Cuisine of Africa

The cuisine of Africa reflects indigenous traditions, as well as influences from Arabs, Europeans, and Asians.

The continent of Africa is the second largest landmass on the earth and is home to hundreds of tribes, ethnic and social groups. This diversity is also reflected in African cuisine, in the use of basic ingredients as well as in the style of preparation and cooking techniques.

Traditional

Traditionally, as in almost all cultures, the food of Africa uses a combination of locally available fruits, grains, and vegetables, milk and meat products. In some parts of Africa, the traditional African diet has a predominance of milk, curd, and whey. In much of tropical Africa however, cow's milk is rare and cannot be produced locally (owing to various diseases that affect livestock). Yet, differences, sometimes significant, are noticeable in the eating and drinking habits across the continent of Africa - African food differs in different parts of Africa, and East Africa, North Africa, West Africa, Southern Africa and Central Africa each have their own distinctive foods. They are very well known for their distinctive cooking styles.

African household, green vegetables

Traditional green vegetables occupy an important role in household nutrition throughout Africa as these are the main source of vitamins and provide variety to meals otherwise consisting of maize, cassava, yam, millet, beans and occasionally, meat stews. These green African vegetables also provide a secondary source of proteins. In general, green leaves and young stems are collected, washed, chopped and either steamed or boiled in combination with spices and other vegetables such as onions and tomatoes. The green vegetables have occupied an important role in traditional kitchen gardens in the rural areas throughout East Africa. Furthermore, these vegetables are now being grown and marketed, both in rural areas and urban consumption. These vegetables are likely to become more important within urban gardens as well.

Most African traditional greens are drought tolerant. Traditional foods provide a varied diet, often rich in minerals and vitamins including vitamin A, iron and calcium.

Crop origins and farm biodiversity

Many of the most important crops in small hold farms of Africa originated outside of the African continent. Maize and beans, along with cassava and pumpkin, originate from America and were spontaneously adopted and spread by farmers throughout the continent of Africa after introduction by early European explorers in the 16th century. Today many African farmers are unaware that these are not indigenous African crops. Kale (Brassica oleracea ssp accephala, sukuma wiki) and Swiss chard (Beta vulgaris ssp. Cicla) are two important leafy vegetables originating from Europeans that are widely grown by East African highland farmers. Yet another category of plants are those that are "pan–tropical" and cosmopolitan. For Example, the green vegetable solanum (Solanum nigrum) is so very widespread, no one is sure of its origin.

Central Africa

Central Africa stretches from the Tibesti mountains in the north to vast rainforest basin of the Congo River, and has remained largely free of culinary influences of the outside world, until the late 19th century, with the exception of the widespread adaptation of cassava, peanut, and Chile pepper plants which arrived along with the slave trade during the early 1500s. These foodstuffs have had a large influence on the local cuisine, perhaps less on the preparation methods. Central African cooking has remained mostly traditional. Nevertheless, like other parts of Africa, Central African cuisine also presents an array of dishes.

The basic ingredients are plantains and cassava. Fufu-like starchy foods (usually made from fermented cassava roots) are served with grilled meat and sauces. The most traditional meats are those that are hunted in the forests. A variety of local ingredients are used while preparing other dishes like spinach stew, cooked with tomato, peppers, chiles, onions, and peanut butter. Cassava plants are also consumed as cooked greens. Groundnut (peanut) stew is also prepared, containing chicken, okra, ginger, and other spices. Another favorite is Bambara, a porridge of rice, peanut butter and sugar. Beef and chicken are favorite meat dishes, but game meat preparations containing crocodile, monkey, antelope and warthog, are also served occasionally.

