African Cuisine

History:
• Before people started farming, African hunters and
gatherers ate mainly fruit (especially figs), with some
meat and fish and seafood and eggs. They also harvested
wild grain and nuts to eat. They got a lot of their fat from
nuts and palm oil. By 7000 BC, people in North Africa also
began herding cattle, imported from Central Asia through
West Asia. People milked the cows and made yogurt and
cheese.
History:
• Around 6000 BC, as the climate changed and the Sahara Desert
gradually took over the grasslands, it got harder to get food and
so some African people began to farm some of their food. By
4000 BC, Ethiopians and Eretrians had domesticated a grain
called teff, and in Nubia people had domesticated millet. In North
Africa and Egypt, people farmed millet too, but also, the wheat
and barley, lentils and chickpeas that had already been
domesticated in West Asia. So these people began to eat mainly
pita bread and porridge and barley soups, like the people of West
Asia. People in Egypt also made their barley into beer.
History:
• Around the same time, African people also got sheep and goats from West
Asia. North Africans also fished, especially for tuna.
• Sometime around 1500 BC, during the Egyptian New Kingdom, people in
Egypt started to eat chicken. Around the same time, rich people stopped
eating pork, which became taboo (forbidden) for them.
• South of the Sahara Desert, in the Sudan, the weather also got drier, so
people also needed to begin farming. But wheat and barley wouldn’t grow so
close to the equator.

• So the people of West Africa gradually domesticated local grasses that were
similar, especially millet. Millet is a lot like barley and could also be made into
bread or mush (like a thick oatmeal).
Topography:
• Central Africa stretches from the Tibesti
Mountains in the north to the vast
rainforest basin of the Congo River, and
remained largely free from culinary
influences of the outside world until the
late 19th century, with the exception of the
widespread adaptation of cassava, peanut,
and chili-pepper plants, which arrived
along with the slave trade during the early
16th century. These foodstuffs have had a
large influence on the local cuisine, if
perhaps less on the preparation methods.
Central African cooking has remained
mostly traditional. Nevertheless, as in
other parts of Africa, Central African
cuisine presents a variety of dishes.
Topography:
• 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, pigs and goats were
regarded as a form of
currency and a store of
wealth, and are not generally
consumed as food.
Topography:
• North Africa lies along the
Mediterranean Sea and encompasses
within its fold several nations, including
Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Egypt
and Sudan. 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 to the ancient empires of North
Africa; particularly in Egypt, where
many of the country's dishes and
culinary traditions date back to
antiquity.
Topography:
• The cooking of Southern Africa is
sometimes called "rainbow cuisine",
as the food in this region is a blend
of many cultures: indigenous
African tribal societies, European,
and Asian. To understand
indigenous cuisine, it is important to
understand the various native
peoples of southern Africa. The
indigenous people of Southern
Africa were roughly divided into two
groups and several subgroups.
Topography:
• A typical West African meal is made
with starchy items and can contain
meat, fish as well as various spices
and herbs. A wide array of staples
are eaten across the region,
including fufu, banku, kenkey
(originating from Ghana), foutou,
couscous, tô, and garri, which are
served alongside soups and stews.
Fufu is often made from starchy
root vegetables such as yams,
cocoyams, or cassava, but also
from cereal grains like millet,
sorghum or plantains.
Cooking Methods:
• Roasting referers to cooking food over an open fire, without water.
The fire may be an open wood fireplace or a hearth, or a charcoal
burner. Foods that are often roasted in Africa include meat, fish,
tubers such as sweet potatoes, arrow roots, Irish potatoes and
cassava, as well as some types of banana.
• Boiling refers to cooking food with water, without oil. Frequently,
an earthen ware cooking pot may be used. Cooking utensils made
of metal or other materials are also gaining in popularity. Foods
that are boiled include vegetables, pulses such as peas and
beans, tubers such as potatoes and cassava, and grains such as
rice. In northern Uganda, odii — groundnut paste, is added to the
boiled dish as a sauce.
Cooking Methods:
• In southern Uganda, steaming is an important method of food
preparation. Cooking bananas — matoke — are steamed inside
banana leaves, over a pot full of boiling water. Fish, meat and
vegetables are also wrapped in banana leaves and steamed.
Steaming is a recommended cooking method because it is said to
better preserve the nutritive value of foods.
• Immigrant populations to Africa have brought with them their own
ways of preparing food, such as frying food. Frying food was
traditionally uncommon to African cuisine, but has now been
adopted by almost everyone. Frying refers to cooking food with
cooking oil, as well as the possible addition of onions and
tomatoes.
Cooking Methods:
• While baking is slowly making inroads into African cuisine,
it is still very much a new cooking method, not yet very
broad except except in bakeries. Baking is certainly not
yet as widespread as in western societies, where not just
bread and cakes are baked, but also pies, pastries,
melted cheese dishes and other foods.
Main Inhgredients for African Cuisine:
• The basic ingredients are plantains and cassava. Fufu-
like starchy foods (usually made from fermented cassava
roots) are served with grilled meat and sauces. A variety
of local ingredients are used while preparing other dishes
like spinach stew cooked with tomato, peppers, chillis,
onions, and peanut butter.