African cuisine is rich and unique and has given the world many fine foods. African cuisine from north of the Sahara has spread far and wide and influenced all of Mediterranean cookery. South of the Sahara the story is different. Cookery from this area has had considerable influence as well, since techniques and ingredients travelled with the slaves during that terrible era of the triangle trade. There are linguistic relics that point to the roots of at least one American dish - Gumbo, which is made with okra (widely used in West Africa). In southern Ghana and Togo, the Ewe word for okra is "gombo."

African cooking and cookbooks have not travelled well in modern times though. Part of this is due to the ingredients, some of which are difficult to get in Europe and America. I am thinking particularly here of fresh palm oil - a crucial texture and flavor ingredient of most West African cookery. Real, fresh palm oil like you can buy in any West African market is simply not available in North America or Europe.

Another reason African cookery has not become widely popular is that much of it is labor intensive. In the villages of much of West Africa (where I had the privilege to live for 17 years) the first sound one hears in the morning - usually long before the rest of the household is up - is the sound of mortar and pestle pounding the breakfast into a state of edibility. Many other fine dishes require hours of preparation and a great deal of work. This work is not undertaken for effete epicurean reasons like French cookery, but simply because the food requires a lot of processing before it can be eaten.

African cooking is full of unique flavors, both subtle and strong, and has its own range of special techniques and ingredients. The cookbooks listed on these pages will give you some idea of the richness that is African cuisine and hint at the good things yet to be discovered on this most special continent - the original motherland of us all. I will close this with that most African of greetings - "Come and eat!"