Blog

EAST AFRICAN

Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique are five countries within the region known as East Africa. It is a region where strong British influence is still felt although few British or East Indians remain. Like West Africa, the vast expanses of land are inhabited by hundreds of differing peoples, each devoted to their rituals and traditions.

For the brief period that Europeans controlled East Africa, they introduced many dishes and eating customs from their own homelands. They also imported corn from America, which in a very brief time became another variety of ugali – now prepared from millet or corn flour.

The Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama recognized the strategic importance of the area’s trade route. In the early 1900s German missionaries established themselves in Tanzania, bringing with them their beer and schnapps, and their own recipes for roasting the plentiful wild game. The British, who viewed the region as a home-away-from-home, replaced German influence. Imported cereals, tea, and coffee and even fruits and vegetables as well as live cattle all helped to bring their dream to realty: England in Africa! To complete the illusion, the British hired East Indians who in turn added their influence to the food and manners of the region.

Today, East Africans enjoy their ugali prepared from maize flour as if it had forever been a part of their diet. Fine beef cattle roam the lands and Kenyans are proud of their pig production. Some of the best European cheeses are produced in excellent quality: Swiss, Camembert, Cheddar, Gorgonzola, and a variety of soft and fresh cheeses. Not only flowers that are typically found in an English garden, but also fruits and vegetables commonly found in European markets are now deliciously prevalent in East Africa, especially in Kenya.

Still, despite the availability of plentiful game, most East Africans are vegetarians, living on dairy products, grains, legumes, vegetables, and fruits. Meat may occasionally be a part of special celebrations or rituals. There is good reason for this. As in India, the animals (cows, sheep, goats) are more valued for their milk, dung, fleece, and hair. And in Africa perhaps more importantly, they are valued for the status they bring to their owners.

Rice is a favorite in many meals and dishes, but sorghum, millet, corn, and wheat are widely used as cereals, dumplings, and breads. Pombe, the nation-al beer, is everyone’s beverage, including children. Manioc, sweet potatoes, bananas, and plantain together with a variety of local fruits round out the average diet. In coastal areas fish and crustaceans are important. Snacks of fruits or sugarcane are enjoyed. Curry, chili peppers, coconut and coconut milk and groundnuts are the usual seasonings.

The foods of Tanzania are distinguished from the other regions mainly because of their increased use of tropical fruits and vegetables.

DAIRY PRODUCTS

Cow’s milk, goat’s milk, and sheep’s milk, taken plain or soured or in the form of curds and whey, are used as available. Most often they are used for infants and young children as part of soups, gruels, and puddings. The Masai herdsmen are known to drink a beverage of milk and animal blood. Soured milk is preferred by adults in some areas. Farmers use dairy products less often than the nomadic tribes, who prefer to take dairy products in the form of soups and buttery sauces.

FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

Fresh fruits are eaten in season everywhere as they are available, whether wild or cultivated. Especially plentiful are varieties of mangoes and bananas, used green or ripe, to be eaten as they are or used in sauces. Other fruits include the whole range of tropical and sub-tropical fruits such as melons, hacha, baobab, mushange, hwakwa (African orange), onde, wild plums and berries, wild figs, dates, wild or kafir oranges, coconut, papaya, avocado, pineapple.

Most popular vegetables include plantains, green bananas, pumpkin, okra, yams, cocoyams, spinach, cress, mustard greens, and fresh corn. Cultivated vegetables include many varieties of beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, garlic, cabbage, carrots, and potatoes. To these must be added the many local varieties of wild and indigenous roots, tubers, bush greens, and mushrooms.

MEATS AND ALTERNATES

In most of rural Africa meats from any source are an infrequent part of the usual diet. It will likely be the highlight of a special occasion or given to special guests. Most meats and fowl are tough and stringy and require long, slow cooking with moisture, so are most often used in soups or stewed or braised dish-es. It should also be noted that most African women are experts at preserving whatever meat may be avail-able by methods of salting, drying, pickling and/or smoking. In rural areas where cattle are still considered a sign of wealth and status, beef is seldom used for food, but it may be included in the urban diet. Some forest animals, pigs (not used by Muslims), goats and sheep, antelope, elephant, and oxen may be used for food. Many varieties of mice are eaten in season and there is also seasonal use of black and red ants and caterpillars as well as some types of grasshopper. Many taboos surround the eating of offal, chicken, and eggs, and care is taken to avoid a guest’s particular taboo or superstition.

