John Love's Kyalami and the Sadza Pot

Drivers from the land now called Zimbabwe raced in the 1960s and early 1970s, mostly at the South African Grand Prix, and its everyday food centers on cornmeal sadza.

Zimbabwe has never hosted a World Championship race, and the drivers our records link to it raced before the country took its present name, when it was known as Southern Rhodesia and then Rhodesia. Almost all of their Grand Prix outings came at the South African Grand Prix, which served as their home race in all but name.

John Love, born in Bulawayo, is the standout. He started nine World Championship races between 1962 and 1972, and all but one of his ten entries came at the South African Grand Prix. There, in 1967, he finished second in a Cooper Climax behind the winner, Pedro Rodríguez. Sam Tingle, born in Manchester, made five starts at the same event between 1962 and 1969, with eighth his best finish. Clive Puzey and Ray Reed each entered the 1965 race without making the start.

Zimbabwean cooking rests on a few staples, above all mealie meal, or cornmeal. It becomes sadza, a thick porridge stiffened with extra cornmeal and eaten at lunch or dinner with gravy, greens, beans or meat that has been stewed, grilled or dried, and sometimes with sour milk or the small dried fish called kapenta. A thinner porridge, bota, flavored with peanut butter, milk or jam, is the usual breakfast. Family celebrations often mean a goat or a cow roasted or barbecued for everyone, which neatly settles the question of portions.

Other traditions have joined the table. Afrikaner favorites such as biltong and the spiced sausage boerewors, served with sadza, are popular, and colonial habits survive in morning porridge and in tea at ten and again at four. Rice cooked with peanut butter is a local favorite, and mutakura brings peanuts, maize, black eyed peas and Bambara groundnuts together in one traditional dish.

A taste of Zimbabwe

• Sadza ne nyama, Stiff cornmeal porridge with beef stew
• Muriwo unedovi, Greens in peanut butter sauce
• Boerewors roll, Coriander spiced sausage roll with tomato relish
• Magwinya, Fried yeast dough buns (fat cakes)
• Huku ne dovi, Chicken stewed in peanut butter sauce
• Matemba, Dried kapenta fish with tomato and onion
• Doro, Traditional sorghum and maize beer
• Maheu, Lightly fermented sweet and sour maize drink
• Mabhanzi, Sticky glazed sweet buns

Circuits

Drivers

• John Love
• Sam Tingle
• Clive Puzey
• Ray Reed