Africa

Abstract

A most instructive picture on the food and diet of the primitive savages of Africa has been given by M. Briault (1943): ‘We have to imagine that primitive Africa, before the penetration of Arabs and white men, was a continent almost bare of basic foods, especially those of vegetable origin. The only endemic vegetable foods are banana, citronella, gourd, beans and peas, sorghum, millet, durrha, and perhaps taro. The natives of the primeval forest, including the Negrillos, have no plantations at all and live exclusively by hunting and fishing’ (p. 82). ‘Meat, fish and pastes of caterpillars or big palmworms are wrapped into a large leaf, made supple whilst passing them over the fire. Some salt, some spice, some drops of wild lemon, and a pleasant meal is taken from the hot ashes, but it never lasts long’ (Fig. 25, p. 87). ‘When game is insufficient or lacking, the worries of revictualling pass to the women. They go out to explore the rivulets, the caves, the ponds, the shrub and the bogs, and return with rats, lizards, even with snakes, occasionally even with a small monkey or porcupine, or with supplies of caterpillars, palmworms, tadpoles or young fish. These dishes of the lean days are stewed with salt, spice and lemon, which are an a priori accompaniment of every native dish.