A good excuse for a Braai Day
11 September 2007
Come 24 September - a public holiday in SA - and South Africans in their millions will haul out the tongs, light up the charcoal and start grilling meat outdoors: in the garden, in the park, on the beach, just about anywhere you can spend a few hours with friends or family, undisturbed except by each other.
Weather permitting, of course - which it is more often than not on the southern tip of Africa.
And whether or not anyone encourages us to. We're South Africans, after all, and enjoying a braai (rhyming with "cry", meaning more or less "barbecue") comes to us all as naturally as ... well, getting out in the sun.
Which makes Jan Scannell, founder of a campaign to have 24 September declared National Braai Day in South Africa, a smart man. How can he lose? Even vegetarian South Africans find a way to braai - my vegan friend's grilled mushrooms are as tasty as any boerewors you'll find.
(That's "boor-uh-vors".
Literally, "farmer's sausage", a savoury sausage developed by the Boers - today's Afrikaners - some 200 years ago.)
Why does Scannell want us to formalise this particular braai opportunity? Because 24 September is National Heritage Day, and because braaing "unites us all in a common purpose and transcends racial, social, cultural and language barriers."
National Braai Day "will allow us to get together, burn the past and cook up a succulent future," Scannell writes on his website - which features such "cool" items as braai recipes, "ask the tongmaster" and a submit-your-own "braaictionary" of South African BBQ-related terms.
'Unifying barbecues'
Good idea, good website - the only ingredient Scannell lacked was a good sell. No problem. Get on the phone to Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Nobel peace laureate and the second most famous South African - and, incidentally, the person who
coined the phrase "rainbow nation" to describe post-aparteid SA - and ask him to endorse your campaign.
The idea must have tickled Tutu's sense of humour, for pictures of "The Arch" wearing a braai apron and serving up sizzling sausage rolls outside his Cape Town office were all over the local papers on Thursday - and the international press lapped up the story.
"Tutu praises 'unifying' barbecues" (BBC News), "Tutu becomes Barbecue Day patron" (Washington Post), "Braai the beloved country" (Monsters and Critics) were just some of the headlines doing the rounds.
"We have 11 different official languages but only one word for the wonderful institution of braai: in Xhosa, English, Afrikaans, whatever," Tutu told reporters. "There are so many things that are pulling us apart ... This has a wonderful potential to bring us all together."
The ultimate aim, says Braaiday.co.za, is "to create a local day with the same festivities and impact as St Patrick's Day in Ireland
or the 4th of July in America."
SMS Braai
By Scannell's reckoning, more than 12-million South Africans sat around the braai on 24 September 2006. It's unclear how he arrived at this figure, but this year National Braai Day is aiming to get 30-million of us out there turning over the lamb chops - and this time they've got a way to tally the fires.
"Show your support of National Braai Day by sending an SMS to 34761 on 24 September with the number of people attending your braai," says the website. "We will release numbers to the press on a real time basis, and there will be a live counter on this website.
"If you're part of the official count, we will send you a return SMS with the number of South Africans around the fire with you."
South Africa's cellular operators won't be complaining, then. But who would be?
Certainly not the butchers or the beverage makers. The trees, perhaps? According to Scannell, the firewood we buy at the
local supermarket or service station is "mainly alien vegetation from Australia".
That settles it. Pass me the firelighters.
SouthAfrica.info reporter
| 