Fish and seafood are commonly only eaten close to their sources, such as in coastal areas, or near lakes, streams or rivers. Yet many experts have expressed strong feelings about the urgency and importance of improving fishing methods and storage and transportation facilities since this is an abundant resource that could greatly increase the general protein food supply.

There is a very wide variety of pulses used every-where that form an important part of the diet. Peas, beans and lentils of many varieties are readily stored and easily cooked into soups, sauces, side dishes, in combination with vegetables, or mashed and fried as cakes.

Varieties of nuts and seeds are used depending on local preference and availability but most popular are groundnuts, the African name for peanuts. They are used in soups, stews, and sauces, and as garnishes. Groundnut butter is used as a seasoning.

BREADS AND GRAINS

The staple African food, fufu or ugali, prepared from almost any available starchy plant source, forms 80 percent of the daily calories consumed, while the aver-age European diet contains only 30 percent calories from breads or cereals. It must be stressed that the general African diet is high in fiber and carbohydrates, with proteins and fats forming only a small part. Principal sources for flours and fufu/ugali preparation are: maize, manioc, sorghum, millet, wheat, and rice. Plantain, green bananas, and yams are the favorites for fufu. Many varieties of bread are made from the flours and these are further varied by including recipes for breads that are both leavened and unleavened. Some flours are allowed to ferment first to improve taste.

Swahili yeast is the leavening agent prepared by mashing ripe plantain with a little water, sugar, and wheat flour, and allowing it to ferment in a warm place. It not only leavens the dough but adds a sourdough-type flavor to buns, breads, and fried cookies.

FATS

The most-used fats are oils prepared from vegetables, seeds, or coconut. In some areas olive oil or palm oil is used, as available. Groundnuts are some-times used for their oil but the nuts themselves are more important; the pulp mash left after the oil extraction is also used as food.

SWEETS AND SNACKS

Desserts are mainly fresh fruits in season and as they are affordable or available. They are also nibbled as snacks. More recently there is a large increase in the use of sweetened tea and coffee as well as sweetened commercial soft drinks. An occasional snack or dessert may be of spiced and sugared fried pancakes or cookies; frying is more popular than baking because not everyone has an oven. Some honey and preserves are used as sweetening agents.

SEASONINGS

Blends of spicy, sweet, and various degrees of hotness in curries are widely used all over Africa. Many varieties of chilies and hot peppers are savored. Ground sesame seeds (plain or toasted), melon seeds, cotton seeds, as well as fresh and dried types of mush-rooms, are also used. Special seasoning pastes are prepared from seeds that have been dried in the sun, then steamed and fermented. Small amounts of the resulting paste are used as a flavoring. One such is called ogilie.

It should be noted that all foods are not only hotly seasoned but well salted. Salt is obtained by burning certain grasses or tree harks and the resulting ash passed through calabash sieves, then boiled in clay pots until a residue of whitish salt is formed. Another salt source was from certain soils where animals are observed licking; the watery residue from repeated washings of such soil is boiled and leaves a salty residue.

BEVERAGES

Although the exact names may differ from one region to another, soured milk (from cow, sheep, goat, or camel), low-alcohol beer and wine made locally are all familiar beverages, as is the ever-present hospitable tea and coffee. Coconut milk and juices from fruits are also widely used both as drinks and as cookery ingredients. Commercial soft drinks are now increasingly used, but a wide variety of herb teas are also enjoyed everywhere in Africa.

SPECIAL OCCASIONS

For the most part, Africans are part of a pastoral society and though many adhere to Christianity or Islam, they still, to a greater or lesser degree, retain elements of totemism and animism, and many of their special occasions revolve around the seasons, planting, and harvesting as well as family-life rituals. The land itself has a quasi-religious value to most Africans. This fact alone helps to explain (in spite of forced religious conversions) many cultural and religious ceremonies and the deep emotions relating to the dignity of work and respect for ancestors.

