Food Habits of Uganda

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Diet and dishes

The food patterns of the 1960s

Food patterns were distinguished in Uganda according to Dr. F. J. Bennett in 1962:
(Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Makere College Medical School)

• The cooking banana-sweet potato-cassava diet of the inter-lacustrine Bantu which had no element of storage
  
• The cooking banana-millet diet of Eastern and Western Bantu, who were more and more replacing millet with the banana
• The millet staple diet of the Nilotic ethnical groups
  
• The millet and sorghum diets of the cattle keeping Nilo-Hamites
  
• The millet-cassava diet of the Sudanic ethnical groups
  
• The milk diets of the Hima of Ankole
  
• The cassava-sweet potato-maize flour staple diet of the immigrants from Ruanda-Urundi
  
• The subsidiary dishes varied widely and so did the amount of milk used.
  The diet of the Iteso and Kuman was a remarkable nutritious diet because it was based on millet porridge, they also had a big variety in side dishes and frequently included fish, meat, milk and poultry.
  

PDF: Protein supply in Uganda 1962

Factors influencing nutrition in 1962:

According to Dr. F.J. Bennett, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Makere College Medical School in 1963

1. Lack of special provision for pregnant women or for children
2. Small number of meals eaten each day
3. Occurrence of seasonal shortages
4. Cultural changes
5. Presence of large numbers of landless immigrants
6. Introduction of cash crops which lead to the change of food patterns as more and more food was bought

Starting the day with a drink of beer!

In 1937, Opami and Ajuluku, two small administrative units in Teso consumed the same food items, except of the regular fish consumption in Opami. The main meal was taken in the evening before sunset and often a small meal around noon. The day was started with a drink of beer (Traditional drinks), baked sweet potatoes or cassava roots which were sometimes eaten in the fields during work.
The staple food was "wimbi", finger millet (Eleusine coracana) ground into a meal which, when cooked, was called "atap". From August to December sweet potatoes were usually substituted for wimbi and from January to May flour was made from dry cassava or sweet potatoes mixed with flour made from the stored wimbi. This when coked was also named "atap".
Mtama (Sorghum; Kaffir corn) meal was often mixed with millet meal. A details description on this type of diet, the chemical and calorie details have been published by Richards and Widdowson (1936)

The following article provides more information on the diet and foods in Opami and Ajuluku, Teso, Uganda 1937:

PDF: An investigation into health and agriculture in Teso, Uganda 1937

"In Karamoja, Uganda, adult men took a mixture of raw defibrinated blood and milk whenever possible." (Holmes, 1955)

Preparation of a "blood meal"

©Maryam Imbumi

"To calves were bled from the jugular vein and collected in a calabash. It was then stirred with a stick till the fibrin clot formed. The fibrin was removed and during the dry season it is cooked and eaten by the men but in the rainy seasons, when the animals were in good condition and could be bled frequently, it would be given to the dogs. The volume of defibrinated blood was 36 fluid oz. And the calabash was about half full. An equal volume of milk was added and the mixture provided a man's meal." (Holmes et al.1955)

E. G. Holmes et al. prepared a similar meal by themselves, from slaughterhouse blood and milk and estimated the protein nitrogen by the Kjeldahl method. This, together with the value for the composition of the milk derived from food tables obtained the following result for the meal:

• Protein 220g
  
• Carbohydrate 53g
  
• Fat 43,4 g
  

Reference: Holmes E. G., M. W. S. a. M. D. T. (1955). "The serum protein pattern of Africans in Uganda: Relation to diet and malaria." Transaction of the royal society of tropical medicine and hygiene, Vol: 49; 37

Food crops and agriculture in Uganda during the 1960s

*Ground replaced sweet potatoes and green vegetables during the dry season when theses adjuvants were not available. Although groundnuts contain 50% of oil they were not a source of vitamin A.
References:
Rutishauser, I. H. E. (1963). "Custom and child Health in Buganda." Tropical Geographic Medicine 15: 138-147.
Loewenthal, J. A. (1935). "An inquiry into vitamin A deficiency among the population of the Teso, Uganda, with special reference to school children." Annual Tropical Medicine 29: 349.
Holmes, E., M. Stanier, et al. (1955). "The serum protein pattern of Africans in Uganda: Relation to diet and malaria." Trans. Roy. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg. 49: 376.

Characteristics of the diet patterns of three groups in Africans (1950s)

Reference: Holmes, E., M. Stanier, et al. (1955). "The serum protein pattern of Africans in Uganda: Relation to diet and malaria." Trans. Roy. Soc. Trop. Med. Hygiene. 49: 376.

The diet and customs of the Baganda

The daily pattern of the Baganda consisted of two main meals each day. Each consisted of staples (plantain, other bananas, sweet potatoes, cassava, yams, and maize) and one or more sauces. Nothing was drunk with the meals, plantain (matoke) and sweet potatoes consisted of 80% water as they were eaten. Tea was often consumed after the meals. Water was only drunk when an extreme feeling of thirst occurred. Snacks were only common among children. To eat alone was thought to be bad. For this reason, a member of the family served a meal and remained with someone who was eating until finished. Visitors were usually given food in a range from coffee beans, crushed sesame or mushrooms to a chicken or even a goat, according to the wealth of the donor and the importance of the visitor. Gifts of food were an integral part of traditional Baganda life. These gifts of food were made at certain seasons to relatives and good friends. These so called seasonal foods consisted mainly of "matoke"(plantain), maize, beans and peas.

Throughout the 1960s bread became extremely popular because the ingredients were not to unfamiliar, there was no need for preparation and the price of one pound for a loaf was affordable for most people. Tinned food was referred as "no good" food and most of the people were very suspicious about the content of a tin. Tinned fruit was generally more accepted than tinned meat because it was thought to be meat from a sick animal or perhaps even from a human body. Labels were regarded as a means of deception rather than a source of information.

Also dried and tinned milk got very popular during that period of time. Furthermore soft drinks and bottled beer had the most enthusiastic reception and under the least suspicion. Almost every food could be bought but for a large number of rural Baganda, the purchase was restricted to meat, fish, groundnuts, beans, salt, sugar, edible oils (mostly cotton oil, followed by sesame oil), tea, bread and milk;

Reference: Rutishauser, I. H. E. (1963). "Custom and child Health in Buganda." Tropical Geographic Medicine 15: 138-147.

War time a useful instrument of nutritional Propaganda

There was a main difference between the diet of the Army and the foods consumed by the locals in 1945. Many of the items which were supplied daily for the Army were only rarely included in the tribal diet and were normally considered as luxuries. Through the war time agriculture production drive, the special efforts that had been made to encourage the production of soy beans and rice had the greatest effect on dietetic custom.
The effects of the war time drive on production and dietetic custom are summarized in the following article.

• East African ration scale
  
• Ration scales for East Africans in the Middle East
  
• Ration scales for East Africans in Ceylo
  

Review on labour and institution diets in 1945

• Labour
  
• Prisons
  
• Hospitals
  
• Boarding schools
  

PDF: Review of nutrition in Uganda 1945

Karamojong and their unique ecosystem

Read more about the fascinating ecosystem of man-cattle-grass-sorghum (Sorghum vulgare)-water of the Karamojong and their food habits in the following article.

Reference: Jelliffe, D. B., B. F. J, et al. (1964). "Ecology of childhood disease in the Karamojong in Uganda." Archives of environmental health 9: 25-36.

 

Created by Verena Raschke 2005 / Contact