Olympic Food Series – Africa Week
As previously mentioned, I will be doing an Olympic Food Series. This is how it will work. Each week will be dedicated to one major region and it will be done in alphabetical order – therefore, this week is dedicated to a series of African food which I will be cooking personally. At the start of each week, I will give an introduction to the region covering some basic facts.
To my friends who know where I live, if you are looking for some adventure (food-wise) please feel free to let me know if you want to come over and try my food. I’ll try not to kill you in the process.
At 30,330,000 square kilometres (or 11,699,000 square miles), Africa is the second largest continent in the world. 53 countries comprise Africa, ranging from the largest country which is Sudan, to the smallest country which is the Seychelles.
Africa is a continent viewed by non-Africans as a war-savaged and very dangerous area with great poverty. And due to movies like Blood Diamond, it has been reinforced into our minds as a country which is rich in mineral resources, many of which have not yet been mined; that people would kill for and thus there is a lot of guerrilla warfare and it is quite unstable and unsafe. In reality, not all of Africa is like that. Certainly, it doesn’t help that there is Robert Mugabe has sadly practically destroyed Zimbabwe and the African Union won’t stop him because he is seen as a freedom fighter.
However, it is also a continent with great beauty, immense history, culture, and great scenery ranging from the great Mount Kilimanjaro to forest reserves to the Sahara desert to Victoria Falls. The world’s oldest desert is the Namib, which is inhabited by the elephant, rhinoceros, giraffe, and lion. Did you know that Lake Malawi contains the largest number of fish species in the world, and the Fish River Canyon in Namibia is the second largest canyon in the world?
When we think of Africa, we think of cheetahs, lions, giraffes, hippos, and more. But did you know that they are also home to penguins in South Africa; seals in Cape Cross, Namibia (in fact it’s the largest seal colony in the southern hemisphere); and that the schools of fresh sardines can only be found in Lake Tanganyika. Lake Tanganyika is so large it’s actually the 2nd largest freshwater lake in the world and is shared by Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, and Zambia! Not bad for a continent most think is totally desert, eh?
Africa is a continent with more than 800 languages and dialects. However, only 10 of those languages are spoken by cultural groups of a million people or more. Most of these languages are actually spoken by ethnic groups fewer than 100,000 people.
As you can see, Africa is rich in diversity. In my experience, African people are generally lovely people where they have a great sense of community – including community justice. I have several ties to Africa, so it is my great pleasure to introduce Africa, the hidden gem, to you this week.