Land is not only the root of their culture and traditions, it also encompasses the whole realm of social relationships from duty to fellow tribesman to witch-craft. “Work is done as much in honor of ancestors and of the system as it is to provide food…” Knowledge of these deeply embedded traditions may help the westerner to also understand the African’s seemingly stubborn resistance to mechanization and even to tools that are upsetting age-old traditions, that and result in the hateful pitting of one generation against another.

Aside from the cycle of seasons and crops, birth, weddings, puberty and death, visitors alone are reason enough for a “special occasion,” and foods may seem festive merely because of the occasion. Or, depending on the area, the traditions, and the wealth and status, an animal or chickens may be specially slaughtered, special soups may he prepared with special ritual such as the blessing soup or milioku ngozi (a rich, hot chicken soup) of West Africa, or simply a more generous quantity of the usual fare may be offered.

In 1991, Eric Copage brought Kwanzaa to general public appreciation in the United States with his book by that name. This special week of African-American cultural celebration, celebrated the full week after Christmas, has been gaining wide practice since its creation in 1966 by Maulana (Ron) Karenga.

Central to the celebration are seven culturally and historically embedded symbols: fruit and vegetables, a straw place mat, ears of corn, small gifts, a communal drinking cup, a seven-branched candle holder (hinara), and seven candles to be lit on successive days. Each of the candles in turn represent the seven principles of Kwanzaa:

1. Unity
2. Self-determination
3. Collective work and responsibility
4. Cooperative economics
5. Purpose
6. Creativity
7. Faith

 

GLOSSARY OF FOODS AND FOOD TERMS

Akara: popular breakfast dish made from mashed black-eyed peas seasoned with salt, pepper, and onion then deep-fried.

Akassa: Ghanian porridge made from corn flour and hot water.

Anu Ofia: term used for fresh meat from any forest animal. The meat is prepared by first singeing over an open fire then washing and cutting as preparation for smoking, drying, or cooking. Most African meats are tough and stringy and therefore best prepared by marinating (in beer, wine, various fruit juices, or soured milk) then cooking with moisture or used in soups and stews.

Asida: term used for a late morning meal usually consisting of Fufu and relishes.

Bamia: also called “ladyfingers.” Both are names for okra, a green pod that can be cooked crisp or simmered to a gelatinous texture.

Bamie Bread: a moist bread made with okra.

Baobab Tree: as functional as the coconut palm. Fruit and leaves are edible; ashes of the wood are used as salt; seeds and pods are roasted to make a drink or snack; the tree trunk is a source of water.

Bajias: small seasoned balls of cooked mashed potatoes or yams, flour-coated then deep-fried. A favorite of African Indians.

Balila: term used for the evening meal, which usually consists of Fufu plus relishes. In many areas care is taken to eat this before dark so as to avoid evil spirits.

Bota: thin gruel often prepared from millet and given as a supplementary food for infants.

Buhme: locally made sweetened beer offered in small amounts to infants after six months of age.

Callaloo: a casserole of vegetables, various fish and seafood with meat and seasonings. A popular combination includes spinach, mixed seafood and cubed lamb seasoned with garlic, chilies, and tomato paste. The combination of fish, seafood, and meat is also popular in Portugal. Is it possible that the Portuguese traders and explorers brought this recipe home? (This is also the name of a Caribbean soup named for the coarse green callaloo leaves from dasheen or taro plant.)

Cassava: also called manioc is the tuber from which manioc flour and tapioca is made. Slightly fermented and ground into flour, manioc is used to prepare the classic Gari ser^ved with vegetable and/or meat sauces.

Chapatis: unleavened breads freshly made for a meal from almost any flour: rolled flat then deep-fried until they puff and brown. Well known in India and much favored by African Indians.

Chenga: a thick milk soup made with rice or corn and thickened with corn flour (cornstarch). Considered one of the chief foods of East Africa.

