List of African cuisines


This is a list of African cuisines. A cuisine is a characteristic style of cooking practices and traditions, often associated with a specific culture. The various cuisines of Africa use a combination of locally available fruits, cereal grains and vegetables, as well as milk and meat products. In some parts of the continent, the traditional diet features a preponderance of milk, curd and whey products. The continent's diverse demographic makeup is reflected in the many different eating and drinking habits, dishes, and preparation techniques of its manifold populations.

Central African cuisine

Central Africa stretches from the Tibesti Mountains in the north to the vast rainforest basin of the Congo River, the highlands of Kivu and the savana of Katanga.
This region has received culinary influence of the Swahilis during the East African Slave Trade. Swahili culinary influences can be found in dishes such as mandanzi, pilaf rice, kachumbari, sambsusa, and kuku paka.
Central African cuisine has also been influenced by the Portuguese, by way of the Kongo and Ndongo Kingdoms. Salt fish was introduced following trade in the late 17th century, and the Kikongo term for salt fish, makayabu, comes from the term bacalhau.
The Portuguese culinary influence is especially prominent in Angola, Sao Tomé and Equatorial Guinea. Central Africa has also been influenced by the cuisine of the regions East, West and Southern Africa because of their close proximity, e.g. babuté/''bobotie is shared with the south, nyama choma with the east and gombos with West Africa.
The main ingredients are plantains, cassava, rice, kwanga and yam. Fufu-like starchy foods are usually made from fermented cassava roots, but they can also be made with plantain, corn maize and yam. Fufu is served buffet style with grilled meat, fish, stews, greens and piment. A variety of local ingredients are used while preparing other dishes like spinach stew cooked with tomato, peppers, chillis, onions, and peanut butter. Eastern central Africa is also one of the few regions in Africa that uses potatoes as one of its main bases, since potatoes grow easily in the region.
Cassava plants are also consumed as cooked greens. Groundnut stew is also prepared, containing chicken, okra, ginger, and other spices. Beef and chicken are favorite meat dishes, but game meat preparations containing crocodile, elephant, antelope and warthog are also served occasionally. Another favorite is bambara, a porridge of rice, peanut butter and sugar. A jomba'' is the bundling of foods in fresh green plantain leaves and then cooking them over hot coals or fire.

East African cuisine

  • East African cuisine: East Africa is the eastern region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa: This is a vast region with many diverse cuisines.

North African cuisine

In North African cuisine, the most common staple foods are meat, seafood, goat, lamb, beef, dates, kebab, shawarma, falafel, almonds, olives, various vegetables and fruit.
Because the region is predominantly Muslim, halal meats are usually eaten. The best-known North African/Berber dishes abroad are surely couscous and tajine.

Southern African cuisine

  • South African cuisine is sometimes referred to as "rainbow cuisine" because it is based on multicultural and various indigenous cuisines. Curried dishes are popular with lemon juice in South Africa among people of all ethnic origins; many dishes came to the country with the thousands of Indian laborers brought to South Africa in the nineteenth century. South African cuisine can be defined as cookery practiced by indigenous people of South Africa such as the Khoisan and Xhosa, Zulu- and Sotho-speaking people, and settler cookery that emerged from several waves of immigration introduced during the colonial period by people of Indian and Afrikaner and British descent and their slaves and servants.
  • Botswana cuisine is unique but also shares some characteristics with other cuisine of Southern Africa. Examples of Botswana food include pap, samp, vetkoek and mopane worms. A food unique to Botswana includes seswaa, heavily salted mashed-up meat.
  • Malagasy cuisine is the cuisine of the island country of Madagascar, located in the Indian Ocean off the south-eastern coast of Africa. Malagasy are mostly of Malayan Polynesian, along with African, Arab, Indian and European descent. Rice is a common staple food, and fruits and vegetables are prominent in the cuisine. Pineapples, mangoes, peaches, grapes, avocados and lychee are grown on the island. Meats include chicken, beef and fish, and curry dishes are common. A common food is laoka, a mixture of cooked foods served with rice. Laoka are most often served in some kind of sauce: in the highlands, this sauce is generally tomato-based, while in coastal areas coconut milk is often added during cooking.

West African cuisine

  • West African cuisine refers to many distinct regional and ethnic cuisines in West African nations, a large geographic area with climates ranging from desert to tropical. Some of the region's indigenous plants, such as Hausa groundnuts, pigeon peas and cowpeas, provide dietary protein for both people and livestock. Many significant spices, stimulants and medicinal herbs originated in the evergreen and deciduous forests of Western Africa. Ancient Africans domesticated the kola nut and coffee, now used globally in beverages.

By country

  • North African cuisine
  • East African cuisine
  • Central African cuisine
  • Southern African cuisine
  • West African cuisine