The History of Porridge in Bantuphone Africa, with Words as Main Ingredients

The historical comparative-linguistic analysis of Bantu culinary vocabulary reveals that the stiff porridge widely consumed in Central and Southern Africa today as principal starch food was already known to the first Bantu speech communities. The preparation method changed over time. The early Bantu...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Birgit Ricquier
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: Institut des Mondes Africains 2014-12-01
Series:Afriques
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/afriques/1575
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1841552445063299072
author Birgit Ricquier
author_facet Birgit Ricquier
author_sort Birgit Ricquier
collection DOAJ
description The historical comparative-linguistic analysis of Bantu culinary vocabulary reveals that the stiff porridge widely consumed in Central and Southern Africa today as principal starch food was already known to the first Bantu speech communities. The preparation method changed over time. The early Bantu speakers prepared porridge as a mash from yams and later from plantains. The Proto-East and Proto-Southwest Bantu speech communities knew cereals and made porridge from cereal flour. When cassava was introduced after the Columbian Exchange, this cereal preparation was applied to a tuber in Central Africa. Many communities living in the northwest of the Bantuphone region, however, never adopted the preparation of flour porridge. Moreover, in many communities living in the equatorial rainforest, porridge— be it from cereals or other crops—never attained status as the staple and remained one of many starch food preparations.
format Article
id doaj-art-f2b356530e7c46db93ab4950a7893143
institution Kabale University
issn 2108-6796
language deu
publishDate 2014-12-01
publisher Institut des Mondes Africains
record_format Article
series Afriques
spelling doaj-art-f2b356530e7c46db93ab4950a78931432025-01-09T13:02:49ZdeuInstitut des Mondes AfricainsAfriques2108-67962014-12-01510.4000/afriques.1575The History of Porridge in Bantuphone Africa, with Words as Main IngredientsBirgit RicquierThe historical comparative-linguistic analysis of Bantu culinary vocabulary reveals that the stiff porridge widely consumed in Central and Southern Africa today as principal starch food was already known to the first Bantu speech communities. The preparation method changed over time. The early Bantu speakers prepared porridge as a mash from yams and later from plantains. The Proto-East and Proto-Southwest Bantu speech communities knew cereals and made porridge from cereal flour. When cassava was introduced after the Columbian Exchange, this cereal preparation was applied to a tuber in Central Africa. Many communities living in the northwest of the Bantuphone region, however, never adopted the preparation of flour porridge. Moreover, in many communities living in the equatorial rainforest, porridge— be it from cereals or other crops—never attained status as the staple and remained one of many starch food preparations.https://journals.openedition.org/afriques/1575Bantuhistorical comparative linguisticsculinary historyporridge
spellingShingle Birgit Ricquier
The History of Porridge in Bantuphone Africa, with Words as Main Ingredients
Afriques
Bantu
historical comparative linguistics
culinary history
porridge
title The History of Porridge in Bantuphone Africa, with Words as Main Ingredients
title_full The History of Porridge in Bantuphone Africa, with Words as Main Ingredients
title_fullStr The History of Porridge in Bantuphone Africa, with Words as Main Ingredients
title_full_unstemmed The History of Porridge in Bantuphone Africa, with Words as Main Ingredients
title_short The History of Porridge in Bantuphone Africa, with Words as Main Ingredients
title_sort history of porridge in bantuphone africa with words as main ingredients
topic Bantu
historical comparative linguistics
culinary history
porridge
url https://journals.openedition.org/afriques/1575
work_keys_str_mv AT birgitricquier thehistoryofporridgeinbantuphoneafricawithwordsasmainingredients
AT birgitricquier historyofporridgeinbantuphoneafricawithwordsasmainingredients