African facts are endless. A map of Africa does not begin to show the vastness of people, culture, food, living and ancient history of the African continent. Established 2008 Chic African Culture is an African learning tool to meet the demand for better education about Africa.
Why are some people happy
when someone’s life is going downhill? The African proverb “Do not laugh at a
person’s problems because tomorrow it may be you” teaches but for the grace of
God goes I.
“Do not laugh at a
person’s problems because tomorrow it may be you” ~ African Proverb
Schadenfreude is a
complex emotion, where rather than feeling sympathy towards someone's
misfortune, schadenfreude evokes joyful feelings that take pleasure from
watching someone fail. The happiness of most people is not ruined by great catastrophes
or fatal errors, but by the repetition of slowly destructive little things.
~Ernest Dimnet
When we consider
pleasure-in-others'-misfortune as pertaining to minor misfortunes and involving
our belief that justice has been done and that we are not responsible for
eliciting the misfortune, then this emotion is not so reprehensible from a
moral point of view.
Beyond that basic
human social-comparison instinct, certain situations are ripe for
schadenfreude. These include if you stand to gain from another person's
misfortune, if the other person's troubles are somehow deserved, or if
something unfortunate happens to someone whom you dislike, resent or envy.
"Sometimes more than one of these things causes schadenfreude at the same
time – we can feel schadenfreude toward someone because we dislike them, they
are a rival and their loss is our gain.
A major reason for
being pleased with the misfortune of another person is that this person's
misfortune may somehow benefit us; it may, for example, emphasize our
superiority. A central feature of pleasure-in-others'-misfortune is the belief
that the other person deserves her misfortune.
The belief that the
other person deserves his misfortune expresses our assumption that justice has
been done and enables us to be pleased in a situation where we seem required to
be sad.
The more deserved
the misfortune is, the more justified is the pleasure. Norman Feather shows in
a study of people's attitude toward the downfall of those in high positions
that the fall was greeted with positive approval when the fall was seen to be
deserved.
Three rules for making fermented Kisra or Kesra bread
Kisra or Kesra bread is a common fermented bread that look similar to crepes or flat bread. Kisra is a staple food made throughout Sudan, South Sudan and Northern Africa.
Slow-fermented Kisra bread has more nutrients, vitamins and minerals than regular bread because of the process of fermentation process easier to digest.
Article Topics
North African Recipe
Three rules for making Sudanese fermented Kisra or Kesra bread is practice, patience, and preparation.
Sudanese fermented Kisra sandwich
Easy
Sudanese Kisra Bread
Ingredients:
1
cup wheat flour
2-3
cups water
1/4
cup plain yogurt
Sesame
oil for greasing the crepe pan
Directions:
Mix
flour with 2-3 cups water into a thin consistency, similar to pancake mixture
but slightly thinner.
Add
yogurt and mix well. Leave
covered for 3 days to ferment in the fridge.
Heat
the pan and grease lightly with oil. Pour ¼ cup of the dough mixture onto the
crepe pan and spread evenly using a crepe maker utensil into a thin sheet. Allow
1-2mins to cook one side then flip and cook another 1 minute.
Eat with your favorite soups and stews, make into a decadent dessert or as a wrap for your lunch sandwich.
Sierra Leone is a small coastal African country where fishing is a way of life and Sour Fish Soup African Food Recipe is one of Africa's favorite recipes.
African Fish Soup Recipe
Roadside market in Sierra Leone
As
such fish is an important representing almost 70 percent of the animal protein
consumed in Sierra Leone. The herb sorrel or sour grows wild in Sierra Leone. The
leaves of the sorrel plant are the part used in recipes throughout Sierra Leone. Because of its pungent flavor, sorrel is often combined with fish; blanch the sorrel
leaves before cooking if they taste too sharp. Sierra Leone Fish Sour Soup is an easy one pot recipe to make ahead or on a weeknight.
Sierra Leone Fish
Sour Soup African Food Recipe
Ingredients:
1
handful fresh sorrel leaves, chopped
Sierra Leone Fish Sour Soup
4
ounces any smoked fish
Peppers to taste
2
cups water
Directions:
In
a large pot with water boil the sorrel for 3 minutes, drain water. Add water,
fish and seasoning to pot of sorrel and simmer 10 minutes. Serve over rice or as a soup.
