African Foodways

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African Foodways

• Great variability in geography and history

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Major Geographic areas

• North Africa - along Mediterranean
• Sahara dessert
• Sub-Saharan tropical region with rainforests
• Sub-Saharan grasslands, savannas, high forests
  and temperate zones

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West Africa

• Contact with European traders
• Kingdom/States of the Ashanti, Dahomey, Oyo,
  Yoruba, Fulani
• Largely Muslim communities

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East Africa

• Initially Arab traders
• later by 15thc European colonization
• Sub-saharan Africa by 15th c - Portuguese in
  search of gold
• Often vegetarians - Muslim influence

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Political Independence

• Sudan first republic in 1956
• Seychelles (islands) last in 1976
• Rhodesia - British colonial rule became Zimbabwe
  in 1979 Robert Mugabe
• South Africa white supremacy repealed in 1991

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Traditional African foods

• cow-peas, black-eyed peas
• okra
• sesame
• millet
• taro
• ensete, watermelon, kola nuts
• cattle and pastoralism - very prestigious and
  common in savannas (E and W) Africa
• (also camels, sheep, goats)

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Some common aspects of food production

• throughout Africa - women cultivate most of the
  consumed food men cultivate export crops
  (coffee, cloves, tea, cashews)
• taboos against eating eggs exist in many areas
• may make childbirth difficulty and excitable
  children
• lactose intolerance is common in population

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Lactose intolerance

• all milk contains a complex sugar lactose
• enzyme lactase works in the small intestine to
  aid in digestion
• only humans and some pets can digest milk after
  weaning
• 90 of Northern Europeans are lactose tolerant
• 80 of two African groups are tolerant
• Fulani-West Africa, Tutsi-Rwanda and Burundi
• both are historically pastoralists

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New World foods added to diet

• maize
• cassava
• peanuts
• pumpkin
• tomatoes
• chilies

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West African Cooking

• Boiling and frying were common
• sometimes with coconut oil
• Stews were common
• with added okra foundation for Louisiana gumbo
  - makes thick
• add meat veges, and legumes
• corn was stable soon after introduced

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Peanuts

• West Africa adopted peanuts (South American)
  early
• including making peanut butter
• Agronomist George Washington Carver
• credited with discovery of peanut butter and
  peanut oil
• In US annual consumption of peanuts is gt 2
  billion pounds/year

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Peanuts and Groundnuts (native) Used in stews
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Ethiopian cuisine

• Arid mountainous plains and low valleys

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Typical Ethiopian fare

• Millet
• teff type of millet to make flat bread, injera
• fermented teff, cooked on griddle
• barley and other grains, beans and peas (legumes)
• plantains
• wat stew made of eggs, lentils, chickpeas,
  peanuts (often with meat)
• berbere spice mix (like a curry powder),
• allspice, cloves, cardamom, cayenne, bk pepper,
  etc

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Injera
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Feeding a guest
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Ethiopian beverages

• Honey - fermented to make tej, a meadlike
  beverage
• tallä Beer - fermented barley

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Geophagy

• The consumption of edible clays
• Occurs in some areas of Africa and the Southern
  United States

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Geophagy

• has both nutritional and detoxification purpose
• clay may be ingested when added to foods
• intentionally added to reduce bitter foods
• eliminates some toxic alkaloids, esp. for tuber

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Famine

• Clay consumption is common during times of famine
• may be atavistic trait (hold-over) from human
  evolution when we were scavengers and had
  periodic scarcities
• physically fills the stomach, but can also access
  valuable nutrients from the earth
• iron, zinc, manganese, magnesium, phosphorous,
  potassium

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Clay consumption among pregnant woman

• in tropical Africa - pregnant women often crave
  earth and consume clay
• metabolic strain of pregnancy
• gastrointestinal upset may trigger craving
• clay is collected from clay pits and sold in
  markets
• may be stored in belt and eaten without water

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Geophagy in the US

• accounts of southern slaves eating earth
• fitted with mouth locks
• pregnant women also consume (up to 57)
• both white and black women report consuming
• beliefs that prevents birthmarks, makes babies
  skin lighter, helps with delivery

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Do you consume earth?

• tums
• rolaids
• Milk of Magnesia

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African pastoralists

• Maasai of east Africa
• Cattle, sheep, goats
• 19th century warriors

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Territory Today
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• Cattle are not eaten
• Use milk various forms
• Blood cattle are bled

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Modern Maasai

• Reduced territory, less grazing land
• Conflict with farmers
• gt sedentism, poor diet
• Access to seasonal wetlands
• Have to migrate with cattle
• Politically marginalized
• Forced to adopt non-pastoralist economic
  activities

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Edible Insects

• Mopane worms of
• South Africa

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Mopane worm (Imbrasia belina) large edible
caterpillar
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Mopane worms and overharvest(harvest 2
times/year)

• Aid groups and sustainability

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Final topic

• Land reform

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Issues of land reform and farming

• With colonial history have great inequity in
  distribution of land

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Rhodesia to Zimbabwe

• in 1889, the British imperialist Cecil Rhodes,
  set up the British South Africa Company (gold
  mining)
• The first 200 white settlers were each
  promised a 3,000-acre farm and gold claims in
  return for helping clear land
• Displaced native Shona peoples
• Became Rhodesia in 1923 (until 1980 gained
  independence and became Zimbabwe

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Robert Mugabe
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2000 govt took white owned farms 4000
whites on 11m hectares of best land (1 million
blacks on 16m hectares on drought lands) Lacked
infrastructure for production significant
famine
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Film Moving on(quiz after film)