POWER OF AFRICAN FOOD EPISODE 1

The only ingredient in the African kitchen? A sense of community and generous hospitality.
In the Kalahari, near the Namibian border, there is a well that the Bushmen visit seasonally. The archaeological records show that they have been here for more than 20,000 years. It was old when the pyramids were under construction.

The Bushmen come every year for the same reason: the availability of fruits and roots and the migration of animals. The Bushmen Hunt consists in participating in the oldest, constantly practiced human activity. We forget about brick and asphalt in the bush, or we have little reason to remember that when worn trails wander the supermarket aisles repeat a pattern that connect us to our farthest ancestors by using fire-hardened sticks for the tubers in the sand digs. The Kalahari is the most marginal and self-protective land. It does not need strangers. It is not generous or hospitable. It is not paired with Provence or Tuscany. Every bite of every meal is earned with rigor, patience and experience; A newcomer will starve here. A life is too short to learn how to combine your pantry, and quickly became an inexperienced lunch for something else.

The gathering of hunting and gathering is done by women and is perceived by a group of women lost as a pleasant but aimless walk. This is not the case and they are not. They know where they are going. You will go to a particular tree on a particular day to get a specific fruit before giraffes or bats receive it. But as they walk, they are alert for the luck of a passing lizard, a medical sheet or a stick that would make a toothbrush. Women paint their faces with red minerals to protect themselves from the sun and insects. Men hunt with traps, bows and arrows with poison spikes. For the uninitiated, they see themselves as a group of friends playing golf. They talk and laugh and stop smoking. But they see a world of signs and clues that are invisible to strangers. The first time I hunted with them, we searched for Springsticks, incredibly cute little insects that Disney had invented instead of God: Half Kangaroo, Half Squirrel. A Bushman pulled one off the ground, looked into his big, dark, bulging eyes and slashed the thin hind legs of the two. I asked why he did it. He laughed without teeth and responded with a series of clicks: "The first rule of the hunt is never take anything twice." There is no feeling here; The sentimentality about nature comes with distance and disconnection. It is the pleasure of the occasional visitor.

West Africans eat more vegetables and less red meat than their eastern brothers. The most unique cuisine in Africa comes from Ethiopia, the only country I have ever lived in that is made up almost exclusively of native carbohydrates: teff, soaked semis-fermented millet seeds, which are then cooked into large spongy circles that intersect one layer and one Rolls are. These are used as very spicy curries and sauces that are remarkably good. Everywhere in East Africa you can find Ethiopian food, especially in Nairobi, where the profits from piracy are a very good table.

Ethiopia is the coffee house. There is a coffee ceremony that begins with roasting the beans and ends with infusing the cup with incense. Cape Town, South Africa, has food from Cape Malay, which was brought to Africa by Indonesian slaves of the Dutch East India Company. It is mixed with Boer dishes and local ingredients and uses many spices. There is the Bobotie, a kind of exotic shepherd's pie; and Bredie, a lamb stew; and the Koeksister, a type of fried donut with spices and ginger.

Episode 2 coming soon ................