Food Culture in Sub-Saharan Africa

This volume illuminates the cuisine of the different regions of Sub-Saharan Africa, to give students and other readers a solid understanding of how the diverse African peoples grow, cook, and eat food and how they celebrate special occasions and ceremonies with special foods. Readers will also learn about African history, religions, and ways of life plus how African cuisine has influenced food internationally. For example, cooking techniques such as deep frying and ingredients such as peanuts, chilli peppers, okra, watermelon, and even cola were introduced to the west by sub-Saharan Africans. Africa is often presented as a monolith, but this volume treats each region in turn with representative groups and cuisines presented in manageable fashion, enabling a truer picture to emerge. The book shows how the boundaries of many countries were imposed by colonialism, so that regional food cultures are fluid, and cross national borders. Common elements are also present in the basic format of a meal, consisting of a starch base with a sauce or stew and vegetables and perhaps some protein, typically cooked over a fire in a pot supported by three stones. Representative recipes, a timeline, glossary, and evocative photos complete the narrative.