Did you know?
Sorrel has a characteristically sharp acidic taste and
contains large amounts of oxalic acid which can interfere with absorption of
some minerals. Spinach and broccoli also contain high amounts of oxalic acid.
Learn to make aseeda (asida) simple honey dessert recipe
In
Southern South Sudan, Aseeda is a giant doughy dumpling dish made with
three simple ingredients; flour, water, and salt topped with melted butter and
honey.
Sudanese Aseeda Honey Dessert Recipe
Sudanese
Aseeda Honey Dessert Recipe
Ingredients
3
cups whole-wheat flour
2-3
cups cold water
1
teaspoon sea salt
Aseeda Topping
½
cup melted butter
½
cup honey
Directions
In
a large mixing bowl, add flour, salt and cold water mixing well with a bread
hook attachment. You can also mix by hand. Mix until flour and water and fully incorporated.
In
a large pot over medium heat, add dough and an additional 1 cup of water and
stir well until dough is warm, smooth and firm to the touch 10-15 minutes. There should be no
lumps since you used cold water and not hot at the start of the recipe.
Slightly
grease a serving plate and place the dough in the middle of the plate forming a
ball with smooth sides. Make a deep indentation in the center of the dough by
using a large ladle or spoon. Pour melted butter inside the indentation and
over the sides, and then pour honey in the same manner.
How to eat Aseeda
To
eat the aseeda simply pinch a piece of the dough, pop it in your mouth, close
your eyes and enjoy.
How the Mouse Won His Wife African Folktale tells the story of how Mr. Mouse won Mrs. Mouse hand in marriage with courage, intelligence, and persistence.
How the Mouse Won His Wife African Folktale
Explore and Understand Africa Through Her Food and Culture
9-19-2016
Love, so many people use your name in vein but not Mr. Mouse.
How the Mouse Won His Wife African Folktale
Years
passed, and when the father was dying, he told his wife that only he who felled
the mahogany tree could marry his daughter.
By
and by, an Elephant arrived, and, sitting down in the town, asked the girl for
a drink of water. She poured him some water and gave it to him, and he then
asked her, "Are you married?" and she replied, "No, I am not yet
married." The Elephant said, "I will marry you." Whereupon the
mother called out, "You can marry her; but you must first cut down the mahogany
tree."
The
Elephant took an axe and cut, cut, cut until he was tired, and then went and
rested so long that when he went again to the tree it was just as it was before
he cut it. When the Elephant saw that, he threw down the axe, saying, "It
is not my wedding, the woman is too much trouble."
As
the Elephant was going away, he met the Buffalo, and told him all about it his
problem, saying, "I came to marry, but I am not able to cut down the mahogany tree."
Then
Buffalo picked up the axe and cut, cut, cut, and then rested under the verandah
of the house. When he returned to the tree, he found it had grown again to its
former size. Down he threw the axe and ran away.
As
the Buffalo was running away, a Lion shouted out, "Where have you come from?"
The Buffalo stopped and told him all his troubles. "Oh," said the Lion,
"give me an axe, I'll marry her." However, the same thing happened to
him, and to the Hyena, and to the Leopard also. They all cut at the tree, got tired,
rested too long, and each ran away, saying, "I came to marry, but the girl
is not worth the trouble."
As
the Leopard was running away, a Mouse asked him "What is the matter?"
and the Leopard growled, "I went to marry a woman, but whoever marries her
must cut down a mahogany tree." Thereupon the Mouse went and gnawed, gnawed,
gnawed without stopping, until at last the tree toppled over and fell to the
ground.
When
the mother saw the tree fall, she said, "Mouse, you can sleep here, and in
the morning take your wife."
In
the morning, they cut up six pigs and twenty loaves of bread, then the Mouse
took his wife, and they started on their journey to his town.
They
reached a stream where they camped for a time, and while there the Elephant
arrived, and the Mouse said to him "See, this is my wife."
The
Elephant would not agree to that, but said, "She is mine, I married
her." "No," said the Mouse, "she is mine. Accept of two
pigs for dinner."
When
the Elephant heard that, he began to beat the Mouse, but the Mouse entered his
trunk and gave him such pain that the Elephant cried, "Come out, and I
will give you two pigs." The Mouse came out, received his two pigs, and
went off with his wife.
