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Mungo Park was one of the most successful early explorers of West Africa.
Not only did he take careful note of flora, fauna and geophysical features throughout his travels,
but – to my way of thinking – was the best of the early explorers in West Africa by way of ethnographic descriptions in that he does not disingegrate into Victorian moralizing regarding
the culture and mores of groups that he travelled amongst. In general, he just describes them.
Here is part of the introduction in his two volume book on explorations in West Africa:
Mungo Park was born on the 10th of September, 1771, the son of a farmer at Fowlshiels,
near Selkirk (Scotland). After studying medicine in Edinburgh, he went out, at the age of
twenty-one, assistant-surgeon in a ship bound for the East Indies.
When he came back the African Society was in want of an explorer, to take the place of
Major Houghton, who had died. Mungo Park volunteered, was accepted, and in his twenty-
fourth year, on the 22nd of May, 1795, he sailed for the coasts of Senegal, where he arrived
in June.
Thence he proceeded on the travels of which this book is the record. He was absent from
England for a little more than two years and a half; returned a few days before Christmas,
1797. He was then twenty-six years old.
The African Association published the first edition of his travels as “Travels in the Interior
Districts of Africa, 1795-7, by Mungo Park, with an Appendix containing Geographical
Illustrations of Africa, by Major Rennell.”
Park married, and settled at Peebles in medical practice, but was persuaded by the
Government to go out again. He sailed from Portsmouth on the 30th of January, 1805,
resolved to trace the Niger (River) to its source or perish in the attempt. He perished.
Below, sections of vol.1 of his Travels, describing Mumbo Jumbo.
P.S., I was inspired to put up this entry, by the recent entries on Karen Resta’s wonderful blog about mumbo jumbo /mombo jumbo.
Recorded by Mungo Park while in Mandingo country (Sengambia region):
On the 7th I departed from Konjour, and slept at a village called Malla (or Mallaing), and on the
8th about noon I arrived at Kolor, a considerable town, near the entrance into which I observed, hanging upon a tree, a sort of masquerade habit, made of the bark of trees, which I was told, on inquiry, belonged to Mumbo Jumbo (Diana says: Does not look like a tart; cf Karen’s blog…).
Mumbo Jumbo. Source: New York Public Library
Late-19th Century reconstruction of Mumbo Jumbo in a Mandingo village. Source: NYPL
This is a strange bugbear, common to all the Mandingo towns, and much employed by the pagan natives in keeping their women in subjection; for as the Kafirs are not restricted in the number of their wives, every one marries as many as he can conveniently maintain — and as
it frequently happens that the ladies disagree among themselves, family quarrels sometimes rise
to such a height, that the authority of the husband can no longer preserve peace in his household.
In such cases, the interposition of Mumbo Jumbo is called in, and is always decisive. This strange minister of justice (who is supposed to be either the husband himself, or some person instructed
by him), disguised in the dress that has been mentioned, and armed with the rod of public authority, announces his coming (whenever his services are required) by loud and dismal screams in the woods near the town.
He begins the pantomime at the approach of night; and as soon as it is dark he enters
the town, and proceeds to the bentang, at which all the inhabitants immediately assemble.
… The negroes, as hath been frequently observed, whether Mohammedan or pagan, allow a plurality of wives. The Mohammedans alone are by their religion confined to four, and as the husband commonly pays a great price for each, he requires from all of them the utmost deference and submission, and treats them more like hired servants than companions.
They have. however, the management of domestic affairs, and each in rotation is mistress
of the household, and has the care of dressing the victuals, overlooking the female slaves,
etc.
But though the African husbands are possessed of great authority over their wives I did not
observe that in general they treat them with cruelty, neither did I perceive that mean jealousy
in their dispositions which is so prevalent among the Moors.
They permit their wives to partake of all public diversions, and this indulgence is seldom
abused, for though the negro women are very cheerful and frank in their behaviour, they
are by no means given to intrigue — I believe that instances of conjugal infidelity are not
common.
When the wives quarrel among themselves — a circumstance which, from the nature of their situation, must frequently happen — the husband decides between them, and sometimes finds
it necessary to administer a little corporal chastisement before tranquillity can be restored. But
if any one of the ladies complains to the chief of the town that her husband has unjustly
punished her, and shown an undue partiality to some other of his wives, the affair is brought
to a public trial.
