The Azande: A Central African Empire (POST2)

In the heart of Africa lies an 800 km span of lands where the Zande dwell. They are the remnants of many cultures, the result of a dynasty of conquests that forged them into a single culture. A single culture which spans three modern day African countries (the Congo, Sudan, and the Central African Republic.) and constitutes nearly a million people. By and large they speak one of two languages either the Zande language, or the lesser spoken Nzakara. The languages are mutually understandable, but differ in the form of nearly 30 percent of their vocabulary.

The Azande people are largely horticulturists, They grow much of their own food on homesteads that span the African Savannah, and in some cases the rainforests of the Congo. Their staple crops are Maize, Cassava, Pumpkin, Sweet Potatoes, Groundnuts, and a variety of oil producing plants. Some of these plants are native to the area, though many have been borrowed from various tribes in the surrounding areas.

 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cassava_-dried_tuber_pieces_and_ground_flour.jpg

Some foods that the Zande cultivate require more processing than others. Many of the grains utilized by the Zande have to be roasted, ground, shelled and rendered to flour before being used to produce the flours they use to make porridge or, in some cases, beer. Oil seeds must be rendered for their oil through cooking or crushing or a combination of the two to produce the oils the Zande use for cooking. That said some of the foods the Zande consume are as simple as shelling a nut, or in the case of Cowbeans and Sesame seeds, simply eating them raw off of the plant. Cassava has an especially long process, requiring the freshly dug up tuber to be submerged in a river for seven days to ferment before pounding it into a pulp, drying, then grinding it down into flour.

Many of the plants they grow and consume are not necessarily native to the African continent. They have been seen to grow maize and hyptis, which are both plants with origins on the American continents, as well as dtiro, kpagu, and koforo which are also used to produce a variety of oils used in food preparation. Almost all varieties of the Zande are known to grow bananas as well, though they are not thought to be a major source of starches for any of the tribes. Many also grow a type of hibiscus, thought to have originated from the Americas. Most of these foreign foods are said by members of the tribes to have been borrowed from other nearby tribes.

This gives us a great insight to how the Zande accumulate their culture, down even to their foodstuffs from the people around them. The Zande are a melting pot culture, made up of many other cultures and methods, so it only makes sense that even their diet would be a melting pot of foods from all over the world.

Works Cited:

Evans-Pritchard, E.E. . “A Contribution to the Study of Zande Culture.” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 30 (No. 4)1960: 309–24. doi:https://doi-org.northernkentuckyuniversity.idm.oclc.org/10.2307/1157595.

 Schlippe, Pierre de. 1956. Shifting Cultivation in Africa: The Zande System of Agriculture. London: Routledge &Paul. https://ehrafworldcultures-yale-edu.northernkentuckyuniversity.idm.oclc.org/document?id=fo07-060.

 Gillies, Eva. 1999. “Culture Summary: Azande.” New Haven, Conn.: HRAF. https://ehrafworldcultures-yale-edu.northernkentuckyuniversity.idm.oclc.org/document?id=fo07-000.

 Culwick, Mrs., G. M. 1950. A Dietary Survey among the Zande of the South-Western Sudan. Khartoum: Agricultural Publications Committee, Ministry of Agriculture, Sudan Govt. https://ehrafworldcultures-yale-edu.northernkentuckyuniversity.idm.oclc.org/document?id=fo07-061.