Swallow (food)

Nsima of Malawi

Swallows are a category of dough-like African and Indian staple food made of cooked starchy vegetables and/or grains. ^[1] Fufu of Western Africa, ugali and nsima of Eastern Africa, and sadza of Southern Africa are examples of swallows.

Types

Swallows can be categorized by their primary starch. Each type has many names in various languages around Africa, and the specific starch used may have regional substitutions.

Cassava

• Eba
• Funge
• Fufu
• Kokonte
• Konkonte  – a poverty food of Ghana made from dried and pounded manioc root. It is also eaten in the Caribbean. The name derives from the Kwa languages.

Maize

• Soor
• Cou-cou
• Kenkey
• Nsima
• Sadza
• Tuwon masara
• Ugali
• Uji, a thick East African porridge made most commonly from corn flour mixed with sorghum and many other different ground cereals, with milk or butter and sugar or salt. Ugali, a more solid meal, is also made from maize flour, likewise often mixed with other cereals. These two, under various names, are staple foods over a wide part of the African continent, e.g., pap in South Africa, sadza or isitshwala in Zimbabwe, nshima in Zambia, tuwo or ogi in Nigeria, etc., though some of these may also be made from sorghum.
• Mielie pap is a maize porridge staple in South African cuisine.
• Obusuma – the Luhya word for Ugali, a Kenyan dish also known as sima, sembe, ngima or posho. It is made from maize flour (cornmeal) cooked with boiling water to a thick porridge dough-like consistency. In Luhya cuisine it is the most common staple starch.
• Pap  – also known as mieliepap in South Africa, is a traditional porridge/polenta made from mielie-meal (ground maize) and a staple food of the Bantu inhabitants of South Africa (the Afrikaans word pap is taken from Dutch and simply means "porridge").
• Sadza  – a cooked cornmeal that is a staple food in Zimbabwe and other parts of Southern Africa and Eastern Africa. This food is cooked widely in other countries in these region.
• Ugali  – maize flour (cornmeal) cooked with water to a porridge- or dough-like consistency. The dish is common in the local cuisines of the eastern African Great Lakes region and Southern Africa.
• Uji (porridge)  – maize or sorghum or millet or a mix of them all flour cooked with water to a porridge- or blended soup-like consistency. The dish is common in the local cuisines of the eastern African Great Lakes region and Southern Africa. The word "uji" is Kiswahili commonly used in Kenya.

Millet

• Ragi mudde
• Oshifima or otjifima, a stiff pearl millet porridge, is the staple food of northern Namibia.

Potato

• Potato fufu

Rice

• Tuwon shinkafa

Sorghum

• Mabela, a sorghum porridge eaten typically for breakfast in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Maltabella is a brand name for a sorghum porridge manufactured by Bokomo Foods
• Tuwo or ogi, a Nigerian sorghum porridge that may also be made from maize.

Yam

• Pounded yam

Mixed, other

• Amala
• Banku

Gallery

• 
  Konkonte
• 
  Ugali (pictured top) and cabbage
• 
  Ragi mudde in Karnataka, India

See also

• Asida
• Ogi
• Porridge
• Rice cake

References

1. Komolafe, Yewande (2021-03-05). "A Practical Guide to Swallows, the Heart of Many Cuisines". The New York Times . Retrieved 2023-01-08.