This page is a map: it brings together, by major region, the articles that the NKOSI blog devotes to the cuisines of Africa and the Caribbean, country by country. For an overview of dishes by region with their ingredients and corresponding products, see the African food guide.
Africa's major culinary regions
Geographically, sub-Saharan Africa is divided into four sub-regions: West Africa, Central Africa, East Africa and Southern Africa. To the north, the Maghreb brings together Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania. Each region has its own staple foods, spices and cooking techniques, even though ingredients circulate from one country to another.
West Africa
This region includes, among others, Benin, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Mali, Niger and Senegal. Rice, millet, peanuts and dried fish recur from one country to another, each with a simmered sauce specific to its national cuisine.
- Cuisine of Senegal
- Cuisine of Ivory Coast
- Cuisine of Mali
- Cuisine of Benin
- Cuisine of Ghana
- Cuisine of Niger
Central Africa
Cameroon, Gabon, Congo-Brazzaville and Chad share cassava and red palm oil as staples, with sauces thickened with seeds or peanuts.
Maghreb
In Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania, durum wheat semolina (couscous) and spice blends such as ras el hanout structure the cuisine.
The Caribbean
The Caribbean region brings together the Caribbean Sea and the islands that surround it, including the Greater and Lesser Antilles: Haiti, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Cuba, Jamaica, among others. The cuisine blends African, European and Amerindian influences, with rice, red beans, salt cod and spices as common bases.
Three ways of looking at these cuisines today
Beyond the country-by-country breakdown, the NKOSI blog also approaches these cuisines from a cross-cutting angle: traditional cuisine, its techniques and its uses; modern cuisine carried by a new generation of chefs; and the place of vegetarian and vegan dishes in a repertoire often perceived as meat-based.
- Traditional African cuisine
- Modern African cuisine
- Vegetarian and vegan dishes from Africa and the Caribbean
Ingredients common to these cuisines
A few ingredients recur from one region to another under different names: peanut, okra, cassava, chili pepper, spice blends. The guide to African and Caribbean cuisine ingredients sorts them by family, with details on the 10 essential ingredients of West African cuisine and the 7 essential African spices.
A region not yet detailed country by country
East Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania in particular) does not yet have its own country-by-country article on this blog. In the meantime, Ethiopian injera and East African ugali are presented in the African food guide by region.
