Manioc

Manioc is one of the main staple foods here. I wish we could say that we like it, but unfortunately we don't! I think that it is not really the favorite food of people here, either, but it is a staple because there is an ability to dry it and keep it for many months. At the top you can see a photo of it, just dug up. It can be peeled and eaten raw, which is it's tastiest form, or it can be cooked and eaten. Mostly, it is peeled and laid out to dry on rooftops, then stored for future use. In its dried state, it is pounded into a powder and then sprinkled in boiling water to make a porridge.

Here's another photo of a lady digging it up - it is the roots of a plant that can be seen in the last photo. It is a good dry-weather plant - it just doesn't grow as fast without rain, but doesn't die. You see these plants all over the place - they don't yield a lot of food (the photo pictures all that is gained from one plant) but it doesn't require any care. The leaves are also part of the diet here, and these are prepred by pounding them with a large mortar and pestle until they are in tiny pieces, then they are cooked up in a stew with onions, tomatoes, garlic, coconut milk, peanut flour, or any combination of the above. That dish is called matapa: it is full of iron, and we ask our house worker to make it occasionally because we really like it.

The Bible says "Do not store up treasures for yourselves here on earth" and I think of that often as I look at the situation of people here. It is not possible to store food long-term, except for manioc really. You can sometimes store rice, and peanuts, but frequently the bugs and rats get to them. I have tried various times to store food long-term, buying when it is cheaper, but things go bad so quickly. Potatoes cannot be stored, because it is not cold enough, and things get moldy and soft pretty quickly. Last year I kept onions for several months after buying in bulk, and these had to be laid out in the sun every week to kill the mold that wanted to grow on them.

So, it is understandable why people grow and eat manioc. Unfortunately, the starch is not very nutritious, and is mainly used as a way to fill the belly. There are quite a few people who don't understand that children need to eat more than just manioc or corn porridge, and as a result, one of the local NGO's estimates that 75% of the children of Nampula are malnourished. We also try to tell people that we know that children (and adults, too) need a wider variety in their diet, but for poor people it can be a bit difficult.

So, manioc it is. -C