In these palavers, however, which are conducted chiefly by married men, I was informed that
the complaint of the wife is not always considered in a very serious light, and the complainant herself is sometimes convicted of strife and contention and left without remedy.
If she murmurs at the decision of the court the magic rod of Mumbo Jumbo soon puts an end to the business.
June 20, 2010
Mulukhiyyah in Housaland and Morocco Posted by dianabuja under Africa-North, Africa-West, Cuisine, Egypt-Recent, History-Recent, Middle East, Uncategorized
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Mulukhiyya leaves (Jute plant). Source Asif Anwar (Pathik)
The North African Merchant Shabeeni describes the following vegetable that existed in 18th Century Hausaland as well as in Morocco. While the name and consistency of the vegetable
is similar to the vegetable of the same name in Egypt, the part of the plant used – the pod –
is unlike mellochia (or, mulukhiyyah) in Egypt, where it is the leaves that are used.
Any thoughts on this, other that use of the name of a vegetable that, when processed, has
the same consistency as that in Egypt? The name would have been brought back to Morocco
and to West Africa by pilgrims to Mekka who spent some time in Egypt.
Perhaps the pod of the mulukhiyyah is used, which I think is the case in parts of India.
Here is a photo of the pod:
Mitha Pakh (?) - Mulukhiyyah from India. Flikr
The country (of Housaland) was rich and well cultivated; they have a plant bearing a pod
called mellochia, from which they make a thick vegetable jelly. The pod of the mellochia,
which grows near Sallee and [north, in] Rabat, is of an elongated conical form, about two
inches long.]
October 28, 2009
Cuisines and Crops of Africa, 18th Century: Food and Farming in Timbuktu Posted by dianabuja under Africa-North, Africa-West, Agriculture, Colonialism, Cuisine, Egypt-Recent, History-Recent, Livestock, Technology, Uncategorized [9] Comments
Tetuan, Moroccan port town opposite Gibraltar. Steel Engraving. Institute in Hidlburghausen.
1842
In about 1789, the merchant and voyager Abd Salam Shabeeny set out from his home city, the Moroccan port town of Tetuan, for Germany in order to procure items for use in his trans-Saharan caravan trade business. On the way he was captured, finally landing in England, where – before being returned to Morocco – he dictated: ‘An Account of Timbuctoo and Housa Territories in the Interior of Africa.’
His narrative is filled with snippets about the life and times of a North African Muslim caravan merchant of the period. It was eventually published by Mr James Grey Jackson in 1820, together with a variety of notes and correspondence from the period, relating to colonial events and aspirations in West Africa.
The sections on crops and cuisines are brief, but insightful and several are given below.
First however, a little taste of Hajj Shabeeny’s biography, which offers a fascinating window into European and North African commerce and politics of the late 18th Century; as told to Mr. Johnson [my explanatory notes in square brackets]:
The person who communicated the following intelligence respecting Timbuctoo and Housa, is a Muselman, and a native of Tetuan [Moroccan port just across from Gibraltar]…
… in the twenty-seventh year of his age, he proceeded from Tetuan as a pilgrim and merchant,
with the caravan for Egypt to Mecca and Medina, and on his return, established himself as a merchant at Tetuan, his native place, from whence he embarked on board a vessel bound for Hamburgh, in order to purchase linens and other merchandize that were requisite for his commerce [ produce that would be sold to merchants for the caravan trade south to Timbuktu and Hausaland, which was the largest Sahelian 'kingdom' of the time].
Saharan Caravan on the march Algeria 1896. Shabeeny would have traveled to Egypt in a similar caravan. Source: Royal Geographic Society.
On his return from Hamburgh in an English vessel, he was captured, and carried prisoner to Ostend, by a ship manned by Englishmen, but under Russian colours, the captain of which pretended that his Imperial mistress was at war with all Muselmen…
There he was released by the good offices of the British consul, Sir John Peters, and embarked once more in the same vessel, which, by the same mediation, was also released; but as the
captain either was or pretended to be afraid of a second capture, El Hage Abd Salam was
sent ashore at Dover, and is now, by the orders of government, to take his passage on board
a king’s ship that will sail in a few days… [returning him to Morocco]
Passages on crops and cuisine, as quoted by Shabeeni:Regarding the crops of Timbuktu:
Timbuktu, Mali. Steel engraving, 1868. Source: Probably based on the 1824 sketch by
Rene Caillié, the first European to travel to Timbuktu and to bring back drawings of the town.
