Two East African ‘Plates de resistance,’ 1860 & Now

Here are two dishes ‘discovered’ by Burton while on the way to Lake Tanganyika, which he says were Arab and Swahili specialties.

Both dishes are still popular, though there have been major changes, which I’ve explained below.

Burton, Richard – The Lake Regions of Central Africa, Vol. 2 1860

In Unyanyembe – an Arab trading village in Tanzania, on the Way to the trading village of Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika

Harfsah, in Kiswahili “bokoboko,” is the roast-beef – the _plat de resistance_ – of the Eastern and African Arab. It is a kind of pudding made with finely-shredded meat, boiled with flour of wheat, rice, or holcus, to the consistence of a thick paste, and eaten with honey or sugar.

Fimi, an Indian word, is synonymous with the muhallibah of Egypt, a thin jelly of milk and water, honey, rice flour, and spices, which takes the place of our substantial northern rice-pudding.

‘Bokoboko’ is an old Kiswahili word that is no longer used.  The Kiswahili term for this dish now is ‘Biryani’.  Here is how it is made:

• Cook rice and chicken (or another meat) separately.
• Cloves, cardamom seeds, and cinnamon stick can be used to flavor the meat or rice.
• The meat is cooked as a stew to which onions are also added with the spices
• To serve, a layer of rice is placed in a casserole, followed by a layer of the meat, followed by a layer of rice on top.
• The meat’s liquid is added.

This is very similar to ‘maqluba‘, a popular meat-rice dish in Egypt and elsewhere in the middle east, in which the dish is over-ended onto a tray.  It is not over-ended here in East Africa.

Chef Richard at the Hotel Lac Tanganyika made Lamb Biryan for the buffet today, but his cooks mixed it all up as a pilaf instead of layering the rice-meat! He was not very happy. Nevertheless it was delicious.

A whole, roast lamb to accompany the biryani - also delicious

‘Fimi‘ – a rice pudding  mentioned by Sir Richard – also continues to be made in urban areas East Africa influenced by Arab and Swahili cuisine , although the Kiswahili name is now ‘tamu ya wali‘ (‘sweetened rice’).

The pastry chef at the Hotel did not make the rice pudding today, but his dessert table was wonderful:

Pastry Chef Arno's Dessert Table today (no rice pudding)...

Since there was no rice pudding, I had this - good.

From where we were sitting, towards Lake Tanganyika

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Sir Burton Expounds on Coffee, Preserving Meat, and Local Bread in East Africa, 1860

Route taken by Burton and Speke from Zanzibar to Lake Tanganyika and back. Source: Wikipedia

During his  exploratory trip to Lake Tanganyika with John Henning Speke,Sir Richard Burton gathered information on local crops and diets – most of which was given by Arab and Swahili informants – not local inhabitants.

While the data are interesting, Burton does not write with the flair or direct involvement with local crops and cuisine in the way that either Livingstone or Baker do (both discussed in other blogs).  His interpretation of African people and cultures is negative – or, patronizing at best – these being  interpretations common in Western countries at that time.

As well, data about different areas and people are sometimes mixed together and the resulting generalizations are not always valid – or are misleading.  For example, the taking of blood from cattle as part of the diet was practiced by some pastoral groups, but not all groups.  Describing certain practices as belonging to ‘the African’ further complicates matters.  But with those provisos, he does offer some useful information.

 

Burton – The Lake Regions of Central Africa, Vol. 2 1860

Karngwah [a type of coffee bean] … a small wild coffee, locally called mwami.  Like all wild productions, it is stunted and undeveloped, and the bean, which, when perfect, is about the size of a corking-pin’s head, is never drunk in decoction. The berry, gathered unripe, is thrown into hot water to defend it from rot, or to prevent its drying too rapidly-an operation which converts the husk to a dark chocolate color.

The people of this country chew it like tobacco, and, during visits, a handful is invariably presented to the guest. According to the Arabs, it has, like the kishr of Yemen, stimulating properties, affects the head, prevents somnolency, renders water sweet to the taste, and forms a pleasant refreshing beverage, which the palate, however, never confounds with the taste of the Mocha berry.

