Let us promote traditional dishes to avert recurring famines

By Kilemi Mwiria

Famine is, unfortunately, something we have come to accept as a reality. Part of the problem is that most Kenyans’ idea of food is ugali from corn flour, which as is true of other popular dishes, is an import. We have not shown enough interest in our traditional food crops – millet, sorghum, peas, yams, arrowroots, cassava, black beans, honey and traditional vegetables and fruits. Yet older Kenyans grew on traditional foods.

These food crops are: easier to grow as our environment is well suited to them; need limited inputs such as fertiliser or pesticide; have lower sugar concentrations; are more nutritious; and some have medicinal value. This is why rich consumers in the West are turning to Africa for organically produced foods. Traditional Kenyan farmers had also developed more enduring drying and storage technologies where a year’s harvest would be stored in a granary until the next seasons’ harvest.

Although production was probably lower than what we can harvest from maize and other imports, stronger government intervention could result into higher yields. It is thus refreshing that the Ministry of Agriculture is now putting money into traditional crops under the ‘orphaned crops’ initiative. We need to do more by: prioritising subsidisation of farmers who opt to grow these crops; supporting research to develop relevant production and storage technologies; promoting marketing of traditional foods; making traditional food crops the bulk of our national food strategic reserves; and intensifying popularisation campaigns preferably led by the President and Prime Minster.

More importantly, we have to deliberately encourage our people to consume what is traditionally their own. Famine is almost unheard of in West Africa where their key staples are traditional yams, plantain, cassava and a rich variety of traditional vegetable sauces. For protein, they go for fish, ‘bush meat’, guinea fowls, and indigenous chicken, among others. Here we ridiculed Local Government Assistant minister Mr Robinson Githae when he suggested innovations such as rat meat. In China and other Asian countries, they eat virtually anything including bamboo shoots, frogs and snakes but mainly traditional rice dishes. Similarly, Europeans and Americans eat their traditional foods like bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, pork and fish.

African dishes

It is only in Africa that we have opted for imported foods rather than our own. Not surprisingly, we are the ones who experience most famines. In Asia, they ask for relief because of emergencies such as El Nino not food deficits. And when we beg for relief, we choose more than those who have more than they need and thus frown at yellow maize.

Asian traditional cuisines are big exports to the rest of the world. When Kenyans think they have exported a food idea it is Nyama Choma (roast meat) and Ugali which are not indigenous. Being the copy cats that we are, we are also among the quickest to embrace hamburgers, pizza, steers and the like. Yet, we have the potential for major export opportunities for organically produced traditional Kenyan foods.

Other ways of popularising our traditional foods is by introducing it to relief and school feeding programmes and hospitals. Instead of maize and maize flour, we should offer sorghum or millet flour. The World Food Programme that feeds up to two million Kenyan school children should be required by law to offer them only traditional foods. Those who do not accept offers that are available can make a trip to the supermarket and pay for expensive corn flour.

We leaders should set the example by choosing to have traditional Kenyan dishes at home and at restaurants. It will help if we start off with big annual food festivals nationally and at the constituencies. This is what should be served at State functions. In West Africa, you will most likely be treated to local dishes while on an official visit. Unlike Kenya, traditional food is good business in West Africa because it is served everywhere. Along with indigenous clothing, it is popular with the rich and poor. By having faith in traditional African food and clothing, we shall also be creating more employment for our youth.

—The writer ([email protected]) is an Assistant Minister for Higher Education, Science and Technology and MP, Tigania West.