Rainbow Maize

Rainbow Ekukanyeni Zulu maize is an heirloom corn variety, grown in South Africa long before commercial and genetically modified varieties, adapted to monocultures and intensive agriculture, became dominant. The name “rainbow” comes from the many colors of the kernels, which can be opaque blue, carmine red, pale orange, creamy white, violet, egg-yolk yellow or pink. No one cob is the same as the others, including when it comes to the length, which can vary from 15 to 30 centimeters. The variety is not grown commercially; instead it has been preserved and passed down by subsistence farmers for generations. Though there is little historical documentation, it is believed that corn was introduced to South Africa in the 16th century by Portuguese traders. The cereal found fertile ground in the country, particularly in the eastern region now known as KwaZulu-Natal, which was home to the largest concentration of people of the Zulu ethnicity. It quickly became a staple in the local diet. The dried kernels were crushed by hand, using a stone, then coarsely ground to obtain samp, or more finely ground for use in a porridge called pap. All of this was before the introduction of intensive monocultures and GMOs. These days, cornmeal is still an everyday staple in the country, but over 80% of the corn grown in South Africa is genetically modified.
The Slow Food network in Johannesburg has tracked down some farmers in what is known as the Valley of a Thousand Hills, close to Pietermaritzburg, in KwaZulu-Natal. Until a few years ago, this was the only place where the rainbow maize was being grown, but recently some seeds were taken to the Guateng region, to the Soweto and Orange Farm areas, where they are being cultivated by a few small-scale farmers who work the land using environmentally friendly agroecological techniques, intercropping the corn plants with beans and squash. These custodian farmers saw the first harvest of rainbow maize in Guateng in 2018.