We KNOW there are various Africans lurking around! READ this

[Zurie]

Peggy and her husband have done an amazing trip through Africa, from north to south and back!! She knows more about Africa and its food than I ever can.

I'll just add that, although some of the cities have sophisticated eating (in West Africa there is still a strong French influence), we must accept that most of rural Africa is poverty-stricken by our standards.

(I do not wholly include South Africa in this generalisation, as S A is far more Westernised except for large pockets of poverty, but let's not go there now).

So what Africa eats (generally) is what is available. That means maize meal (cornmeal) as a staple, and as Peggy said, tomatoes, onions -- and potatoes, a few starchy root vegetables and chicken. Spices are used (depending on where the country is).

There is no pickiness. You eat what is available, which also means an animal from nose to tail end.

The staple food south of the Equator is maize meal porridge, which has several names: ugali, zadza, putu .... etc. Over this stiff porridge comes sesheba (there are different other words in the different languages) which means a "side sauce" which is served with porridge. People sit around the 3-legged iron pot with the maize porridge, dip in a hand, form a little ball, and dip it into the "sheba" (short for "shesheba").

The shesheba is usually a simple sauce made with tomatoes and onions, sometimes spiked with hot peppers, and if possible, a little ground meat will have been added.

In my mind's eye I can still see my 2 sons and their cousins tucking into a pot of putu and sheba standing over low coals, with the Pedi's who were workers on my father-in-law's farm ...

[Leggy Peggy]

Aw, thanks for the praise Zurie, but I feel as if I barely know African cuisine.
I have, however, had a chance to sample dishes in 30 African countries.
Two of my favourite meals were in Uganda and Ethiopia.

The Ugandan meal was Indian food (a lot of Indian influence in East Africa).
The Ethiopian on was an injera feast with all sorts of little dishes.