The country is well cultivated, except on the side of the desert. They have rice, el bishna
[Indian corn], and a corn which they call allila [a species of millet] but in Barbary it is called
drâh: this requires very rich ground. They make bread of el bishna: they have no wheat or
barley.
Bread-baking oven in Timbuktu, very likely similar to those used during the time Shabeeny
resided in the city. Possibly, the similarly-shaped constructions in the drawing above are ovens
(or, very small hovels for poorer members of the population). Source: Wikipedia
Property is fenced by a bank and a ditch. Dews are very heavy. Lands are watered by canals cut from the Nile high lands by wells [i.e., from the Niger River], the water of which is raised by wheels worked by cattle, as in Egypt [This would be a saqiya - but I think Johnson is incorrect; most likely a shaduuf was used - see pictures and further discussion below ]…
Egyptian saqiya, which I do not think was meant by Shabeeni. Saqiya of the Daramalli family, 1924, Qurna Historical Project. http://www.qurna.org Boy using a shaduf water-lifting device in Egypt, 19th Century. This is most likely the device that Sabeeny was trying to describe. Source: unknown
Water lifting device, similar to a shaduf, used today in the Niger floodplains. Source: fadama.net
The farming system used is called fadama, and is still employed throughout the Niger floodplain
(above picture) and elsewhere in West Africa. I suspect this was a technique brought back from Egypt by pilgrims, as both the farming system (fadama) and the water-raising technology (shaduf) are basic to Egypt farming. It is possible that the word fadama is a corruption of the Arabic word faddan, which is the basic unit of land measurement, being 1.038 acres / 0.42 ha. The fadama plots that I saw in the Niger floodplain were all small – i.e., about a faddan in size.
Fadama cultivation; seeds have been sown and the little plots have been watered. Source: http://www.fadama.net Fadama plots a few weeks after watering. Source: fadama.net
They begin to sow rice in August and September, but they can sow it at any time, having water
at hand: he saw some sowing rice while others were reaping it. El bishna and other corn is sown before December. El bishna is ripe in June and July; as are beans. Allila may be sown at all seasons; it requires water only every eight or ten days. Their beans are like the small Mazagan beans, and are sown in March; the stalk is short, but full of pods. The allila produces a small, white, flattish grain.
[The rice would be the indigenous Oryza glaberrima, found throughout the Niger floodplains.]
Provisions:
Rice is their principal food, but the rich have wheaten flour from Fas
[also from Morocco], and make very fine bread, which is considered a luxury. Bread is also made from the allila. They roast, boil, bake, and stew, but make no cuscasoe:
'kuskus'
Their meals are breakfast, dinner, and supper. They commonly breakfast about eight, dine about three, and sup soon after sunset.
They drink only water or milk with their meals, have no palm wine or any fermented liquor; when they wish to be exhilarated after dinner, they provide a plant of an intoxicating quality called el hashisha, of which they take a handful before a draught of water….
The difficulty with the narrative is that it was told to a British Consul in Arabic, who then translated
it to Mr. Johnson – who published the work. How many errors of either misunderstanding or simply re-interpreting Hajj Shabeeny’s narrative is of course impossible to determine.
However, there is a good deal of interesting lore and I will put up more information from his text in the future.
October 1, 2009
Missionaries in Central Africa: How to ‘Civilize’ the Locals Posted by dianabuja under Africa-Central, Colonialism, History-Recent, Uncategorized [3] Comments
European colonial powers were deeply concerned about the most efficacious ways to convert African populations to Christianity, which was seen as a necessary adjunct to the process of colonization. One method of proselytizing, by the White Fathers missionaries , is described in rather lurid detail by Jane Moir.
Mrs. Moir and her husband traveled from Scotland to Africa where he was manager of the African Lakes Company in the Shire highlands south of Lake Nyasa (in south-central Africa). Shortly thereafter they made a sailing trip up Lake Tanganyika to the Arab settlement of Ujij – which is
just south of us on the east bank of the Lake.
White Fathers with local leaders, c. 1905
The White Fathers, so-called because of their white robes, were (and continue to be) a strong presence in the central African region. Though, the following method of conversion is no longer practiced.
These White Fathers are dressed in long white (when clean) flannel, white and black rosaries,
and great big helmets, and are very nice men. When they are sent here they come for life; they leave only when they die!
