Ugali

• 1. Introduction

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  In 2017, UNESCO placed ugali on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Very few foods appear on that list. Ugali is a stiff, dough-like mass of maize meal, cooked in boiling water or milk until it holds its shape. It has no single name and no single recipe. Across a wide stretch of Africa, cooks make versions that differ in grain, texture and the company they keep on the plate. This documentary asks how a plain mound of corn meal came to anchor so many tables. It asks where the grain came from, since maize was not always the staple. It asks how people eat the dish without cutlery, and what it is eaten with. And it asks what changes when the same idea crosses borders and languages.

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• 2. Many Names

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  Posho, nsima, papa, pap, mogobe, sadza, isitshwala, akume, amawe and ewokple are only some of the names for this family of dishes. Ugali and akple belong to it as well. The list of countries that cook it begins with Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan and Tanzania.

  Zimbabwe, Zambia, Lesotho and Eswatini follow. So do Angola, Mozambique and Namibia. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Malawi, Botswana and South Africa complete the southern and central list. In West Africa, the Ewes of Togo, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria and Ivory Coast prepare it too.

  The word ugali itself comes from Swahili. In Malawi, speakers of languages such as Chichewa and Chitumbuka call the dish nsima. Parts of Kenya also use the informal name sembe. In Zimbabwe, Shona speakers say sadza, while Ndebele speakers say isitshwala.

  The South African name has a different root. The Afrikaans word pap, as in mielie pap, was borrowed from Dutch, where it simply means porridge. Behind all of these words stands a grain that crossed an ocean to get here.

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• 3. Maize Arrives

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  Before the Portuguese brought maize to Africa from the Americas, sorghum and millet were the staple cereals across most of Sub-Saharan Africa. The arrival happened between the 16th and 17th centuries. Ugali appeared shortly after the maize did.

  Farmers took to the new crop quickly. Growing it was very similar to growing sorghum, but the yields were significantly higher. Over time, maize displaced sorghum as the main cereal everywhere except the drier regions. The full replacement did not finish until the latter half of the twentieth century.

  In Malawi, a saying captures the grain's place in daily life: chimanga ndi moyo. It means maize is life.

  Sorghum has not vanished from the pot. Nshima made from sorghum flour still turns up occasionally, though it is uncommon. Cassava, another crop that came from the Americas, can also make nshima, either alone or mixed with maize flour.

  In Malawi, cassava nsima, made from chinangwa, is mostly a lakeshore habit. When maize harvests are poor, though, cassava nsima can be found all over the country.

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• 4. The Thumb as Spoon

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  In rural Kenya and across the African Great Lakes region, the traditional way to eat ugali begins with the right hand. A lump is rolled into a ball and dipped into a sauce, or a stew of vegetables or meat. Pressing the thumb into the ball makes a hollow. That hollow scoops up the sauce and wraps around pieces of meat, much as flatbread does in other cultures. One description calls it edible silverware. The fingers may get messy, but the manner of eating is culturally significant.

  Solid ugali usually comes with traditional vegetables, stew, or sukuma wiki, which is also known as collard greens. When the same meal is cooked as a porridge, it is called uji. Uji is served with sweet potatoes, ripe bananas, Irish potatoes and even bread. Any leftover ugali can be eaten with tea the next morning.

  Price explains much of the dish's reach. Ugali is inexpensive, so the poor can afford it, and they usually pair it with a meat or vegetable stew. It is easy to make, and the flour keeps for a considerable time in average conditions. In most Kenyan homes, the ugali makes up the bulk of the meal. In wealthier homes, or on special occasions, it arrives with abundant savory vegetables and meats in a spicy gravy.

  One comparison puts ugali beside tamales, which Central Americans make from yellow corn, while ugali is made from ground white corn. Another says it resembles the mashed potatoes served in American homes.

  Among the Luhya of Kenya, ugali is the most common staple, and it also has a place at weddings. There it is called obusuma. Obusuma made from millet, known as obusuma bwo bule, was traditionally among the delicacies on a bride's high table. It can also be made from sorghum or cassava, and the cassava version is called obusuma bwo 'muoko.

