Africa’s Indigenous Foods Are Not Famine Foods

A few years ago in one of the northern regions of Ghana, shea trees were cut down to make room for grafted mango trees for the production of mango beverages. 

Shea trees live for hundreds of years, they provide sustainable income for women, they are used in many skin care products, as well as in local cooking. Shea trees are declining at an alarming rate, due to the demand for shea butter, and firewood. They are indigenous to the three northern regions in Ghana, and have an immense cultural, economic, and environmental significance. With this background, why would native trees that have sustained communities for thousands of years be cut down to plant fruit trees with perishable harvest, and limited versatility?

Similarly, a few years ago, stakeholders pushed the agenda for a variety of potatoes called orange flesh sweet potatoes to be consumed in the northern regions of Ghana as a way to boost vitamin A. Orange flesh sweet potatoes, is not a variety of potatoes that farmers are used to growing nor is it an ingredient that has traditionally been used in local foods. So even though this project was implemented, it was not adopted in the long term. Further research on how to boost vitamin A with native foods would have revealed a selection of indigenousfoods that farmers could have received funding to cultivate at a larger production. 

Shea Nuts

Sadly, the companies, the nations, the corporations and the individuals that benefit from the current food systems are the ones with the greatest market share. And thus, have the power in most cases to determine what food grows where.

The African continent has been framed as a hungry, dying, and starving continent. This false narrative has positioned its inidgeous foods as unable to feed its population. Over the years, African indigenous foods have then been relegated as either inferior or difficult to cultivate in comparison to foreign foods that have recieved enormous investments.

The devaluing of ancestral and native African foods took hold during colonialism. Many native crops that colonial countries could not financially benefit from were neglected in organized agriculture, while exportable cash crops such as cocoa, sugar, and etc., were cultured, harvested, and exported. 

In fact, the African continent has abundant, plenty, and sufficient foods. But this is not the story that is perpetuated. 

African indigenous and native foods are not forgotten foods, they are not orphan foods, they are not famine foods, they are not poor people’s food, and they are certainly not drought foods.

Sorghum

Native African foods have been ignored and neglected. However, they should not be referred to or categorized as famine or forgotten foods.

Although the continent has the largest portion of undernourished people, this is not because food cannot and does not grow on the continent. It is because of the unequal distribution of food, the lack of financial support from all levels of government for rural farmers who can actually feed their communities, and the impact of capitalism, the global food system and trade policies. When governments or stakeholders speak about “feeding the continent” they typically speak of this in relation to importing foreign foods as opposed to cultivating native foods. 

Africa native foods are devalued when there is an importation of foreign foods that can be grown locally. For instance, the indigenous African red rice can be cultivated with an investment in post-harvest equipment, storage, packaging, and distribution. When there is an influx of foreign rice, it’s likely sold at a cheaper price, and the local variety thus becomes expensive and eventually unwanted as less people cook with it. 

The global food system looks at food that can be grown, produced, packaged, and shipped with minimum costs. Which means, the cost of production has to be as cheap and affordable as possible, so that profits can be made at the end. The priority is profits, and not the health and wellbeing of those who will grow and consume the foods. 

The foods that have a market or potential for market are often the foods that are researched on, attain funding, get investment, and eventually protected. In some cases, the seeds of these foods become protected by intellectual property rights. Africa’s indigenous foods have been ignored in policies, trade agreements, in research, and in receiving the full funding and the policy support it deserves.

To preserve native African foods, is to shift the perception of these foods as famine food to valuable foods. They have always been valuable in their usefulness and benefit for humans, animals, and the ecosystem. They are living foods, energy powered foods, ancient foods, nutritious foods, and ancestral foods. 

Baobab Leaves

There needs to be a ban on the importation of foods that can be grown locally. Banning imported foods that can be grown locally, or taxing imported foods higher means that consumers will turn to local farmers to purchase locally grown and native foods. Secondly, there needs to be extensive research on the propagation and cultivation of these foods. Research on finding the best varieties of native foods, saving the seeds, and cultivating those varieties. Farmers also need extensive financial support as well as the needed and necessary equipment to be able to grow, harvest, store and distribute their foods. Lastly, the investment in promoting the benefits and uses of the foods in the media is essential to connecting to consumers.

African native foods should not be categorized as famine foods simply because they can grow and thrive in drought conditions. They are growing naturally in their ecosystems, and their use extends beyond the environmental conditions they grow in.

Our indigenous foods are not famine foods, they are our histories, our culture, and our traditions. Our native foods carry us, and the future possibilities of a sustainable food system.