TIGed

Switch headers Switch to TIGweb.org

Are you an TIG Member?
Click here to switch to TIGweb.org

HomeHomeExpress YourselfPanoramaWhat Exactly Makes us African? Is it Solely our Skin Colour?
Panorama
a TakingITGlobal online publication
Search



(Advanced Search)

Panorama Home
Issue Archive
Current Issue
Next Issue
Featured Writer
TIG Magazine
Writings
Opinion
Interview
Short Story
Poetry
Experiences
My Content
Edit
Submit
Guidelines




This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
What Exactly Makes us African? Is it Solely our Skin Colour? Printable Version PRINTABLE VERSION
by Norma, Kenya Feb 25, 2007
Culture   Opinions

  

An article in the February 22nd edition of the 'Daily Nation', one of Kenya’s leading daily newspapers caught my attention. The article, “Too much ado over 'Ugali', yet it's recent addition to our menu”, by Charles Onyango-Obbo, made reference to Professor James McCann’s book 'Maize and Grace'. I was lucky to discover that a colleague of mine had a copy and so I borrowed it. I’m in the process of completing the first reading, and I must admit that the book is an eye opener.

It has opened my eyes to the 'wonderful world of maize' and to an Africa that I never knew existed before. In so doing, it has shaken and changed my perception of what being African means. Now I wonder what it means to be an African in our fast globalizing world. Is it your skin color, the food you eat or the way you conduct yourself? Consider that some time back, the Irish were considered 'non-white' for immigration purposes into the USA, and the Japanese, at another point in history, were considered 'white'. If race is so flexible a concept, changing according to the context in which it is being used, then what does it ultimately mean to us?

Let’s turn back to McCann’s Maize and Grace: Contrary to what our colonial history has taught, the “coming of the Europeans”, had little to do with a 'civilizing mission' that came into being at the turn of the 19th century. In fact, European activities had actually been ongoing on the African continent since the 'Colombian years’. It seems likely that the myth of the 19th century “coming of the Europeans” was a tactical shift in historiography to explain or justify colonization after the fact.

The slave trading ships, for example, were provisioned by the maize grown by Africans on the West coast of the continent. For 400 years, starting with what some authors call the “Colombian Exchange” (in reference to the exchange of maize from South America with African slaves during the transatlantic trade), maize has been a major commodity of trade on the continent. However, Kenya, on the East coast of Africa, joined the “bandwagon of commercial maize growing” with more recent British colonization.

Today, although the rest of the world uses maize mainly in industry and to feed cattle and other livestock, in sub-Saharan Africa, maize is increasingly being used primarily as a staple food for humans. In fact, in some communities in Kenya, you cannot claim to have eaten food unless your meal included the maize-based dish, ugali. Traditionally, this ugali would have been made from millet and sorghum flour. It was humbling to learn from McCann’s book that maize (among many other 'African' crops) is, contrary to common perceptions, an alien food on the continent, and that because it is a poor source of protein and some B vitamins, is unsuitable as a dietary staple food. Apparently, maize causes ill health among consumers who are overly dependent on it. The common disease such a diet causes is known as pellagra.

According to McCann, there is also a possibility that maize is associated with severe malaria. The evidence for this comes from a study done in Ethiopia which showed that maize pollen served as 'food' for earlier forms of the anopheles mosquito- a common carrier of the malaria parasite on the continent. However, maize has its attractive side. It is easy to grow, rewards farmers well, is tasty and has a ready outlet on the national and international markets.

McCann’s observations have brought to mind a question I would like to raise: What makes us African? I think this is a valid question, considering that our daily staple is not 'the food of our forefathers’. If our staple diet is alien, what does that make us? Is it any wonder then that we sub-Saharan Africans aspire to alien things and alien values?





 1     


Tags

You must be logged in to add tags.

Writer Profile
Norma


I am an African community health worker interested in cultural practices. This is because I have come to believe that culture is a foundation for development. I am especially interested in food culture for the same reasons.
Comments


What Makes us African?
Eugenia Bivines | Mar 4th, 2007
I am African American and live in the US. This article is Great Food For Thought! It makes you say Hmmm.... Let me think on this for a min. Keep up the good work.

You must be a TakingITGlobal member to post a comment. Sign up for free or login.