How the Mouse Won His Wife African Folktale
They
reached another town, and while resting and eating there, the Buffalo arrived. "Welcome
to you," said the Mouse. But, the Buffalo did not want his welcome, and
said he had married the woman, and when the Mouse would not give her up, the
Buffalo hit him on the back with a big stick.
The Mouse entered the Buffalo's
ear and gave him so much pain that he bellowed: "Come out, and I will give
you five sheep." The Mouse came out, received his five sheep, and went
away with his wife.
As
they journeyed along they met the Hyena, who said "Why, that is my
wife," and when the Mouse denied it, the Hyena became very angry, and beat
the Mouse and made him cry. The Mouse called the Squirrels, who came and fought
the Hyena, and while they were fighting, the Mouse hurried off with his wife.
They
travelled until they came to a high plateau, where they met a large Rat, who said,
"Give me that woman." To him the Mouse replied, “I cannot give her, for
I have had plenty of trouble to gain her."
"Very
well," answered the Rat; "let us go to my home and I will give you
some beer."
While
sitting there the Mouse took a rat's head out of his bag.
"Where
did you get that?" asked the Rat.
"Oh,"
boasted the Mouse,” I have eaten nine rats, and you will be the tenth." So
alarmed was the Rat that he ran away and never said "Good- bye."
At
last, the Mouse reached his town and gave his wife a house. There they feasted
on the pigs and sheep they had gained on the road.
However,
one day the Leopard paid a visit to the Mouse, and said "Mouse, let us
jointly make a farm." This they did, and while the Mouse was watching the corn
one day, the Leopard tried to run away with his wife. The Mouse, hearing this,
invited the Leopard to drink wine in his house, and while they were drinking,
the Mouse took out of his bag a Leopard's head.
"Where
did you get that?" asked the Leopard.
"Down
in the drinking-booth I killed and ate nine," said the Mouse, and you will
be the tenth."
The
Leopard was so frightened at this, that when the Mouse told him to get into the
bowl, he went right in at once.
The
Mouse put in the cork, and then put the bowl on the fire, and thus the Leopard
died.
The
Mouse said, "I will govern in this country, for there is not another chief
left." Therefore, the Mouse rewarded for his courage, intelligence, and persistence.
Ji means yam in the West African Igbo language. Yams are a favorite food of West Africa's yam belt; especially fried yams.
Ji Fried Sweet Yam Fritters Recipe
Africa Yam recipe makes delicious African Food
Ji Fried Sweet Yam Fritters
Ingredients
1 cup cooked yams (not sweet potatoes)
1
cup rice flour or all-purpose flour
1/2
cup white sugar
Oil
for frying
Directions
In
a large bowl mash yams into a thick paste adding a small amount of water if needed.
Add flour and sugar mixing well. In large frying pan heat 2 cups of oil, drop
by tablespoon the mixture into the hot oil until golden brown on each side.
Remove from oil onto a paper towel to remove excess oil. Serve warm drizzled with honey and powdered sugar if desired.
Did you know?
One yam can weigh up to 150 pounds and
are delicious barbecued, roasted, fried, grilled, boiled, and smoked.
King
Eagles promise is easily broken African Folklore teaches us to think before
making a promise to someone, especially to the Sparrow bird.
King
Eagles Promise is Easily Broken African Folklore
Sparrow hides all his relatives in the bush at the river.
The
animals choose the powerful Eagle as their King, and throw him a great feast. Sparrow wishes to present a gift to Eagle but, Eagle will pay him no attention
unless he first drinks a huge pot of wine. If Sparrow succeeds in this,
Eagle agrees to share with him his kingdom. Sparrow asks King Eagle that after each
drink of wine he be allowed to fly to the river for a drink of water. Overconfident Eagle unwisely agrees to Sparrows request.
Sparrow
hides all his relatives in the bush at the river. After the first drink of wine, he flies to the river, and a relative takes his place for the second
drink; another relative goes for the third drink and so on until the pot is
emptied.
