The Grade Elevens at Wynberg Girls High have just completed a Xhosa cookbook, with both traditional and modern recipes.

The Xhosa teacher at the school, Mrs Thandi Mpambo-Sibukwana, says the girls are very excited about the project. The nine pupils in the Grade Eleven Xhosa class have been working on the book for about six months, once a week in class and also after school. They were helped out by Grade Twelve pupil Sive Xesha.

The books are on sale at the school office at R50 each. The money raised will hopefully enable the pupils to go on a cultural tour of South Africa to explore the traditional African way of life.

There are a variety of recipes in the cookbook, which is divided into five sections – soups, seafood, main courses (traditional and modern), puddings and cakes and scones.

"It took up a lot of time, but we learnt a lot," said some of the pupils. "We learnt new vocabulary and the grammar we had learnt was useful. We had lots of fun and also learnt about group work."

On Wednesday September 13, there will be a Xhosa concert at Wynberg Girls’ High, which will promote traditional dance, arts and culture. This will also be an opportunity to show off the academic work that they have done. And it’s not only the Grade Eleven Xhosa pupils that are hard at work. The Grade Tens are also hard at work on their own magazine.