Their plan of operations is, to buy from Arabs, Chiefs, parents or relatives, several hundred small boys and girls, from three to five years old. These children live in houses round the court of the monastery or fort, and gradually grow up. Every child is taught to work, and each hoes its little bit of garden, and they are brought up strictly as Roman Catholics.
I forgot to say, the Fathers plant their stations in districts where there are no villages, but lots of ground for cultivating. As these children grow, the big boys are sent to live n a village by themselves near the Convent, and the big girls ditto. Then when a boy wants to marry he gets a girl, and they live together in another village further off, and are pure Roman Catholics, knowing
no other religion or superstition.
Mission girls, Burundi. c. 1910
As each person cultivates his garden, the Mission is practically self -suppporting, and the only heavy expense is the buying of children year by year.
The Priests do not teach many of them to read, but rather encourage them in industrial occupations. One Station has now one thousand churchgoers.
Two Protestant missionaries said to us, ‘Don’t be surprised if some time you find the whole shores of Tanganyika Roman Catholic.’ [Diana: And so it has come to pass...].
The weak point is the buying of the children, as it encourages slavery; but, otherwise, it seems to me, they show great wisdom, and their natives turn out satisfactory.…There is no comparison between the progress they have made and that of the London Missionary Society Mission on the Lake, who so far, have little hold of people, though they work bravely…Buhonga mission school 1904
This letter is part of a series of letters written by British women during the colonial period that are published in Women Writing Home, 1720 – 1920. Several letters, including the one above, are available for PDF download here. I will have more to say about the colonial experience, and its impact on future events in our region, including recent decades of war and unrest, in future posts.
September 21, 2009
More about Wild Mango Relish from West Africa Posted by dianabuja under Agriculture, Colonialism, Cuisine, History-Recent, Uncategorized
[5] Comments
Several readers have asked for more information about dika or ndika, the wild mango of tropical Africa that is discussed in this recent entry, from which a tasty relish is made. It is a fabulous ‘MPT’ – Multi-Purpose Tree species – in which almost all parts have some use.
Below, I am concentrating on culinary aspects of the tree; but in future blogs I will talk more about MPTs and NTFPs (non-timber forest products), which are very important in the cuisines as well as in other aspects of life in most non-Western societies.
More about Wild Mango Relish: A germplasm collector showing fruits of Irvingia gabonensis collected in southwest Nigeria. (photo D. Ladipo)
Below is another description by Sir Richard Burton on the processing of the
wild mango, taken from a brief article entitled: A Day Amongst the Fan (1863). It is interesting that, even by the mid-19th Century, the product was being used to adulterate chocolate in France: Lately, before my arrival, all the people had turned out for the Ndika season, during which they will not do anything else but gather. The ” Ndika” is the fruit of a wild mango tree (M. gabonensis], and forms the “one sauce” of the Fans.
The kernels extracted from the stones are roasted like coffee, pounded and poured into a mould of basket work lined with plantain leaves. This cheese is scraped and added to boiling meat and vegetables ; it forms a pleasant relish
for the tasteless plantain. It sells for half a dollar at the factories, and the French export it to adulterate chocolate, which in appearance it somewhat resembles. I am ready to supply you with a specimen whenever you indent
upon me…
Kernels (processed and unprocessed) of the seeds of Irvingia gabonensis
(Photo RRB Leakey)The following information on the processing of dika
(wild mango) is extracted from Aluka, an excellent online source – though
I am not sure it is freely accessible outside Africa:The principal domestic
use is for the preparation of odika, or dika bread, also known as Gabon chocolate.
For this the cotyledons are ground and heated in a pot, lined with banana
leaves, to melt the fat, and then left to cool. The resultant grey-brown greasy mass is dika bread. It has a slightly bitter and astringent taste with a more or
less aromatic odour. Pepper and other spices may be added, and it may perhaps be subjected to woodsmoke. The end product may be made up into cylindrical packets wrapped in a basket-like or leaf-wrapping. It can be kept for a long
time without going off and it is used as a food-seasoner.
An alternative method of preparation, more akin to the making of vegetable butters, is to take the fresh or stored cotyledons and pound them into a paste. This can be done in quantities according to the immediate requirement. A
third preparation, known in Gabon as ovéke, is to soak the kernels for 15–20 days till soft and then to knead them by hand into a cheese-like paste.