Chihengi: pineapple.

Chin Chin: deep-fried cookie leavened with Swahili yeast.

Cocoyams: variety of wild yams.

Dende Oil: the Brazilian name for the densely rich palm oil brought to Brazil by West Africans. Its red-dish hue can be imitated by adding paprika to peanut or vegetable oil.

Dovi: paste of groundnuts (peanut butter). Duri: mortar and pestle.

Fufu, Ugali or Ampesi: staple African food. Thick porridge-like mixture made by pounding then cooking any one of many starchy plant foods or mixtures of them. Corn, millet, rice, cassava, plantain, green bananas, or varieties of yams may be used. For eating, the mixture is formed into small halls with three fingers of the right hand then dipped into sauces or relishes made from fish, meat, or vegetables – almost always spicy hot.

Futari Yams: thick mixture of cooked potatoes flavored with groundnuts, tomatoes, onions.

Garri or Gari: a slightly fermented cassava flour used in cooking. A favorite of many, especially Ghanians.

Ghada: the midday meal, usually consisting of Fufu and relishes.

Groundnuts: peanuts, a staple food.

Gumbo: with a consistency between a soup and a stew, gumbo is derived from the African Bantu word for okra. Simmered gently with spicy seasoning, okra, and other vegetables, gumbos take their name from the main seafood or meat ingredient and are usually served over wild rice. In America, gumbos are a treasured part of Creole cuisine.

Hova or Hobo: bananas.

Imba: name given to main hut or house where cooking and eating take place.

lninga: sesame seeds, when eaten cooked as a relish.

lnjera: classic Ethiopian bread prepared like a huge pancake from Teff (fine millet flour). Then pancakes are placed, overlapping on a small table or large serving tray – at once becoming tablecloth, dish (for a stew of meat and/or vegetables) and then torn to scoop up the food.

Trio: Swahili word for a combination of cooked vegetables, cubed or chopped and seasoned with oil and salt and pepper. Favorite in East Africa.

Ji Akwukwo: very thick stew of many vegetables plus yams. Favorite in West Africa.

Keuke: corn bread prepared from wet fermented corn flour. Sour in East Africa, sweeter and whiter in West Africa.

Kikwanga: Congo name for disc-shaped bread made from cassava flour. The same bread in Jamaica is called Bammy and in the southern United States pan bread.

Kuli-Kuli: delicacy made from frying the residual groundnut paste after the oil has been extracted.

Madafu: immature coconut water, a beverage.

Maheu: traditional drink for women and children; slightly alcoholic sweet liquid left from soaking cooked Fufu.

Mahshi: almost any available variety of vegetable stuffed with a mix of ground meat or fish and rice and baked with tomato sauce.

Manhanga: term used to refer to many varieties of squash and pumpkin.

Manioc or Cassava: general name given to any starch roots from which tapioca and other flours may be made.

Manwiwa: watermelon. Mealie: corn. Milioku: soup.

Milioku Ngozi: also called Blessing Soup. A hot West African soup usually made with a whole chick-en and yams. Soup is served first, then meat and vegetables sliced and served afterward. Usually served at planting and harvest celebrations.

Millet: the small grains of a cereal grass, used in preparation of some foods.

Mseto: Swahili word for rice or lentils; usually cooked into a thick sauce, highly seasoned and served with meat or fish.

Mudumbe: the succulent root fibers from the elephant ear plant.

Munyu: salt. Mupunga: rice.

Muriwo: relish or sauces accompanying Fufu. These are an important part of the diet’s nutrients, containing not only a wide variety of vegetables and seasonings (hot), but often meat and fish and bones, when available.

Naarjes: South African tangerines, deep in color and rich in flavor.

Nhopi: a Fufu or porridge made from pumpkin. Nsiko: crabs.

Ofe Nsala: a fiery pepper sauce made with a base of meat or fish. This is one of the most popular things served to women with new babies and may comprise the main part of the diet, diluted as a soup or gruel, or eaten with Fufu.

Ogede: plantain.

Olilie: one version of the seasoning paste made from dried, fermented, and cooked seeds, used for flavoring.

