Nozipho Sasha Thorne is leading a quiet revolution to reclaim Eswatini’s indigenous botanicals, foods and ancestral knowledge — and showing that the continent’s culinary future lies in its roots.
The 39-year-old African food advocate is the founder of Mongi Botanical and culinary curator of the Luju Food & Lifestyle Festival, where she transforms the region’s forgotten plants, once-dismissed “poverty foods” and generations of community wisdom into a bold celebration of cultural innovation and sustainability.
Remarkably, Thorne has never trained as a chef or worked in a professional kitchen. Instead, she’s harnessed the universal language of food to reconnect communities with their heritage, elevate indigenous knowledge and spark meaningful conversations about the future of African cuisine.
“I bring back that spirit of ubuntu through the work that I do,” she says. “I work with indigenous botanicals in Eswatini with a company called Mongi Botanicals. I do the foraging and formulation of indigenous wellness products there, working with communities and learning from indigenous knowledge keepers.
“Outside, I also curate the food space at festivals in Eswatini; it’s a great stage to amplify that message that is maybe left at the community level. It’s where I find the space to articulate and bring this knowledge to the fore so that everybody can embrace it and hopefully change their lifestyles.”
As culinary curator for Eswatini’s renowned food and lifestyle festivals, Thorne is redefining what festival food can be. Blending purpose, culture and creativity transforms the festival’s culinary offering into a vibrant celebration of indigenous flavours and heritage.
The Luju Food & Lifestyle Festival returns for its eighth edition in August.
“In Eswatini, the food industry is still developing. Yet some people are interested and growing in that space. And on the food scene, I was inspired by them and bringing people together who are in that space to see how we can grow something here,” she says.
“Through curation, it becomes the trading floor for opportunities for collaborations from chefs in SA, Eswatini and the region. We felt that we needed to have a platform where we could return and restore dignity to Africanism, and I’m amazed at how much impact is happening on the ground.”
Born in Mbabane, Thorne showed little interest in food while growing up and never imagined she would build a career around it. Yet, what began as a fascination with indigenous plants gradually evolved into an extraordinary journey.
“What’s interesting is that when I was a child until my teenage years, I never liked eating because I never used to get hungry; therefore, I never associated eating with being hungry. I could easily go the entire day without eating unless someone told me to. So food wasn’t really part of my story,” she says.
“Food became part of my story when I started working with plants and realising that plants were nourishing and medicinal, life-changing essentially. So, even though I didn’t go to culinary school, I’ve grown to love food and cooking for my family; as someone open to exploring the food space, I frequent different food experiences and meet like-minded food advocates. That’s where my journey began.”
Thorne says food is about far more than what’s on the plate. In her hands, it becomes a powerful tool for preserving culture, reviving indigenous knowledge and reconnecting Africans with their food heritage — one meal at a time.
“Food is actually a universal language and conversation piece. There’s a lot that you can do by using food as a vehicle to discuss pertinent issues, from climate change and political issues to uplifting communities,” she says.
Imbuya in raw groundnut sauce
Ingredients
- 500g imbuya (morogo)
- 2 tbsp raw ground peanut powder
- 300ml water
- Pinch of salt
Method
- Pour the water and the peanut powder into a pot and heat gently.
- Keep stirring to avoid the powder from lumping together.
- Cook for 10 – 15 minutes.
- Rinse the wild spinach leaves until clean and set aside to drain excess water. Roughly cut the leaves.
- Add the clean-cut imbuya leaves into the peanut powder water and cook for a further 10 minutes.
- Add salt to taste and serve hot.
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