  Luhya cooks serve obusuma with tsimboka or etsiswa, eliani vegetables, inyama meat, inyeni fish, thimena whitebait or omrere jute leaves. For distinguished guests or visitors, the dish comes with ingokho, which is chicken. Further south, in Zambia and Malawi, the cooking itself becomes a test of strength with a flat wooden spoon.

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• 5. Paddling the Nsima

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  In Zambia, nsima begins as a porridge of white maize flour and water. It is left to simmer for a few minutes, and then the real work starts. The cook adds more flour and paddles the mixture into a thick paste. The paddling means pulling the paste against the side of the pot with a flat wooden spoon, quickly, while the pot stays over the heat. That spoon is the nthiko in Malawi and the m'tiko or umwiko in Zambia.

  Portions are shaped with a wooden or plastic spoon dipped in water or coated in oil. This spoon is the chipande in Malawi and the chipampa in Zambia. In Malawi, each portion is called a ntanda.

  Nsima is never eaten alone. The side dishes are known as relish. Zambian relish includes mushrooms such as kabansa, tente, chitondo and ichikolowa. It also includes game, beef, poultry, fish, groundnuts, beans and chikanda, a dish of orchid and peanut. Vegetables include pumpkin leaves, bean leaves, amaranth leaves, mustard leaves and cabbage, along with white garden eggs known as impwa. Impwa are small, oblong, white fruit.

  The vocabulary for relish changes from place to place. In Nyanja and Chewa it is ndiyo, and in Bemba it is umunani. In Malawi, ndiwo refers to the protein dishes, and the vegetable sides are masamba. The proteins are usually grilled or stewed. Dried fish is popular in both countries, and in Malawi it is called utaka. Hot peppers such as peri-peri or Kambuzi chili, or commercial sauces like Nali Sauce, usually sit on the table too.

  Diners traditionally sit around a table or on the floor. Because nsima is eaten with bare hands, washing comes first. Either each person uses a bowl of water, or the host or a younger person pours water from a jug over the hands of the elders or guests. Then the diner takes a small lump into the right palm, rolls it into a ball and dips it in the relish. Pressing the right thumb into the ball is a technique used by advanced diners.

  In Zambia, umuto is the drippings, broth or sauce of a side dish. Scooping up an ample amount of it with a ball of nshima is called inkondwa. The phrase umuto wankondwa loosely means sauce to allow for inkondwa.

  Age governs the order of everything. Washing before the meal, eating, and washing afterward all begin with the oldest person, then proceed through everyone else by age.

  Cost matters here too. Nsima is cheap enough for most of the population. Yet when shortages push prices up, the effect has sometimes contributed to economic and political instability.

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• 6. Pap and Phuthu

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  In South Africa, the pronunciation of pap is given as ˈpʌp, and the dish is also called mieliepap, meaning maize porridge in Afrikaans. It is made from mielie-meal, which is coarsely ground maize. It resembles polenta and is a staple for African peoples across Southern Africa.

  The consistency varies by name. Slap pap, or soft porridge, is smooth. Stywe pap, or firm porridge, is thick enough to hold in the hand. Phuthu pap, also called krummelpap, is dry and crumbly. Phuthu dishes are usually found in the coastal areas.

  In the northern parts of the country, pap is a breakfast staple eaten with milk, butter and sugar. At other meals it appears with a meat and tomato stew, usually tomato and onion. At a braai, or barbecue, bogobe or stywe pap with a savory sauce of tomato and onion or mushroom is an important part of the meal. In the northern provinces, pap is usually soft and made from a fermented maize batter. The fermentation keeps the pap from spoiling quickly in the hotter north.

  Phutu pap is popularly served with boerewors, a pairing that came to be called pap en wors. It is also called pap en vleis, and the vleis can be other braaied or stewed meats. Phutu is sometimes eaten with chakalaka as a side dish at braais.

  In the Cape Province, pap is almost exclusively a breakfast food. Mielie-meal is inexpensive, so poor people combine it with vegetables. It can be served hot, or fried after it cools.

