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Cuisine

West African

Rich one-pot soups and stews served with starchy 'swallows' or rice, built on palm oil, tomatoes, peppers, groundnuts and fermented seasonings such as locust beans.

Flavour character: Bold and savoury-hot: Scotch bonnet heat, tomato-pepper bases fried in palm oil, smoky dried fish and crayfish, funky fermented locust beans (iru, dawadawa, soumbala), and nutty groundnut sauces.

71 recipesBrowse recipes
Delicious grilled chicken served with flavorful Jollof rice and sautéed vegetables on a white plate.

History

African rice (Oryza glaberrima) was domesticated in the inner Niger delta, and yams, sorghum, millet, fonio, okra, black-eyed peas and the oil palm are native to the region. Cassava, maize, peanuts, tomatoes and chillies arrived from the Americas via Portuguese trade from the 16th century and became staples. The Atlantic slave trade carried West African foods and techniques (okra, rice farming, one-pot stews, frying) to the Americas. Jollof rice takes its name from the Wolof (Jolof) empire of Senegambia; Senegal's ceebu jën (thieboudienne) was inscribed by UNESCO in 2021.

Well documented

Geography and influences

From the Sahel's dry savanna (millet, sorghum, cattle) to the humid coastal forest belt (yams, cassava, plantain, palm oil) and the Atlantic coast (fish).

  • Indigenous crops of the Sahel and forest zones
  • Trans-Saharan trade and Islam
  • Columbian exchange crops via Portuguese traders
  • French and British colonial periods
  • Lebanese communities

Regional variations

Nigeria
Wide range of 'soups' (egusi, efo, ogbono) with swallows; northern suya and kilishi.
Ghana
Light soup, groundnut soup, kenkey and banku, waakye, shito.
Senegal and the Gambia
Rice and fish (thieboudienne), onion-lemon yassa, mafe, bissap.
Cote d'Ivoire
Attieke, kedjenou cooked in sealed pots, aloco (fried plantain).
Sahel (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger)
Millet, sorghum and fonio with okra and leaf sauces.

Festive and seasonal food

  • Party jollof at weddings and celebrations
  • Thieboudienne for family Sundays (Senegal)
  • Tabaski (Eid al-Adha) lamb
  • Chin chin and puff-puff at Christmas
  • Fufu and light soup at Ghanaian festivals

Signature dishes

Not on the site yet: Ofe onugbu (bitter-leaf soup), Fante kenkey with fried fish, Afang soup, Ogbono soup

West African recipes

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