Quality Living Styles - Travel

Barakat, A Tradition Gone Awry?

Nazeem states that, Barakat “... is an Arabic word meaning blessing. There is a similar word (berkat) in both Malay and Indonesian with exactly the same meaning. But like a lot of other things, we, here in Cape Town have mangled the word to mean something totally different.

And here in Cape Town everybody uses this word. They even use it in the newspapers. Here in Cape Town it means ‘to take foodstuff home’ to give it its easiest meaning.

I have touched on this subject before where the taking foodstuff home is so inbred in our community that it will never disappear.” Here are some examples of some , Barakat.

Nazeem's interesting and humorous explanation of Barakat, reminds us that there are so many interesting travel tales that come out of just regular visits to family and friends. In this story of Barakat, we get to learn of a particular, shall I say, “tradition,”, where it seems a lot of folks go over the top, in a not so nice way.

I did hear of a similar story where guests at a wedding in Benoni, South Africa, pulled up their chairs to the buffet table and began helping themselves to the sumptuous spread, with others carrying off, trays of prawns to their cars!!

Click this link for the story on Barakat,

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