…One of the inducements for an African to travel is to afford himself more meat than at home. His fondness for the article conquers at times even his habitual improvidence. He preserves it by placing large lumps on a little platform of geen reeds erected upon uprights about eighteen inches high, and by smoking it with a slow fire. Thus prepared, and with the addition of a little salt, the provision will last for several days, and the porters will not object to increase their loads by three or four pounds of the article, disllosed upon a long stick like gigantic kababs,

They also jerk their stores by exposing the meat upon a rope, or spread on a flat stone for two or three days in the sun; it loses a considerable portion of nutriment, but it packs into a conveniently small compass. This jerked meat, when dried, broken into small pieces, and stored in gourds or in pots full of clarified and .melted butter, forms the celebrated traveling provision in the East called kavurmeh: it is eaten as a relish with … boiled grains.

When meat is not attainable and good water is scarce, the African severs one of the jugulars of a bullock and fastens upon it like a leech.  This custom is common in Karagwah and the other northern kingdoms, and some tribes, like the Wanyika, near Mombbasa, churn the blood with milk.

The daily food of the poor is grain, generally holcus, maize, or bajri (panicum) ; wheat is confined to the Arabs, and rice grows locally, as in the Indian peninsula.

The inner Africans, like the semi-civilized Arabs of Zanzibar, the Wasawahili, and the Warnrima, ignore the simple art of leavening bread by acidulated whey, sour bean-paste, and similar contrivances universally practiced in Oman. Even the rude Indian chapati or scone is too artificial for them, and they have not learned to toast grain.

During the rains vegetables are common in the more fertile parts of East Africa; they are within reach of the poorest cultivator.  Some varieties, especially the sweet potato and the mushroom, are sliced and sun-dried to preserve them through the year.  During the barren summer they arc boiled into a kind of broth.

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Spicy, North African Pan-Fried Locusts, 1792

The African Migratory Locust - FAO

Here is another recipe for locusts, this one with a North African Flare.  It is preceded by brief remarks on the plague of locusts that occurred in Barbary  (N.W. Morocco) in 1792.

 

An Account of Timbuctoo and Housa Territories in the Interior of Africa Author: Abd Salam Shabeeny  Commentator [on events in Barbary and Morocco]: James Grey Jackson

In the autumn of 1792, (Jeraad) locusts began to appear in West Barbary. The corn [grain]was in ear, and therefore safe, as this devouring insect attacks no hard substance. …

As vegetation increased, these insects increased in size and quantity. But the country did not yet seem to suffer from them. About the end of March, they increased rapidly.

I was at … the emperor’s garden, which belongs to the Europeans, and which was given to the [European] merchants of Mogodor by the emperor Seedi Muhamed ben Abdallah, …, and the garden flourished with every green herb, and the fruit-trees were all coming forward in the productive beauty of spring.

I went there the following day, and not a green leaf was to be seen: an army of locusts had attacked it during the night, and had devoured every shrub, every vegetable, and every green leaf; so that the garden had been converted into an unproductive wilderness. And, notwithstanding the incredible devastation that was thus produced, not one locust was to be seen.

The gardener reported, that (sultan jeraad) ‘the king of the locusts’ had taken his departure eastward early in the morning; the myriads of locusts followed, so that in a quarter of an hour not one was to be seen….

Moroccan farmer and apple orchard damage by locusts. FAO.G Diana

The poor would go out a locusting, as they termed it: the bushes were covered; they took their (haik) garment, and threw it over them, and then collected them in a sack. In half an hour they would collect a bushel.

These they would take home, and boil a quarter of an hour; they would then put them into a frying-pan, with pepper, salt, and vinegar, and eat them, without bread or any other food, making a meal of them.

They threw away the head, wings, and legs, and ate them as we do prawns. They considered them wholesome food, and preferred them to pigeons.

Afterwards, whenever there was any public entertainment given, locusts was a standing dish; and it is remarkable that the dish was always emptied, so generally were they esteemed as palatable food.

