Using the Fruits of the Earth: Feasting in Burundi
In spite of all the difficulties of war, non-functioning infrastructure, lack of fuel, etc, here in Burundi – we are blessed with year-round crop and livestock systems – 3 cropping seasons and year-round kidding (birthing of goats)! As well, and in spite of what one might think from international news sources, Burundians are friendly, cooperative, hard-working and highly sociable. And they, too, love good food!

A Tasty Congolese Relish with Manioc Leaves – Isombe y’umwamba
The following recipe – ‘Manioc leaves with crushed palm oil kernels‘ – is popular throughout central Africa and combines three of the most important local ingredients – manioc leaves, fresh oil palm nuts, and ground nuts. Batwa men operating a traditional oil palm press Here are the ingredients – quantities are pretty muc

Batwa Pots in Burundi: Traditional Clay Pot Cuisine, Pt. 2 of 2
Pt. 1 of this entry explained how Batwa pots are made, and noted that as metal and plastic enter the market, the pots are being increasingly marginalized – thus further undermining the already fragile livelihoods of the Batwa pygmy communities of central Africa. This entry will discuss what is being done by two organizations – Lutheran World Federation-Burundi (referred to as ‘LWF’ in this post) and The H

An Ancient Egyptian ‘Recipe’ – for curing urinary ailments
Even though ancient Egyptian art is replete with drawings of both banquets and crops – and even though tombs are filled with a variety of dried or preserved foods for use in the Afterlife – there are no recipes of how the food was cooked. Banquet scenes show mounds of food – generally uncooked, except for loaves of bread and jugs of beer:

Batwa Pots in Burundi: Traditional Clay Pot Cuisine, Pt. 1 of 2
The Batwa pygmies of central Africa were the first inhabitants of the region, being later joined by Bantu agriculturalists. As hunter-gathers, theirs has been a nomadic lifestyle of the forest and surrounding areas. Over several thousand years, Batwa became the specialists paramount in the making of clay cooking pots for the settled Bantu communities, from whom cultivated crops and other items would be traded for the pots. Early explorers and colonialists generally portrayed the pygmy as bazaar anachronisms, an attitude that severely held back their access to education, medical care, and economic assistance.