A fourth practice is known in Sierra Leone, in which the cotyledons are dried and ground to a brown ‘flour’ in which form it can be stored for use as an additive to food as and when required (19). The crude dika paste yields on heating or boiling 70–80% of a pale yellow or nearly white solid fat, dika
butter, which has qualities comparable with cacao-butter, and is, in fact,
a possible adulterant or substitute for the latter in chocolate manufacture.
The National Academy of Sciences, Lost Crops of Africa – Vol 2, has a chapter on the tree, here. Since I have free access to it (as do those of us living in impoverished countries like Burundi –
a tremendous service on the part of the Academy!), I will paste in the appropriate paragraphs:
Location of Dika Fruit. Source: National Academy of Sciences, Lost Crops of Africa
In season these companionable trees, which can grow as high as 40 m, become laden with
green-and-yellow fruits that look like small mangoes. Depending on the species, the fruits
vary between sweet and bitter.
1
Although the sweet version is mainly enjoyed fresh, it is also turned into jelly, jam, or “African-mango juice.” There’s even been an attempt to make dika wine—the result, so its maker claims, being compared in tastings to a Moselle Riesling.
2
Seen in Africa-wide perspective, however, the fruit is a tiny resource compared to the seed.
Each year harvesters gather “dika nuts” by the thousands of tons. The hard round balls,
which look something like smooth walnuts, must be cracked open to get to the edible part.
The kernels found inside have the texture normal to nuts and can be eaten raw or roasted
like cashews. Most, however, are processed. Some are pounded into dika butter, a product
akin to peanut butter or almond paste.
Some are compacted into blocks resembling chocolate (once called Gaboon chocolate).
Many are pressed to squeeze out the oil that makes up more than half the kernel’s weight.
In the main, though, the kernels are ground and combined with spices to form the key
ingredient in “ogbono soup.” This extremely popular special dish is a sort of unifying regional favorite (although every country fervently considers that it produces the best).
Like okra and baobab leaves, this so-called dika bread provides the slippery texture so beloved in African soups, stews, and sauces. It also adds a sharp and spicy tang that is unforgettable.
Given the popularity of ogbono3 soup, dika kernels are traded on both a local and a regional scale. All across western Africa they bring high prices, especially out of season. Even as far back as 1980 it was calculated that a farmer could make US$300 from the seeds gathered
off a single dika tree.
Strongly flavored condiments such as dika are crucial to diets where staples are bland in the extreme. Sharp tasting soups, sauces, or stews add both flavor and nutritional balance to cereals, tubers, plantain, fufus, and doughs (cold gelatinous, warm glutinous, and steamed
non-glutinous) that anchor the West African diet.
Traditionally, these condiments contained local bushmeat, fish, leafy vegetables, dawadawa, dika, spices, or oils. In more recent years, however, foreign ingredients—including tomato, onion, garlic, chili pepper, black pepper, celery, and parsley—have begun making inroads.
Even European processed products, including bouillon cubes and dehydrated soup mixes, are nowadays prime ingredients in traditional African sauces. Nonetheless, the original components—including dika, okra, egusi, sesame, spicy cedar, peanuts, oilbean seed, as well as an immense variety of leafy vegetables—still remain in common usage.
1 In recent years the two forms of this versatile plant have been proposed as separate species
but acceptance has been incomplete. The “eating type,” which yields good fresh fruits, retains the original name Irvingia gabonensis. The “cooking type,” whose seeds are widely processed across West Africa, is called Irvingia wombolu. Harris, D.J. 1996. A revision of the Irvingiaceae in Africa. Bull. Jard. Bot. Belg. 65:143-196.2 The wine produced after 28 days of fermentation had 8.12 percent alcohol content. Akubor, P.I. 1996. The suitability of African bush mango juice for wine production. Plant Foods Hum. Nutr. 49:213-219.
Ogbono soup, mentioned above, is a popular dish in parts in West Africa where the tree grows. Here is a nice recipe, with additional information, from The Congo Cookbook.
There are older records of the tree being found here in Burundi and I will be verifying upcountry,
as part of participatory assessments later this year to identify wild foods that are collected, sold, processed, and eaten.
The next couple of blogs will be about two other plants that are rich both in symbolism and in multi-use - the the lotus (or loto) that is associated with the Lotus Eaters of Libya, and the
lotus of the Nile Valley.
