Food Culture in Zambia

Everything you need to know before you sit down to a meal in Zambia

All views expressed in this post are my own and do not reflect the opinions of the U.S. Government or Peace Corps.

Let’s sit down for Ubwali

One of the larger adjustments Peace Corps volunteers make upon arrival is surprisingly gastro-intestinal. At first, I thought it might be the water. Here, my water comes from the well most of the year, and towards the tail end of the dry season – if the well dries out – we take our buckets to the swamp to refill. But after boiling the water for 5 minutes and running it through at government issued filter and adding a couple drops of chlorine, I’m not convinced that the water I’m drinking here is entirely more dangerous than the water at my parent’s home in West Virginia where there is a boil order for the water every other day. What our stomachs are really adjusting to is the Zambian cuisine, designed to sustain a long day’s work and simple enough that once you are familiar, becomes very comforting, This month I will invite you to a Zambian meal. Enjoy the staple food the meal is designed around, some popular relishes which complete the meal’s composition, and Zambian table etiquette so you will know what to expect is are ever invited by a Zambian to share a meal.

It’s Not a Meal Without Nshima

“If someone invites me to a meal, but doesn’t serve nshima its not as if we have really eaten.”

-       Ba Griphin, Language and Cultural Facilitator

Lots of cultures have staple foods. In many Asian countries this food is rice, in European countries a meal may be considered incomplete without wheat or a bread, in Zambia, the staple food is nshima, or by the Bemba name, “Ubwali.”  Nshima is a cooked lump of cornmeal or cassava (as is common in Luapula, the province where I reside) during a Zambian meal. To eat, one just pulls off a bite-sized chunk of nshima in, in the right hand and massages the corn meal until it makes a ball. The nshima is pressed into a spoon or a scoop shape to act as a carrier for the prepared side dishes of the meal. The thickness of the cornmeal is similar to the cornmeal eaten in tamale; it holds its own shape. Through out the country everyone eats Nshima. When I am invited for dinner, people ask “Mulefwaya ukulya ubwali?”” which translates to, “ would you like to eat nshima.” Nshima = dinner.  This carbo hydrate sits heavily in an eater’s stomach. It’s the ideal food to fill you up after a long day of work, and its blandness males it a great carrier of other more flavorful dishes.

For many Zambians, nshima is the first solid food they learn to eat after waning from their mother’s milk. During training, many of my dinners were eaten with my host mother and her six-month-old baby. Every now and then as she ate she would massage a tiny piece of nshima for the infant to try, and event though most of the cornmeal was just spit up again onto the baby’s front, it was fascinating to see the young Zambian’s eyes light up with her first few rendezvous with a food she would be returning to perhaps all throughout her life. Our technical trainers in rhe Peace Corps  are trained world-wide as experts in their respective fields. One of my trainers went to Italy to study for a year, when asked about the experience, he admits he felt sick the entire time eating the Italian’s pasta with no exact replacement fir nshima in sight,

The Side Plates

In English they are called relishes and in Bemba they are called “mumunanl,” but in the U.S. I would recognize them more as side plates or dishes. Essentially, this is the food you eat with your nshima. Common dishes include rapeseed (a leafy green similar to kale), cabbage, chicken, fish, soya(faux meat), okra, white egg plant, sweet potato, boiled quash or pumpkin. The majority of these dishes are cooked for along time in oil alongside tomato, onions, and green pepper. On special occasions the family might cook goat or dove(pigeon). Guests of honor are usually given the best cut of meats or the rarest part such as the chicken gizzard or fish head. The cooking style is fairly uniform for many dishes. Lots of oil is added, again to bolster the calories needed for laborious. Food is saltier as well because it is believed to be very nutritious in needed minerals. Guests will be served food that is more oily and salty  as a sign of wealth and being treated well by the host family. Because of varying availability not many other spices are use in the food’s preparation. This does not mean that the Zambian palette is sensitive to spice, strong aromatic spices such as turmeric and paprika can at times be found in the market and a common table spice is piri piri. Piri Piri is a tiny hot pepper grown on a bush that is indigenous to Africa. These peppers look harmless due to their small size and bright colors, but their heat packs a serious punch.

One thing you wont find as a side dish is any presence of raw vegetables. While fruits are obviously consumed raw (although too many mangoes is believed to cause malaria – more on that in a different blog post) many Zambians living in the village remain skeptical about eating fresh vegetables. This could be because many of the most common vegetables must be cooked such as sweet potatoes, pumpkin, squash, or rapeseed. Our training class hosted a cultural exchange celebration where we made a few easy-to-make, common foods found in the U.S. One of the appetizers was salsa and because of its uncooked state, it remained untouched the entire day. Some farmers even grow romaine lettuce for crop diversity, yet they complain it is the hardest crop to sell because Zambians don’t know what to do with it.

Personally, I don’t eat meat generally opting for beans or soya for my protein. Soya is a texturized soybean that is dried and mimics the texture and taste of meat, usually for much cheaper! However, in Zambia chicken or fish are the most common meat dishes. The local chickens are described as “village” chickens, scrawny birds with less meat than the breeds eaten stateside. Some volunteers prefer this chicken because of its tougher, heartier meat. Depending on if the farmers in your village have fishponds or live by a river, much of the community might be eating fish most of the week. The most common types of fish I have seen at the market have been cisense (a small dried fish), kapenta, and apende. During celebration or a big meal you may eat a larger fish like tilapia. One of the stranger fish I have heard of volunteers being served is the bougafish. Found in Lake Tanganyika, the bougafish is an eel-like fish that is served with its tail tucked into its mouth forming what had been described as a fish donut.

Dinner table Etiquette

Eating at the Zambian dinner table, you will be curious about the lack of children and Mothers at the dinner table. Guests are shown respect by letting them eat just with the father or the head of the household, or possibly alone. Andrew and I were surprised when we were invited to dinner by our host family only to be eating alone in the living room. Dinner isn’t as much seen as a time to socialize, but rather a time to relax after a long day. As for mothers and children, they are eating out in the insaka( open hut structure) where the food is cooked. It is important for mothers and children to eat together in Zambian culture so children can learn table manners and how to cook for themselves.

Since everything is eaten by hand, dinner will generally start with everyone passing a water bowl around to rinse the hands. The food is eaten with the right hand. You must be careful handling the hot nshima! If it is hot, roll it around in your hands and eat slower. Blowing on food to cool it down makes it seem like you are rushing to eat and that you don’t normally eat well. If you finish the portion of food that is given to you, the household will think that you are still hungry and will continue to serve you. If you are satisfied, it is important to leave a little bit of food on the plate to let the host know they have provided well for you.