When Violence Takes the Pot
How Cabo Delgado's Conflict Silences Recipes — And Why They Still Echo
In April 2020, more than 50 young men in Xitaxi village were murdered for refusing recruitment.
Their mothers' pots went cold that night — and many recipes went with them.
The Day the Cooking Fires Went Out
On April 7, 2020, in the village of Xitaxi, Muidumbe district, suspected al-Shabaab militants massacred 52 young men who refused recruitment. Homes were burned, granaries emptied, families scattered. It was one of the deadliest single incidents in a conflict that has displaced nearly a million people since 2017.
Source: BBC News (22 April 2020): "Mozambique villagers 'massacred' by Islamists" – police confirmed 52 youths shot/beheaded after resisting recruitment. Read the report.
Violence doesn't just take lives — it takes recipes.
When War Disrupts the Kitchen
The insurgency in Cabo Delgado has burned fields, looted granaries, and forced families to flee with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Traditional Makonde, Mwani, and Macua dishes — matapa from cassava leaves, fish stews with coconut, millet porridges flavored with wild herbs — require land, tools, and generations of passed-down knowledge.
When grandmothers flee, the oral recipes flee with them. When fields are abandoned, the exact mix of leaves for a healing relish is forgotten. When children grow up in displacement camps eating rations, the songs sung while pounding cassava fade.
It's not dramatic loss — it's quiet erosion. A pinch of this leaf, a timing of that fire, a proverb about when to add tamarind — gone, one family at a time.
A Recipe That Echoes — Matapa (Cassava Leaf Stew)
This is the dish mothers in Cabo Delgado would make when times were hard — but still possible. It's simple, nourishing, and uses what the land gives freely. In displacement, it's often the first "real meal" families try to recreate.
Matapa – Cassava Leaf Stew (4 servings)
- 500g fresh cassava leaves (or spinach/kale substitute)
- 1 cup peanuts, ground
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 tomatoes, grated
- 1 cup coconut milk
- Salt & chili to taste
- Oil for frying
- Pound or finely chop cassava leaves (removes bitterness).
- Fry onion until soft, add tomatoes.
- Add ground peanuts, coconut milk, simmer 10 min.
- Add leaves, cook until tender (20-30 min).
- Serve with rice or ugali — comfort in every bite.
“When the pot is full, the heart is full.” – Makua proverb
The recipes aren't gone.
They're waiting — in diaspora kitchens, in memory, in the first garden a displaced family plants when they finally feel safe.