September 20, 2009 Herbal Treatments in Africa for Malaria in the 19th Century –
A Hit-and-Miss Affair Posted by dianabuja under Africa-General, Colonialism, Health,
History-Recent,Uncategorized Tags: Africa-General [3] Comments
Sir Richard Burton (1821-1890), The National Portrait Gallery
Malaria was a major scourge for colonial explorers in tropical Africa – as, indeed, it is today. Since the malady was unknown in northern Europe and the UK, treatments during the colonial era were hit-and-miss. Some of the concoctions were probably more dangerous than the disease, as the following passage from one of the works of Sir Richard Burton makes clear (reference at bottom – highlighting mine).
Under such media the disease, par excellence, of the Gaboon is the paroxysm which is variously called Coast, African, Guinea, and Bullom fever.
Dr. Ford, who has written a useful treatise upon the subject,7 finds hebdomadal periodicity in the attacks, and lays great stress upon this point of chronothermalism. He recognizes the normal stages, preparatory, invasional, reactionary, and resolutionary. Like Drs. Livingstone and Hutchinson, he holds feve and quinine “incompatibles,” and he highly approves of the prophylactic adhibition of chinchona used by the unfortunate Douville in 1828.
Experience in his own person and in numerous patients “proves all theoretical objections to the use of six grains an hour, or fifty and sixty grains of quinine in one day or remission to be absolutely imaginary.”
He is “convinced that it is not a stimulant,” and with many apologies he cautiously sanctions alcohol, which should often be the physician’s mainstay.
As he advocated ten-grain doses of calomel by way of preliminary cathartic, the American missionaries stationed on the River have adopted a treatment still more “severe”—quinine till deafness ensues, and half a handful of mercury, often continued till a passage opens through the palate, placing mouth and nose in directer communication.
Dr. Ford also recommends during the invasion or period of chills external friction of mustard or of fresh red pepper either in tincture or in powder, a good alleviator always procurable; and the internal use of pepper-tea, to bring on the stages of reaction and resolution.
Few will agree with him that gruels and farinaceous articles are advisable during intermissions, when the patient craves for port, essence of beef, and consomme; nor can we readily admit the dictum that in the tropics “the most wholesome diet, without doubt, is chiefly vegetable.”
Despite Jacquemont and all the rice-eaters, I cry beef and beer for ever
and everywhere! Many can testify personally to the value of the unofficial prescription which he offers in cases of severe lichen (prickly heat),
leading to impetigo. It is as follows, and it is valuable:—
Cold cream. . . . . . . . . . 3j.
Glycerine . . . . . . . . . . 3j.
Chloroform . . . . . . . . .3ij.
Oil of bitter almonds . . gtt. x.
7 “Observations on the Fevers of the West African Coast.” New York: Jenkins, 1856. A more valuable work is the “Medical Topography, &c. of West Africa,” by the late W.F. Daniell, M.D., 1849. Finally, Mr. Consul Hutchinson offered valuable suggestions in his work on the Niger Expedition of 1854–5 (Longmans, 1855, and republished in the “Traveller’s Library”).
Source: Richard Burton: Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of
the Congo, vol. I, 1876
For unknown reasons – probably genetic – in all of my years in malaria-ridden areas of
Africa (including here in Burundi) I have never had malaria. That has been a great blessing.
September 20, 2009
Wild Mango Relish from West Africa, 1873
Posted by dianabuja under Africa-West, Agriculture, Colonialism, Cuisine, History-Recent
[7] Comments With over 30 volumes published, Sir Richard Burton was by far the most prolific of colonial explorers-writers. As well, he was a skilled linguist said to be fluent in over 10 languages.
A keen observer of flora and fauna, as well as of the societies that he visited, his works
contain some of the most detailed information from the period.
The following, taken from vol. i of Two Trips to Gorilla Land, provide interesting information
on indigenous and introduced fruits, and of a relish made from an indigenous mango that
was preserved and used throughout the year with both meat and vegetable dishes. Burton likens it to a Worcester sauce; it sounds delicious.
A woman and child of the Mpongwe clan, Gaboon River West Africa. Source: Burton -
Two Trips to Gorilla Land. 1851
Chapter VI. Village Life in Pongo-land.
The common fruits are limes and oranges, mangoes, papaws, and pineapples, the gift of the New World, now run wild, and appreciated chiefly by apes. The forest, however, supplies a multitude of wild growths, which seem to distinguish this section of the coast, and which are eaten with relish by the people.
