Afriques· 2014Q2
The History of Porridge in Bantuphone Africa, with Words as Main Ingredients
- 89citations
- Q2SCImago
- 2014year
Short summary
Porridge, a staple starch food in Bantuphone Africa, has a history dating back to early Bantu speech communities, evolving from yam and plantain mashes to cereal flour preparations, and later adapted for cassava.
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Key points
- Porridge was known to the first Bantu speech communities, with early preparations using yams and plantains.
- Cereal flour porridge became known to Proto-East and Proto-Southwest Bantu speakers.
- Cassava was adapted for porridge preparation in Central Africa after its introduction post-Columbian Exchange.
- Some Bantuphone communities, especially in the northwest and equatorial rainforest, did not adopt flour porridge or make it a staple.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
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.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Afriques, 2014 · DOI ↗
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Field: Archeology (Social Sciences)
ArcheologySocial Sciences