Food has provided the backdrop and occasionally the primary cause for momentous personal and political events in the life of Nelson Mandela. This innovative approach to history shows that a great man's life can be measured out in mouthfuls, both bitter and sweet.

Food has provided the backdrop and occasionally the primary cause for momentous personal and political events in the life of Nelson Mandela. This innovative approach to history shows that a great man's life can be measured out in mouthfuls, both bitter and sweet. With this title, the reader can cook and taste Nelson Mandela's journey from the corn grinding stone of his boyhood through wedding cakes and curries to prison hunger strikes, presidential banquets and ultimately into a dotage marked by the sweetest of just desserts. Tales told in sandwiches, sugar and samoosas speak eloquently of intellectual awakenings, emotional longings and always the struggle for racial equality.