King
Eagle is amazed little Sparrow can drink more than 100 times his weight in wine! Suddenly
all the animals present at the feast jump up noisily, and demand Eagle keep his promise and share
his kingdom with sparrow. But, Eagle refuses; the animals assemble for a great gathering, and
dismiss him as King since he is no longer an honorable leader. No one ever
discovered Sparrow as a cheater; it is said whenever there is heard a great
chattering by sparrows, that King Eagle was being laughed at for his promises and wits
being like a roaring great wind.
Nearly 5,000 years before Christ was born, Proto-writing was well-established form of written expression in North and West Africa.
The
dominance of European languages through colonialism has led to the mistaken
belief that the written languages in Africa did not exist before the arrival of
Europeans. However, Africa has the world’s oldest and largest collection of
ancient Symbolic and Writing Systems.
Here
are five African symbolic and writing systems you should know about to dispel
the myth that Africans were illiterate people before European colonialism.
5 Ancient African Symbolic and Writing
Systems
Proto-writing is symbolic communication
Proto-Saharan
Dated
5000BC - 3000 BC
Before
the Egyptian and Sumerian civilizations, there were inscriptions labeled proto-Saharan. Nearly 5,000 years before Christ was born, Proto-writing was well-established form of written expression near the near the Kharga Oasis in the Libyan Desert of Africa. Proto-writing is symbolic communication which the reader understands the symbol as a written expression.
Egyptian
Dated
4000 BC - 600 AD
Egyptian hieroglyphs
Perhaps
the most famous symbolic writing system in Africa is the ancient Egyptian
hieroglyphs. Egyptian
hieroglyphs were a formal writing system used by the ancient Egyptians that
combined logographic and alphabetic elements. A logogram is a written character
that represents a word or phrase. Egyptians
invented three scripts: hieroglyphic 4000 BC – 600 AD, hieratic 3200 BC – 600
AD, and demotic 650 BC – 600 AD.
Proto-Sinaitic
Dated
2000 BC - 1400 BC
Proto-Sinaitic was the first consonantal alphabet.
Proto-Sinaitic,
also known as Proto-Canaanite, was the first consonantal alphabet. In 1999,
Yale University archaeologists identified an alphabetic script in Wadi El-Hol,
a narrow valley in southern Egypt. Dating to about 1900 B.C., the Wadi El-Hol script
bears resemblance to the Egyptian hieroglyphs, but also the much older writing
system. A similar inscription that dates to 1500 B.C. was found in Serabit
el-Khadim on Egypt’s segment of the Sinai Peninsula.
Tifinagh
Dated
300 BC - 300 AD
Tifinagh is the Berber name for the ancient Libyan Alphabet.
Tifinagh
is the Berber name for the ancient Libyan Alphabet. Tifinagh is the traditional
writing system of the Tuareg people, who are scattered throughout different
countries of northern Africa. The name Tifinagh maybe means the Phoenician
letters, or perhaps, from the phrase tifin negh, which means 'our invention.
Nsibidi
Dated
400 AD - 1400 AD
Nsibidi script comprises nearly a thousand symbols.
Nsibidi
comprises nearly a thousand symbols. Nsibidi is an ancient system of graphic
communication indigenous to the Ejagham peoples of southeastern Nigeria and
southwestern Cameroon in the Cross River region. It is also used by neighboring
Ibibio, Efik and Igbo peoples. Aesthetically compelling and encoded, nsibidi
does not correspond to any one spoken language. It is an ideographic script
whose symbols refer to abstract concepts, actions or things and whose use
facilitates communication among peoples speaking different languages.
Did you know?
Proto-writing is different from True writing. True writing is information of verbal sound sets that the reader must structure the exact sound written down in order to understand the meaning. In True writing systems, a person must understand something of the spoken language to comprehend the text.
"There are truths on one side of the world which are
falsehoods on the other" - African Proverb
The legacy of slavery binds but also keeps Africans and African-Americans apart. Many African-American black people boast the closest they have ever come and will come to Africa is Busch Gardens and Disneyland.
Shared Skin Color Does Not Guarantee Racial Unity
Explore and Understand Africa Through Her Food and Culture
9-8-2016
Africans vs. African-Americans
"Just because African-Americans wear kente
cloth does not mean they embrace everything that is African," says business
owner Eromosele Oigbokie. Africans and black Americans often fail to forge
relationships blaming nationality, ethnicity, culture, economics and education.
