Though West African cuisine may remain somewhat of an enigma to many of us, historically speaking it is one of the world’s most influential food cultures. The first human settlements in West Africa date back to 4000 BCE, and the roots of West African food certainly reach this far too; many of the indigenous vegetables and spices that define West African food – rice, yam, plantain, cassava and the like – all existed there thousands of years ago.
By the colonial period, West African peoples were trading regularly with Europe and the Mediterranean, exporting cotton and precious metals in return for all the wonders of the New World. European explorers introduced tomatoes, chillies and peanuts to West Africa, and in turn, they took rice, black-eyed peas, okra and other ingredients back with them. Today, the influence of West Africa on food around the world is unmistakable. Rice, black-eyed peas and okra are staples in West Indian cuisine. In Louisiana and the American Deep South, Creole classics like gumbo, yams, greens and red rice are directly inherited from West African dishes – a result of the slave trade which brought millions of West Africans over to America.
No single ingredient displays the deep-seated importance of West African cuisine like the kola nut, which originated in West Africa and arrived in America via West African slaves, who used them to make stale water drinkable on the long voyage across the Atlantic. The kola nut went on to become a key ingredient in – you guessed it – Coca-Cola, which itself became synonymous with American food and drink culture. Lots of what we think of as American, West Indian and even European food actually originates from West Africa.
To refer to West African food as a singular entity is, of course, a little misleading. We’re more aware of the intricacies of regional cuisines than we have ever been and West Africa is no different – even within a single country there are often several different ethnic groups with their own specific dishes and cuisines. In fact, territorial boundaries don’t have a great impact on eating habits in West Africa; this is possibly a result of colonialism, where European settlers defined their own borders without any regard for pre-existing territories, thus bisecting various different tribes. That said, there are some distinct, unique flavours and ingredients that characterise West African cuisine as a whole and are popular across the length and breadth of the region. Let’s take a look!