settings prior
to the migration to New Zealand. The drive for upward mobility
(in the Western sense) in Goa and the concomitant loss of
traditional ‘old fashioned’ rituals has resulted in loss of
forms of nurturance from many cultures.
Being separated from family and culture meant were impediments
to conducting traditional rituals. For some Goan women it meant
not having anyone to consult who was bicultural and could see
the importance of special food. Migration can lead to separation
from family and trusteed advisers leading to a ‘vacuum of
knowledge’ . Rowena was anxious about the appropriate food to be
eating and struggled to create a new frame of reference and
develop a sense of what she ‘should’ be doing. Rowena sought
guidance but ultimately was unable to cook any of the things
that she thought might be useful because her husband worked long
hours and there were no extended family members available to
help her enact traditional rituals:
No, in fact I didn't know what to eat, but the
hospital kept saying eat a normal diet. Do I have to
have spicy food? They said since you've been eating it
all your life and during pregnancy, you don't have to
drink milk to get milk, just eat well. Because being
alone I had to cook my own stuff, so I just continued
eating my normal things (Rowena).
This example again highlights the tensions of attempting to
fulfil cultural expectations but also fit into what was
appropriate in the new culture.
Bringing family in to support rituals
Several participants brought mothers and mothers-in law to New
Zealand because it was unusual to have a baby ‘by yourself’, to
help with tradition, food preparation, care of the baby and
allow the new mother to rest. Lorna, Greta and Flora chose to
bring family members over where possible to provide both support
and assistance with rituals. Lorna was fortunate in being able
to bring her mother over to help out, and points out the alien
notion of the individualising of a major life event like birth:
Then you come to a place with no-one around you, you
don’t really know if you can make it alone. You know
you are not very independent in a way, so it is
unfamiliar to have a baby on your own. Yeah, so that’s
why, so you just sort of have Mum over everybody has
Mum over, it’s a Goan thing to do, it’s an Indian
thing to do (Lorna).
Greta was supported by both her mother and mother-in-law who
came to New Zealand to assist with care of the baby and other
household tasks which included food preparation and advice.
Greta’s example illuminates the richness and significance of
cultural rituals in the postpartum period:
Fenugreek seeds and jaggery and coconut milk and she
kept giving me that and I found that quite nourishing.
I don't know whether that would generate just the milk
and also a sort of porridge made from semolina. So I
would bake that and a drink that would help me clear
up my stomach too much of gas so those things helped
me a lot (Greta).
The importance of food to many Goan rituals and special
occasions is emphasised in Flora’s recount of her child’s
christening which emphasised the symbolic significance of the
Goan connection to the earth through the serving to guests of
chickpeas and coconut: Flora’s example highlights how she feels
she needs to justify the significance or legitimacy of
particular types of food to ‘Kiwis’ or have it legitimated by
them. This perhaps represents a sign of her wanting to ‘fit in’.
This could also be a way of justifying to white New Zealanders
the attachment to things Goan:
Even for a normal party you see all Goan tradition,
you must make this food you know, like for an
auspicious occasion, like a Christening. Coconut in
it, that is a must, you know a christening can't go
without that. The Kiwis, you know wonder what are we
serving boiled grams (chickpeas) for on an occasion
like this. My aunt was going around to all the Kiwi
guests saying you know I’m serving coconut. I didn't
know what was the meaning behind it, but she was
explaining you know chickpeas are the food of the
soil, and coconut is also a food of the soil (Flora).
Therefore it can be seen that food plays an important role both
in the private lives of Goans and the celebrations and life
transitions such as parenthood. One of the many strengths that
Goans have is the capacity for celebration and connection with
each other through food and song. The internet and increased
numbers in our global communities mean that we can more easily
access whatever it means for us to be Goan.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ruth de Souza is based in Waitakere City,
Aotearoa/New Zealand and can be contacted via email
[EMAIL PROTECTED] or at her website: www.wairua.com/ruth. This
article was first published in the GOANET READER –
www.goanet.org in July 2005.
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