Benachin is a great dish. It is essentially a one-pot dish with all the ingredients being cooked in sequence in the large cooking pot. It can be made with fish, chicken or meat and these are cooked first in oil with onions and garlic, then the vegetables and finally the rice. You can find the recipe for Benechin in the Congo Cookbook.
Benechin
[Photo credit: Wikipedia]
Ghanaian coffin builders are famous for their bizarre coffins. Here’s a few photos my husband took of some in a workshop in Accra. You can also find a video about coffin builders on YouTube and another one here from an arts programme.
Coffin builder in Ghana by Malilady
airplane coffin Ghana
Coffin builder in Ghana by Malilady
Coffin builder in Ghana by Malilady
When I lived in The Gambia in the 1980s in a rural village, we ate Domoda most days, without meat. This groundnut stew is a staple diet for Mandinka people. It is a rather runny peanut sauce poured over millet or locally grown ‘cracked rice’. The base of the sauce is peanut butter made from ground peanuts (groundnuts). Shredded meat is often added but in our village meat was only available at celebrations like baptisms and weddings, and only very little of it was given to the women.
Here’s my recipe for it from my old Gambian cookbook
1 Kilo beef
250gms peanut butter
3 tablespoons tomato puree
1 large onion
4 medium size bitter tomatoes (‘jakato’)
8 medium size okra
250 gms pumpkin
Juice of 2 lemons
Maggi cubes
Seasoning
1/2 kilo rice
1 litre water
Cut the meat into cubes and wash
Fry meat in a thick bottom pan in hot fat until sealed and cooked and add tomato puree.
Add water and seasoning
Boil 20 minutes and reduce heat.
Add the peanut butter, chopped onion, lemon juice
Bring to the boil for 10 mins stirring continuously.
Reduce heat right down and simmer 45 mins.
While the stew is cooking boil the rice and in another pan boil bitter tomato, okra and pumpkin until tender, put these aside and keep warm.
Serve Domoda sauce poured over the rice and garnish with the cooked vegetables.
I have found a number of recipes for it online:
Domoda by WikiTravel.org
Image via Wikipedia
Every once in a while I come across organisations that really make me glad and happy. Funnily enough they are often started by women! Maybe it is partly because of the co-operative spirit in women, but I feel glad to see women in Africa embracing new technology and getting on out there. The Dimitra Project is something I really support, expanding horizons through workshops and training and providing materials for training. Although the project was started by the FAO way back in 1994 it continues to help women’s groups to network with each other. The keywords are Partnership, Participation and Networking. Its key tool is a database which has profiles of organisations based in Africa, Europe and the Near East that have projects or programmes involving or concerning rural women and development.
Dimitra is a tool for women and their organisations to make their voices heard at the national and international level. Its main goal is to empower rural women and to improve their living conditions and status by highlighting the extent and value of their contributions.
You can download a copy of their newsletter here. I noticed in the latest one an article about ‘listeners clubs in Katanga‘ (Democratic Republic of Congo) which is interesting. You can also order a copy on CD Rom of the database for 2008.
There are a lot of resource links on the site, usually with material you can download free or (if you are in Africa) request free by CD.
You might be interested to visit the Back to Africa web-shop.
Here’s what they say about themselves:
We, at Back To Africa are a family run business specializing in developing and distributing distinctive African products. Since our inception in 1964, we have established ourselves as the leading ethnic gift resource. Over the years we have evolved into one of the most diversified suppliers in the field. We offer a wide range of African merchandise including clothing, jewelry, shadow boxes, soapstone and wood figurines and various Shea Butter body products.
As we all are aware, the current situation in Africa is becoming progressively worse. Many Africans are suffering from horrific diseases, corrupt governments, and a weak economy. It is left to us in the West to help the innocent African people and to give “Back to Africa” by buying African products. We, at Back to Africa, continue to believe in fair wages and in achieving a decent standard of living with the hope of creating a sustainable future for the African citizens. Join us in our attempt to help the next generation of Africans, for that is the main purpose behind “Back to Africa.”
I love being able to promote local enterprises. In Ghana women often organise themselves into co-operatives to market their produce.
Sirigu village houses
Sirigu village in Northern Ghana asks you to share the joy of art & culture with them. You can explore the village through their website. The village is known for traditional architecture, pottery and wall designs. A co-operative of women have formed an organisation to promote their pottery and art called SWOPA – Sirigu women organisation of pottery and art.
Visit http://www.swopa.org
(You’ll find information about the village in this book)Kenya’s arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) are home to more than 30 percent of the country’s population. Many years of underdevelopment and poor policies in these regions mean that pressure is increasing on nomadic pastoralists in arid lands, where poverty is higher than in the rest of Kenya.
Oxfam International is calling on Kenya’s government to end decades of marginalisation and implement its popular policy for arid lands. Covering 80 percent of Kenya, ASALs and the people living there contribute significantly to Kenya’s economy, mainly through livestock production, which currently accounts for roughly five percent of GDP. Most people living in arid lands are livestock producers. When droughts hit, like the one in 2006 that killed an estimated 70 percent of their animals, the local impact is enormous and the national economy also suffers.
Oxfam argues that appropriate long-term development in these areas would not only improve people’s lives but would also contribute to Kenya’s economy and reduce the high costs associated with emergency drought assistance. Continuing to ignore the specific needs of ASALs will result in increased poverty and environmental degradation. The effects of drought are worse every time rains fail, as people become less and less able to recover from the last one and cope with the next.
(Note Eldis and ID21 are combining resources so the link to this article may change. I’ll try and keep up with their changes and update it asap.)
I love the Congo Cookbook, it’s a great source of inspiration as well as recipes. One of my favourite snacks is sugar peanuts. All over West and Central Africa you’ll find sellers of these. In Mali I used to buy them in old whisky bottles! Go here to the cook book and you’ll find the recipe.
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Mali has one of the highest maternal death rates in the world. The article, Claiming our Rights: Surviving Pregnancy and Childbirth in Mali, from the Center for Reproductive Rights analyses the causes of that and proposes some solutions. You can download a pdf of the report at the website.
This report approaches maternal mortality as a deprivation of basic human rights. It considers the manner in which laws, policies and pervasive social norms contribute to maternal mortality in Mali and calls for concerted, urgent action on the part of the government and the international community to ensure women’s safety on their journeys through pregnancy and childbirth.
A newborn baby with umbilical cord ready to be cut (via Wikipedia Commons)
Childbirth and Authoritative Knowledge: Cross-Cultural Perspectives Pregnancy: A continuing source of sorrow and pain for women in Sub-Saharan Africa
The article Mud in Mozambique by Colin Murphy in Le Monde Diplomatique is very interesting with lots of local incidents and anecdotes. It really is worth going to and reading the full article.
Mozambique ranks 168 out of 177 countries in the United Nations development index, with 54% of its people below the poverty line. Yet the statistics are improving – the economy has a steady annual 8% growth rate and there are megaprojects coming on line.
A girl runs down a dust path, Santa hat on her head, whistle in her mouth. Ahead, Maputo’s lumpen-expatriate community disperses through the shantytown, shouting to each other. “Are you?” “Checking, checking.” “On on!” Locals emerge from their houses, of corrugated iron sheeting or adobe, to watch a convoy of white people, flaunting their white skin in skimpy running gear, flowing past. The runners carry sweets and peanuts, and throw them to the barefoot children who stop to watch and cry out “Azungo!”