Fried Desert Locusts in Nigerian Market. uglyfood.com

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Sir Burton’s views on English Pilaf, from East Africa

Richard Burton could be downright nasty – or at least, edge very far in that direction.  Here, he gives highly negative views about the way the English make pilaf, together with attacks on the British and Anglo-Indians.  After this diatribe, I’m not sure I’d want to debate him on the topic.

Richard Burton looking particularly menacing. Source: burtoniana.org

Burton, Richard – The Lake Regions of Central Africa, Vol. 2 1860

…In the East if you praise a man’s meat you intend to slight his society. The _plat de resistance_ was, as usual, the pillaw, or, as it is here [East Africa] called, pulao – not the conventional mess of rice and fowl, almonds and raisins, onion-shreds.cardamoms, and other abominations, which goes by that name among Anglo-Indians, but a solid heap of rice, boiled after being greased with a handful of ghee-

(I must here indulge in a little digression. For the past century, which concluded with reducing India to the rank of a British province, the proud invader has eaten her rice after a fashion which has secured for him the contempt of the East. He deliberately boils it, and after drawing off the nutritious starch or gluten called “conjee,” which forms the perquisite of his Portuguese or his Pariah cook, he is fain to fill himself with that which has become little more nutritious than the prodigal’s husks. Great.indeed is the invader’s ignorance upon that point. Peace be to the manes of Lord Macaulay, but listen to and wonder at his eloquent words!:

“The Sepoys came to Clive, not to complain of their scanty fare, but to propose that all the grain should be given to the Europeans, who required more nourishment than the natives of Asia. The thin gruel, they said, which was strained away from the rice would suffice for themselves. History contains no more touching instance of military fidelity, or of the influence of a commanding mind.”

Indians never fail to drink the “conjee.” The Arab, on the other hand, mingles with his rice a sufficiency of ghee to prevent the extraction of the “thin gruel,” and thus makes the grain as palatable and as nutritious as Nature intended it to be.)

Ugali, a stiff porridge that is the ‘staff of life’ in East Africa

There is no good translation for ‘ugali’.  Explorers in East Africa called in a ‘stiff porridge’ – while in West Africa it was often called a ‘paste.’  The following description of making ugali is unique in 19th Century documents, in that the process now has been greatly refined and the ancient technique (below) is no longer used – at least as far as I am aware.

The grain used – ‘holcus’ – is a species of grass that is quite hardy, but now has been replaced in the making of ugali by white maize meal or another meal.

 

Burton, Richard – The Lake Regions of Central Africa, Vol. 2 1860

Upon journeys the African boils his holcus unhusked in an earthen basin, drinks the water, and devours the grain, which in this state is called _masango_; at home he is more particular:

The holeus is either rubbed upon a stone – the mill being wholly unknown – or pounded with a little water in a huge wooden mortar; when reduced to a coarse powder, it is thrown into an earthen pot containing boiling water sufficient to be absorbed by the flour; a little salt, when procurable, is added; and after a few stirrings with a ladle, or rather with a broad and flat-ended stick, till thoroughly saturated, the thick mass is transferred into a porous basket, which allows the extra moisture to leak out. Such is the ugali, or porridge, the staff of life in East Africa.

Nowadays water is boiled and maize flour (either purchased or made from one’s own maize crop) is mixed with some cold water and this mixture is slowly added to the boiling water while stirring until a very thick substance is produced.  This forms the base of a meal, with which a variety of vegetable and meat sauces are eaten:

Bakuru, in the back, has finished making ugali, which is so stiff that the large spoon 'stands up' in it - the way it should

Tomato sauce with ndagala (small fish) as a sauce for ugali

Ugali made with brown meal accompanied by a vegetable sauce

White ugali with Kenya-style sukuma-wiki (kale) as an accompanying sauce - a traditional Kenyan dish

This method of eating grain is ‘universal’ in East and much of West Africa, where couscous in the north and rice in the south either replace ugali or supplement it.  In Sudan and parts of Ethiopia ugali is called ‘aseeda’, and is generally made of sorghum meal.

Eating Worms in the 19th. Century

The eating of worms and other ‘unorthodox’ animal food was generally considered by colonial explorers as indicative of  hunger.  Sometimes this was the case, but many bugs were (and still are) considered tasty snacks.  I already talked about ants and other insect delicacies here.

Fried locust were - and still are - popular snacks as well as hunger foods in the Sahel. Source: Jackson

The following narrative by Lyon describes the preparation of a species of worm in N.W. Africa (area of Morocco)  that lives in water, and the consumption of which is apparently linked to poverty of the people who make the dish, though non-poor also eat it (including Lyon):.

Lyon-Narrative of Travels N.Africa, Sudan, Niger 1818-20

… The people in the Wadeys are blacks and mulattoes as in Morzouk, and Arabs live amongst them. The villages contain from thirty to two hundred houses; many, however, are composed of palm huts. The people are very poor, but in the time of the Waled Suleman, who resided much amongst them, they were opulent.

In some of the pools of stagnant water in the Wadey Shaiti are found small worms, of about the size of a grain of rice; these are collected in great quantities, and pounded with a little salt in a mortar, until they form a black paste, which is made into balls of about the size of the double fist, and then suffered to dry in the sun.

These worms, which are called Dood [this means worm in Arabic – Diana], form one of the very few luxuries of Fezzan, as the poor people, when they have a mess of flour, mix some of them with the sauce, to their Aseeda [stiff porridge made of any local grain – Diana].

They resemble very bad caviar in taste, and the smell is extremely offensive; but habit and necessity overcome all prejudices in this country, and I soon became very partial to them. Sand is an unavoidable ingredient in this paste, and the natives consider it as more wholesome in consequence.

One or two families gain a good subsistence by preparing these worms for the market of Morzouk, and the neighboring towns.

This snack, found in N.W. Africa, is also mentioned by James Richardson in : Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa Performed in the Years 1850-51, Vol. 1

Mixed Cropping: A Successful Organic Strategy for Small Farmers

Curly kale - sukuma-wiki, a favorite greens in Kenya, is a variety of kale Wikipedia

Long before Europeans were on the scene, Africans were practicing companion, or mixed cropping (or planting), which is a highly successfully strategy for outwitting many bugs and diseases.

A mixed crop garden upcountry. Bananas = overstory, corn, beans, etc = understory

However, with the advent of Northern Hemisphere farming methods in which crops are neatly planted in rows with no intermixing, Africans were (and often still are) advised to farm in this way, growing crops in neat rows.  Mixed planting was seen as very messy by many advisors.

Manioc planted by an NGO in rows, upcountry.

Here are the major vegetable families with examples of the members of each family.  Mixed farming should intercrop members of different families – either at the same time or sequentially; companioning a legume with a non-legume is particularly advantageous:

Beans growing under banana as an overstory

Corn stocks are commonly used as stakes for climbing beans. The beans are a legume that help nurture the corn.

Vegetable families and some examples of members:

Tomato Family
Tomato, potato, pepper, eggplant, chili pepper
Onion Family
Onion, shallot leek, chive, garlic
Beet Family
Beet, swiss chard, spinach, amaranth
Cole Crop Family
Cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, brussels sprouts, sukuma-wiki
Legume Family
Bean, pea, cowpea, peanut
Carrot Family
Carrot, celery, celeriac, parsley, parsnip
Cucurbit Family
Cucumber, watermelon, cantaloupe, pumpkin
Lettuce Family
Lettuce, chicory, endive

(This is a nice page from Cornell University on the Carrot Family. )

Here is the process of setting up a mixed farming field in our contract farming demonstration plot:

First, several long-growing plants are planted in rows:

Once established we add other vegetables:

The kale now has matured; tomatoes and several other vegetable varieties are intercropped with it.

Amaranth has only a 3-week maturity cycle and so was grown with the kale.

Help from collaborating farmers to harvest and bundle the amaranth, which will go to the hotel in the morning. The kale leaves can continue to be harvested while another or several other crops are intercropped with it.

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