"A shared complexion does not equal a shared
culture, nor does it automatically lead to friendships," says Kofi Glover,
a native of Ghana and a political science professor at the University of South
Florida. "Whether we like it or not, Africans and African-Americans have
two different and very distinct cultures."
Glover agrees that while some Africans suffered
under colonial rule and apartheid, not all can relate to the degradation of
slavery. In Ghana, he says, "we did not experience white domination like
the Africans in Kenya, Zimbabwe or South Africa. We do not understand the whole
concept of slavery, or its effect on the attitude of many African-Americans,
mainly because we were not exposed to it. To read about racism and
discrimination is one thing, but to experience it is something else."
Many black Americans are ignorant about Africans,
Oigbokie adds. They share comic Eddie Murphy's joke that Africans "ride around
butt-naked on a zebra." "They think we want to kill them so that we
can eat them," Oigbokie says, laughing. "I remember a black person
once asked me if I knew Tarzan. I told him, "Yes, he is my uncle."
Glover,
who also teaches African studies at the University of South Florida, says these perceptions are rooted in
"all the negative things we've been taught about each other." "A lot of African-Americans were taught that
Africa was nothing more than just a primitive, backward jungle from whence they
came," he says. Meanwhile, Africans have picked up whites' fear of blacks.
"Our perception of African-Americans is that they are a race of people who
carry guns and are very, very violent."
Africans admire the American struggle for civil
rights. Yet, when some come to America and discover black is not so beautiful,
they insist on maintaining a separate identity. "When indigenous African
people come to the United States, they adopt an attitude of superiority ...
about individuals who could very well be of their own blood," Tokley says.
The axe forgets what the tree remembers.
Some African customs, such as female
circumcision, shock Americans. Other traditions have been forgotten, or, in the
case of Kwanzaa, invented in America. Africans tend to have a strong
patriarchal system, with differences in attitudes about family and work.
"The women's liberation movement has barely
caught up to Africa," says Cheikh T. Sylla, a native of Senegal. "That's
why I think many marriages between African men and African-American women don't last. Most African-American women are like, "I'm not going to put
up with the notion that you are the absolute head of the household."
"Most of the friction between African people
centers around the class issue," Yeshitela says. He says when blacks and
Africans fight over jobs; they are buying into a conspiracy to keep them at
odds. "I don't like the artificial separations that won't allow the two of
us to get together. It is not in our best interest to always be at each other's
throat." Especially since the two groups are in the same boat now, Akbar
says.
"If you visit Nigeria or Ghana, the masses
of the people are locked in the same circumstances as poor
African-Americans," he says. "Both groups seem content to do nothing
other than what they are currently doing.
"However, the denial among Africans comes
from living in a place where all the bodies that surround them look the same as
they do. That makes it easier for them to fail to see that the folks who are
controlling the whole economy of Nigeria are the oil barons - and they don't
look anything like (black) Africans."
Another point of contention, Akbar says, is that
blacks appreciate their heritage more than Africans do. "We have to
convince them to preserve the slave dungeons in Ghana or to continue the
weaving of the kente cloth." Tours to Africa are booming. Feeling rejected
at home, many middle-class blacks turn to Africa, Yeshitela says. "But in
the final analysis, culture won't free you. Any ordinary African will tell you
a dearth of culture is not the source of our affliction.
"We're faced with a situation where less than 10% of the total trade in Africa happens in Africa. The rest is exported
from Africa. The future of all black-skinned people centers in Africa. That is
our birthright and someone else has it. The struggle we have to make lies in
reclaiming what is rightfully ours." It is better to live one day as a
lion than 100 years as a sheep.
Excerpt from author Tracie Reddick A shared
complexion does not guarantee racial solidarity.
When it comes to African food and cooking with peanut butter, easy unique recipes are just the beginning of your African food recipe journey.
Smoked Fish With Peanut Sauce West Africa Recipe
Explore and Understand Africa Through Her Food and Culture
1-26-2016
Smoked Fish with Honey Peanut Sauce is a sweet and savory peanut butter recipe. If you are a fan of African peanut stew you will fall in love with the flavor of honey, smoked fish and peanuts.
Groundnuts, sometimes confused for peanuts, are the 5th most widely grown crop in sub-Saharan Africa behind maize, sorghum, millet and cassava. Groundnuts are also grown in some Asian countries such as India, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand.