Fufu ... Tastes Like Nothing, But Fills You Up!

Cassava, also known as manioc, is a staple of Congolese (and other African) cuisine and is the major source of calories for more than 250 million Africans. Cassava is hardy, and relatively easy to grow, but unfortunately has the lowest protein-to-energy ratio of any staple crop. A typical diet based on cassava provides less than 30 percent of the minimum daily requirement for protein and only 10-20 percent of the required amounts of iron, zinc, vitamin A, and vitamin E. Moreover, because it carries low levels of a naturally occurring cyanide, cassava can be toxic if is not prepared properly. [http://www.grandchallenges.org/ImproveNutrition/Challenges/NutrientRichPlants/Pages/Cassava.aspx]

In the Congo, cassava root is used to make fufu, which is a thick paste (with a breadlike consistency) usually made by boiling the roots in water and pounding with a mortar and pestle until the desired consistency is reached. Fufu will typically be eaten as a carbohydrate-rich stomach filler accompanied by some sort of sauce or stew. Economic circumstances dictate the ingredients in (or availability at all of) the sauce. [I ate my first fufu in Boston in 1985, learning Swahili (now mostly forgotten) from a Congolese lady named Mama Vumbi Kalonji. Our class was held at midday, and Mama Vumbi would often bring a Congolese lunch she had cooked. Including fufu.]

In the first photograph above, you can see cassava root drying outside a couple of huts near Nyanzale. In the second photograph, a woman is pounding cassava root into flour. I took at a turn at the mortar and pestle, but unfortunately don't have a photo of myself doing so. She (and everyone else nearby) liked it. We wazungu aren't as useless as we look!