Amongst them are the Sángo and Nefu, with pleasant acid berries; the Ntábá, described as a red grape, which will presently make wine; the olive-like Azyigo (Ozigo?); the filbert-like Kula,
the “koola-nut” of M. du Chaillu (“Second Expedition,” chap, viii.), a hard-shelled nux, not to
be confounded with the soft-shelled kola (Sterculia); and the Aba, or wild mango (Mango Gabonensis), a pale yellow pome, small, and tasting painfully of turpentine.
It [the wild mango] is chiefly prized for its kernels. In February and March all repair to the bush for their mango-vendange, eat the fruit, and collect the stones: the insides, after being sun-dried, are roasted like coffee in a neptune, or in an earthern pot. When burnt chocolate colour, they are pounded to the consistency of thick honey, poured into a mould, a basket lined with banana leaves, and set for three days to dry in the sun: after this the cake, which in appearance resembles guava cheese, will keep through the year.
For use the loaf is scraped, and a sufficiency is added to the half-boiled or stewed flesh, the two being then cooked together: it is equally prized in meat broths, or with fish, dry and fresh; and
it is the favoured kitchen for rice and the insipid banana.
“Odika,” the “Ndika” of the Bákele tribes, is universally used, like our “Worcester,” and it may
be called the one sauce of Gorilla-land, the local equivalent for curry, pepper-pot, or palm-oil chop; it can be eaten thick or thin, according to taste, but it must always be as hot as possible. The mould sells for half a dollar at the factories, and many are exported to adulterate chocolate and cocoa, which it resembles in smell and oily flavour.
I regret to say that travellers have treated this national relish disrespectfully, as continentals do
our “plomb-boudin:” Mr. W. Winwood Reade has chaffed it, and another Briton has compared
it with “greaves.”
August 20, 2009 Cuisine and Crops in Tropical Africa – Colonial and Contemporary – Pt. 1
Posted by dianabuja under Africa-General, Agriculture, Colonialism, Cuisine, Food, History-Recent, Livestock Tags: Africa-General
[3] Comments
Over the next week I will be putting up brief notes on cuisine and crops in tropical and sub-tropical Africa covering the following topics. These are summary overviews, not intended to reflect specific conditions in
all areas.
1. Some generalizations about food and diets in tropical & sub-tropical Africa
2. Eating during the Nineteenth Century
— What colonial explorers had to say
— Indigenous and introduced crops
3. Cuisine before Colonization
4. Food and War in Pre-Colonial Africa
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1. Some generalizations about food and diets in tropical & sub-tropical Africa:
The regions being discussed in this series of blogs are dark and medium green - tropical and
sub-tropical areas of Africa. Source: Regenwald
During and before colonial times, as now, the daily diet in tropical and subtropical Africa has been overwhelmingly ‘vegetarian’. This is not because people can’t get meat – or because any special benefit is seen to being vegetarian – but because meat has not been a central part of the diet as
it is, or has become, in many other areas of the globe. However, dietary preferences are now changing and meat consumption is therefore slowly increasing – especially among the more wealthy.
The most popular meat includes small ruminants (goats and sheep)
as well as poultry, but particularly in rural areas their consumption is generally reserved for special occasions. This is primarily because livestock have traditionally operated as ‘savings banks on the hoof’;
also providing much needed manure. They are therefore worth more
alive than slaughtered – except for emergency cash needs and for
use in celebrations.
A herd of Ankole cattle in central Burundi, c. 1910 These cattle were maintained primarily
for wealth and prestige. The breed is exceptionally hardy and resistant to certain internal
parasites.
Ankole cattle which I passed end of last year, in central Burundi, on their way from Tanzania
to the slaughter house in Bujumbura (capital of Burundi). This is a 3-day march, organized
by livestock merchants who buy the stock from farmers in Tanzania and bring them to Burundi
to help meet the increasing demand for meat in the country. Perhaps one of the last, great
cattle drives.
Fish are commonly eaten in many areas – often dried so as to be transported for sale and/or stored. Also, a variety of bushmeat (aka
wild animals), are caught in traps, speared, or chased down – and
this is still the case today.
An oil painting of traditional fishing along Lake Tanganyika, with the Congo hills in the
background. The painting is over 50 years old, by a Belgian and I was fortunate in having
it given to me. It is accurate.Colonial rule has resulted in the importation of a number of foods
and cooking technique that have been adopted or adapted to local diets and means. In central Africa, with Belgian Influence, frites (French fries) and several other dishes and ways of cooking
are widely popular and I will write a bit about this another time.
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