East Africa

The cuisine of East Africa varies from area to area. In the inland savannah, the traditional cuisine of cattle-keeping peoples is distinctive in that meat products are generally absent. Cattle, sheep and goats were regarded as a form of currency and a store of wealth, and are not generally consumed as food. In some areas, traditional peoples consume the milk and blood of cattle, but rarely the meat. Elsewhere, other peoples are farmers who grow a variety of grains and vegetables. Maize (corn) is the basis of ugali, the East African version of West Africa's fufu. Ugali is a starch dish eaten with meats or stews. In Uganda, steamed, green bananas called matoke provide the starch filler of many meals.

Around 1000 years ago, the Arabs settled in the coastal areas of East Africa, and Arabic influences are especially reflected in the Swahili cuisine of the coast – steamed cooked rice with spices in Persian style, use of saffron, cloves, cinnamon and several other spices, and pomegranate juice.

Several centuries later, the British and the Indians came, and both brought with them their foods, like Indian spiced vegetable curries, lentil soups, chapattis and a variety of pickles. Just before the British and the Indians, the Portuguese had introduced techniques of roasting and marinating, as also use of spices turning the bland diet into aromatic stewed dishes. Portuguese also brought from their Asian colonies fruits like the orange, lemon and lime. From their colonies in the New World, Portuguese also brought exotic items like chilies, peppers, maize, tomatoes, pineapple, bananas, and the domestic pig – now, all these are common elements of East African food.

North Africa

North Africa lies along the Mediterranean Sea and encompasses within its fold several nations, including Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt. This is a region marked by geographic, political, social, economic and cultural diversity, and the cuisine and the culinary style and art of North Africa are also as diverse as the land, its people and its history. The roots to North African cuisine can be traced back over 2000 years.

Over several centuries traders, travelers, invaders, migrants and immigrants all have influenced the cuisine of North Africa. The Phoenicians of the 1st century brought sausages, the Carthaginians introduced wheat and its byproduct, semolina. The Berbers, adapted this into couscous, one of the main staple diet. Olives and olive oils were introduced before the arrival of the Romans. From the 7th century onwards, the Arabs introduced a variety of spices, like saffron, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and cloves, which contributed and influenced the culinary culture of North Africa. The Ottoman Turks brought sweet pastries and other bakery products, and from the New World, North Africa got potatoes, tomatoes, zucchini and chillies.

Most of the North African countries have several similar dishes, sometimes almost the same dish with a different name (the Moroccan "tangia" and the Tunisian "coucha" are both essentially the same dish: a meat stew prepared in an urn and cooked overnight in a public oven), sometimes with a slight change in ingredients and cooking style. To add to the confusion, two completely different dishes may also share the same name (for example, a "tajine" dish is a slow-cooked stew in Morocco, whereas the Tunisian "tajine" is a baked omelette/quiche-like dish). There are noticeable differences between the cooking styles of different nations – there's the sophisticated, full-bodied flavours of Moroccan palace cookery, the fiery dishes of Tunisian cuisine, and the humbler, simpler cuisines of Egypt and Algeria. [ cite web
title = The Foods of North Africa
url = http://www.specialtyfood.com/do/news/ViewNewsArticle?id=2402
first = Paula
last = Wolfert
publisher = National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, Inc. ]

Southern Africa

Cuisine of South Africa and the neighboring countries is sometimes called 'rainbow cuisine' and rightly so as the cuisine of South Africa and the countries around them have largely become polyglot cuisines, having influences of indigenous Black people as well as several waves of immigrants which included Indians, Malays, Chinese as well as Europeans. Thus, the food here is a blend of many cultures – African, European and Asian.

The Malay influence has brought spicy curries, chutneys, and pickled fish and curry-marinated pork or lamb kebabs, and variety of fish stews. The Indians have introduced a different line of culinary practices, including a variety of sweets and savories. The Afrikaners have their succulent potjies or stews of maize with tomato and onion sauce, with or without rice. There are many European contributions like Dutch fried crueler or koeksister and milk tart. French Hugenots brought wines as well as their traditional recipes.

During the pioneering days of the 19th century, new foods such as biltong, "droë wors" (dried sausage) and rusks evolved locally out of necessity.

