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The African Gourmet

The African Gourmet: Explore African Culture & Recipes

One bowl of fufu can explain a war. One proverb can outsmart a drought.
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FOOD PROVERBS

African Spirituality is Wholeness

Spiritual Awakening and the Ancestors Tingan, Tennalu

Connect with the African spiritual see not with just your eyes but the whole breadth of yourself and the ancestors then your whole being will awaken and you will recognize that you have always been a part of the whole.

Understanding Tingan and Tenbalu African Spirituality


Tingan and Tenbalu African Spirituality is Wholeness


Tingan and Tenbalu African Spirituality is Wholeness


Tingan and Tenbalu are continually reshaping into other forms of matter. Understand that masculine and the feminine have little to do with biology.

The masculine is Tingan similar to fire with an endless propensity to consume. The feminine is Tenbalu because of its nurturing and caring instinct. Earth is therefore a man and a woman with an endless capacity to generate and regenerate, to give and to bless.

Tingan appeals to the protective, administrative, regulatory part of Earth. It implies a sense of dominion in which identity is linked to a sense of belonging that is clearly deterministic albeit fundamentally territorial. 

Is this possibly why the Tingan-sob - the person in charge of Tingan - is always a male?  It goes without saying that if the guardian of Tingan is a man and the latter is perceived as both the legislative and the judiciary entity in whose hands every subject's fate resides, the masculinity of Tingan is verified. 

 

African Spirituality Theory of Tingan and Tenbalu are Everything

No one speaks to Tingan directly and no one crosses Tingan without being severely punished.  Hence, if you have an issue with Tingan, you're on your own.  There is no safe haven anywhere to hide.  This apparent ruthlessness highlights the infallible supremacy of Tingan and underscores its masculinity.  Thus Tingan governs.

Tenbalu is the Earth's nurturing and caring principle - the epitome of Mother.  Literally it means soft earth or realm with reference to the crust, or the rich top part that provides nutrients for growth and nourishment. 

Unlike Tingan that requires a tending agent, someone like a priest or a mediator who most of the time comes across like a king or monarch, Tenbalu needs no such dedicated attendance. 

Anyone can invoke Tenbalu and everyone does it because Tenbalu listens to all her children.  It is in this that her caring and nurturing show the most. 

Almost all invocations to Tenbalu contain the statement, "it is your bountifulness that feeds us all."  This recognizes that Tenbalu provides nourishment for everyone indiscriminately, like a true mother does for her children.

 

Sacred Space and Ancestors Explained

Imagine walking into a beautiful garden and seeing two people arguing and fighting. Most of us would just be aghast and realize something is gravely wrong with what is going on it is because we understand a beautiful gardens space as sacred, its set apart to be used for only one thing, peace.

One of the secrets of a happy spiritual life is set aside a sacred space like an altar in your home. When you set aside a sacred space, it has a similar effect as when you walk into a beautiful orchard filled with every fresh fruit imaginable.

 

What's in my African Spirituality scared space.

In my sacred space I have candles, water, and live plants, it is very beautiful and it is very small does not take up a lot of room and I use it for only one thing, prayer.

Sacred spaces make you drawn to prayer, as human beings were affected by our surroundings, quiet beautiful places remind us of a kind of purity of life.

We must create ancestral scared spaces that remind us of Spirit spaces that draw our hearts to the helpful ancestral spirits.

Sacred spaces tell us in all of who we are it is time to pray, time to enter into a relationship outside the physical; it is time to have that one-on-one commune with the ancestors.

If you want to make significant progress in communing with the ancestors, I strongly recommend that you set up a sacred space in your home for nothing else but prayer and if you do, I assure you that your struggles with talking and listening to your ancestors will be greatly minimized because that space will draw you to prayer every time you enter.


Spiritual Awakening and the Ancestors

Spiritual awakening actually means awareness, you have a level of awareness of who you really are, of what your divine nature really is.

You understand and you know you are a spiritual being having a human experience. but what it actually means to be a spiritual me that you are Eternal that you are worthy that you are loved that you know that you exist that you're not just this being that's a part of the universe but you're the entirety of the universe. That you are the universe and the universe is you.

There is more to you than just a flesh and blood, more than that there was another aspect to be aware of the other aspect of you to the first stage of that usually is that you understand there's a spiritual part of you that you cannot see with your eyes.

This part is the larger part of you is the internal part of you; you are not separate from the whole but literally one. It is that right-thinking when we come to the understanding that we are a spiritual being.



Awakening really is, when you boil it down to the smallest level an understanding that your divine nature and spiritual essence are one. You are the universe and the universe is you.


You are an eternal energetic being; not just a physical aspect of bone and blood but energy vibrating on a high frequency that allows you to be human.

Do not misdirect your spiritual power from the ancestors. Connect with the African spiritual see not with just your eyes but the whole breadth of yourself and the ancestors then your whole being will awaken and you will recognize that you have always been a part of the whole.





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Recipes as Revolution

Recipes as Revolution

When food becomes protest and meals carry political meaning

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African woman farmer

She Feeds Africa

Before sunrise, after sunset, seven days a week — she grows the food that keeps the continent alive.

60–80 % of Africa’s calories come from her hands.
Yet the land, the credit, and the recognition still belong to someone else.

Read her story →

To every mother of millet and miracles —
thank you.

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African Gourmet FAQ

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Why "The African Gourmet" if you're an archive?

The name reflects our origin in 2006 as a culinary anthropology project. Over 18 years, we've evolved into a comprehensive digital archive preserving Africa's cultural narratives. "Gourmet" now signifies our curated approach to cultural preservation—each entry carefully selected and contextualized.

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We maintain 18 years of continuous cultural documentation—a living timeline of African expression. Unlike static repositories, our archive connects historical traditions with contemporary developments, showing cultural evolution in real time.

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The archive spans all 54 African nations, with particular attention to preserving underrepresented cultural narratives. Our mission is comprehensive cultural preservation across the entire continent.

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