  Uphuthu is a South African way of cooking mielie-meal that yields a finely textured, coarse, grain-like meal. The name is pronounced ˈpʊtuː, and spellings such as putu or phutu are considered incorrect. Most cultural groups in South Africa eat it. In KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, it comes with vegetables and meat. In the Gauteng regions, it can be the star of the dish with amasi or maas, which are soured milk.

  Texture decides the pairing. Finely textured phuthu suits amasi or maas. Stews and curries go with a more clumped variety, closer to stiff pap. A very dry phuthu, which depends on the cook's skill, is served with moist dishes such as stews and leafy vegetables. Soaked in amasi, it would turn into a paste, and amasi is preferred chewy. Some cultures stir sugar into uphuthu and amasi to make a sweet snack that resembles cereal.

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• 7. Sadza at Home

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  Around 1890, maize reached Zimbabwe as an imported crop. It has since become the chief source of carbohydrate and the most popular meal for indigenous people. Before that, sadza was made from mapfunde, a finger millet.

  Sadza is made from finely ground dry maize meal. That meal is called impuphu in Ndebele and hupfu in Shona. People either buy it in retail outlets or take their own maize to a grinding mill.

  Zimbabweans prefer white maize meal. In times of famine or hardship, they turned to yellow maize meal, which is sometimes called Kenya because it was once imported from that country.

  The list of foods that go with sadza is long. Meat is nyama in Shona. Red meat includes beef, mutton, goat and game, along with cow hoof, known as mazondo, and oxtail. Offal and tripe, called matumbu in Shona, are also eaten, as are sun-dried vegetables known as mfushwa. White meat includes chicken, called huku, and fish, called hove, including the small dried fish kapenta. Mopane worms, known as madora, are edible moth caterpillars.

  Vegetables include spring greens, called imibhida in Ndebele and muriwo in Shona. They also include sugar beans, called nyemba, as well as cabbage, okra known as derere, and pumpkin leaves known as muboora in Shona. Soured milk, called amasi in Ndebele, mukaka wakakora in Shona or lacto, is another companion, as are soya chunks.

  Tastes are shifting among the young, who tend to prefer rice to sadza or isitshwala. Tafadzwa Musarara, the national chairman of the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe, commented that the future working class will eat less sadza and more rice and bread.

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• 8. West Africa and Distant Cousins

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  In northern Ghana, the dish called sagtulga is a popular main meal. Its Dagbani spelling is saɣituliga, its Hausa name is tuo zaafi, and it is also called diehuo. It is most common in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions. People usually eat it for dinner, though farmers and manual workers may have it at breakfast or lunch.

  The dough is made of cooked maize with a little dried cassava dough and unsalted water. Traditionally it was prepared with millet dough, which is indigenous to Ghana's north. Cooks serve it with soups, including okro soup and groundnut soup. They also serve it with blended leaves of Corchorus olitorius, called ayoyo in Hausa, or with a green soup of bitter leaves. Sometimes the soup is made from freshly pounded cassava leaves.

  In Nigeria, the related dish is a smooth pudding called akamu, ogi or koko, and Nigerian English calls it pap. Its consistency is like American pudding. It is usually accompanied by moin moin, a bean pudding, or akara, a bean cake.

  The thicker version is eko among the Yorubas and agidi among the Igbos. It is cooked on the heat until thick and is traditionally wrapped in leaves of Thaumatococcus daniellii. The Yorubas call these leaves ewe eran, and the Igbos call them akwukwo elele. It is paired with vegetable soups and sauces for a light meal, or eaten with beans.

  Similar dishes turn up far from Africa. Polenta comes from northern Italy, gh'omi from Georgia, and grits from the southern United States. Fufu, a starch-based food of West and Central Africa, may also be made from maize meal, and then it is called fufu corn. Banku, isidudu and umngqusho resemble pap.

  In the Caribbean the relatives have their own names: cou-cou in Barbados, funchi in Curaçao and Aruba, and funjie in the Virgin Islands. Puerto Rican cuisine calls its version funche, and in Haiti it is mayi moulin.

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