The basic ingredients include seafood, meat products (including wild game), poultry, as well as grains, fresh fruits and vegetables. Fruits include apples, grapes, mangoes, bananas and papayas, avocado, oranges, peaches and apricots. Desserts may simply be fruit, but there are some more western style puddings, such as the Angolan Cocada amarela, which was inspired by Portuguese cuisine. Meat products include lamb, and game like venison, ostrich, and impala. The seafood includes a wide variety such as crayfish, prawns, tuna, mussels, oysters, calamari, mackerel, and lobster. Last but not least, there are also several types of traditional and modern alcoholic beverages including many European-style beers.

West Africa

A typical West African meal is heavy with starchy items, light on meat and generous on fat. Fufu, a semi-solid starchy mass similar to mashed potatoes or polenta, is served with soups and stews, such as egusi. Fufu is often made from starchy root vegetables such as yams, cocoyams, or cassava, but also from cereal grains or plantains.

Another characteristic is the hot spices, including peppers and chiles. Seeds of Guinea pepper ("Aframomum melegueta"; also called grains of paradise or melagueta pepper) a native West African plant, were used as a spice and even reached Europe, through North African middlemen, during the Middle Ages. Centuries before the influence of Europeans, West African people were trading with the Arab world and spices like cinnamon, cloves, and mint were not unknown and became part of the local flavorings. Centuries later, the Portuguese, French and British influenced the regional cuisines, but only to a limited extent. However, as far as is known, it was European explorers who introduced the American Chile, or chili("Capsicum") to Africa sometime soon after Columbus sailed to America an both chillies and tomatoes have become ubiquitous components of West African cuisines.

Thus, in essence, the local cuisine and recipes of West Africa continue to remain deeply entrenched in the local customs and traditions, with ingredients like rice, peanuts (another plant from the New World, similar to the Bambara groundnut and Hausa groundnut of Africa), black-eyed beans, brown beans, and root vegetables such as yams, cocoyams, sweet potatoes, and cassava (yet another American plant). Cooking is done in multiple ways: roasting, baking, boiling, Frying, mashing, and spicing. A range of sweets and savories are also prepared. Use of items introduced by colonizers are also not uncommon – like plantains, peppers and green peas, citrus fruits, and pineapples, which are legacy of slave ship traffic between Africa and the New World.

Cooking techniques of West Africa often combine fish and meat, including dried fish. Flaked and dried, fish is often fried in oil, and sometimes cooked in sauce made up with hot peppers, onions and tomatoes various spices and water to prepare a highly flavored stew. In some areas, beef and mutton are preferred, and chevon (goat meat) is the dominant red meat. It is common to have a preponderance of seafood and the seafood, as earlier stated, is sometimes also mixed with other meat products. Eggs and chickens are also preferred.

As far as beverages, water has a very strong ritual significance in many West African nations (particularly in dry areas) and water is often the first thing an African host will offer his/her guest. Palm wine is also a common beverage made from the fermented sap of various types of palm trees and is usually sold in sweet (less-fermented, retaining more of the sap's sugar) or sour (fermented longer, making it stronger and less sweet) varieties.

Amala (a dish of processed yams) and Ewedu (a soup) are typically eaten by the Yoruba people.

Notes

See also

External links

* [http://www.chefzadi.com Algerian Cuisine a Northwest African cuisine]
* [http://www.congocookbook.com The Congo Cookbook]
* [http://www.betumi.com/ Betumi]
* [http://naady.com/index.php/food-and-culture/african-food-mystery-meals/ African Mystery Food]
* [http://www.try-african-food.com/ Try African Food]
* [http://www7.nationalacademies.org/dsc/Lost_Crops_of_Africa.html Lost crops of Africa: Corn, Vegetables, Fruits]
* [http://www.celtnet.org.uk/recipes/african-recipes.php Celtnet African Recipes]