Oka Esiri Esi: a corn and milk soup.

Olele: a baked or steamed Nigerian pudding made from ground peas, onion, and salt.

Oporo Ukwu: lobster.

Pan Bread: Southern United States name for a disc-shaped bread prepared from cassava flour.

Plantain: tropical plant bearing a fruit similar to the banana, usually eaten cooked.

Pombe: beer made from plantains or bananas.

Rupiza: thin porridge or gruel made from powdered dried beans.

Sabal Palmetto: the young sprouting leaves of cocoyams and sweet potatoes, cut and cooked as greens for relishes.

Sorghum: cereal grass grown for grain or fodder.

Surudzo: sieves.

Suya: cut up meats marinated in peanut oil then skewered and cooked.

Swahili Yeast: yeast made from the fermentation of ripe plantains, sugar, water, and wheat flour. Used as leavening agent for breads, buns, and fried cookies.

Teff: fine millet flour. Tembo: palm wine.

Togwa: beverage made from fermented germinated sorghum.

Tseme or Nhembatemba: special pot used for storing Dovi (groundnut butter).

Tuwo: spicy okra sauce.

Tuwonsaffe: in northern Ghana, the daily Fufu is allowed to ferment in this “sourpot” and the Fufu needed for meals is scooped from the Tuwonsaffe.

Ugali: Tanzanian staple cornmeal porridge of Fufu.

Ulezi: a slow cooked porridge of milk and millet, flavored with butter and lemon juice. A food for convalescents.

Yam: the nutritious white yam is a powerfully symbolic staple food frequently staving off malnutrition and starvation, particularly in West Africa. Often of immense size, one African yam can easily feed a family. Feast days are common and yams figure largely in any festive occasion. Because the egg symbolizes fertility and therefore eternity, eggs often accompany yams in these special dishes.

Although there are many ethnic groups in Africa, it is possible to make some generalizations about foods and food customs. In some areas, different names may be used but it is generally conceded that the principal African staple is a starchy mixture called fufu in western regions and ugali in east-ern areas. It is eaten with spicy sauces and condiments. The starchy mixture may be prepared from any cereal or starchy vegetable or root by pounding into a paste and then cooking with water like a cereal. It is eaten with three fingers of the right hand by forming the food into a ball then dipping into flavorful and spicy sauces. Rice, yams, cassava, plantain, corn, millet, or cocoyams may be used. More sophisticated versions may be formed into small cakes or fritters and fried, or formed into small balls and poached, then served much the same way as dumplings are in other countries.

The condiment sauces are skillfully prepared from locally available spices and herbs and often include onions, tomatoes, meats and bones, fish and seafood, and various root and green vegetables, even fruits, depending on availability. The use of fiery peppers and chilies of many types and distinct flavor and hotness is universal. Many a husband judges his wife’s love and respect by the hotness of her sauces.

Considerable ingenuity is also displayed in the preparation and variety of breads, fried cakes, and

fritters prepared from flours made from cassava, millet, manioc, wheat, and corn.

Soups are the staple food of the nomadic tribes people, moving from place to place in search of cattle food. They use milk and prepare butter but choose to collect wild vegetables and hunt occasional wild animals rather than use their herds for food.

Traditionally, fruit beers made from various cereals, and a slightly fermented beverage made from porridge water (maheu) are the beverages usually taken between meals rather than with food. More recently, sugar and honey-sweetened tea and coffee and commercial soft drinks are replacing the traditional and more. nourishing beverages.

MEALS AND CUSTOMS

The majority of rural Africans customarily eat one main meal a day and this is usually the evening meal. Upon arising, coffee, tea or milk or curds may form a small light meal while some people may be content to nibble on seeds. Throughout the day snacks of fruits, seeds, or nuts may be accompanied with beverages. In some areas a midday meal of fufu/ugali and relishes may be traditionally larger than the evening meal, which in this case would then be a cereal dish alone of gruel or fufu.

Infants are usually breast-fed on demand up to the age of two. Attempts to introduce bottle feedings have often met with sad results: sterilization of bottles and formula were poorly understood, formulas were diluted to last longer, and with the abandonment of breast-feeding, intercourse was resumed earlier than usual with a resultant increase in children who could be ill afforded. Bota is a thin gruel for babies, fed by pouring into the mother’s hand and gently easing into the infant’s mouth. Some foods and medicinal herbs if deemed necessary are pre-chewed by the mother then given to the infant.

Very young children are taught early that meat is a delicacy, but like other pleasures, they are also taught that they cannot always have everything they want: meat may be tasted and enjoyed, but it is generally not given until children are at least three or four years old.

In most parts of Africa, meals follow strictly specified rituals. At a very young age, children learn that handwashing and clapping of the hands must always precede a meal. Children must be silent while adults eat; further, they must never beg for food. Violations of these rules are punishable by beatings. Men pre-cede women at meals but no one eats alone. Dining is always a group pleasure and a time of calm and serene enjoyment. In some areas it is considered that women are somehow self-sufficient, and no one seems concerned if they are left only the crumbs.

Often if new foods are introduced by aid groups from other countries, the food must be appealing to the men, for if refused by them no one else will touch it.

Hospitality is considered of great importance and also follows a predictable ritual of handwashing, clapping, and the offering of food. Even if one is not hungry, to refuse would he an insult.

Totemism is greatly respected and it is considered proper to inquire of a guest what their totem is so that it may be separated from the rest of the food. For example, if the totem of a certain guest is liver, then liver will be removed from the rest of the meats to be served and given to the others so that the guest will not be offended. Other strongly held traditions concern local clan, family, and tribal taboos: for example the eating of certain fish, eggs or parts of animals or fowl may be taboo, and for the Muslims pork is forbidden.

While food growing and harvesting is done by the men, women are responsible for collecting fire-wood and water and for food preparation. So seriously are these daily tasks taken that young children perform play ceremonies enacting their parts as men and women of the household. This parent-supervised ceremony is called mahumbwe. Very young girls make serious play of helping their mothers and grandmothers at their tasks.

Finally, it is important to remember that the customs and traditions recorded here are a part of traditional and rural African life, but by no means practiced consistently. A large and continually growing population of Africa is the new middle class: freshly educated, ambitious, sophisticated, and eagerly creating their own culinary and social arts liberally laced with ideas from their rich past, yet at the same time new. Three meals a day, school lunch programs, scientific fishing methods, and modern farming techniques have already made many of the traditions seem archaic.

Cookery methods rather than basic foods are what distinguish regional and ethnic dishes in Africa. Foods may be cooked over open fires or in pits heated with stones; either of these methods may be used indoors or outdoors. Commonly used cookery utensils include: perforated clay steamers, jugs and jars for storage, strainers, mortar and pestle, knives, enamel and clay and heavy iron cooking pots, wooden bowls and spoons (fufu or ugali is always stirred with a wooden spoon), graters, frying baskets. Grinding stones are used to mill grains; dried gourds and cal-abash shells are used as spoons and ladles – and many of these are beautifully decorated and carved.

Food storage is a great problem because of the climate and a prevalence of insects and rodents. However, elevated platforms, vessels and cages, strung and held up, and covered clay containers and woven covers of many types are used.

Eating and cooking, if not done outdoors, are often done in a special hut that may have floors finished with a paste of dried cow dung. A special ledge along one side may be used to store most of the cookery utensils, especially the treasured clay pots and jugs. In some areas, in addition to pits and the use of open fires, ovens built of dried mud may he used for baking.

Foods are generally used on a day-to-day basis, and the amount required is judged – seldom asked for by weight. Africa has an oral rather than a written tradition: events and traditions are passed by word of mouth and by careful demonstration, dance or song. The written word and such things as weights and measures were never important in traditional rural communities. Introduction of weights and measures is a slow process, whereas amounts are taught to, and somehow learned by, young children.

Cutlery is seldom used for eating except in cities and then often only in European company. Even in urban areas, the family evening meal will likely be a traditional fufu or ugali with condiment sauces all enjoyed in the traditional way from community platters and eaten with the fingers.