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Did you know you can learn a lot about a dish just by playing with it? I've been cooking and writing about African food here for 20 years, and lately I've been making little games that teach the same things in a lighter way.

In a few minutes you might learn what an Adinkra symbol means, which country a dish calls home, or how fufu is different from mashed potatoes. The games are free and run right in your web browser, with nothing to download. Each one opens in a new tab, so this page will be here when you're done. And if a game makes you hungry, the "Read more" links lead to the stories and recipes behind it.

The African Pantry Mahjong

Match tiles of everyday African kitchen staples, from yam, egusi and palm oil to baobab, hibiscus and Maggi. Tap any tile to read a little about its place in African cooking.

Play now →

Read more: The Stacked Pantry

Adinkra Mahjong

Clear the board by matching pairs of Adinkra symbols from Ghana. Tap a tile to see what its symbol means, and if you get stuck, an African proverb nudges you along.

Play now →

Read more: Ten African Food Proverbs and the Wisdom They Carry

African Food × Country

Flip cards to pair eight well-known dishes, like doro wat, chicken yassa, jollof rice and kenkey, with the places they come from. Finish the board to unlock a recipe you can copy.

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Read more: Top 20 Largest Countries in Africa

Chicken Across Africa

Click a region of Africa to meet one classic chicken dish: Moroccan tagine, Senegalese yassa, Central African moambé, Ethiopian doro wat and South African bunny chow.

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Read more: Senegalese Chicken Vermicelli Recipe

African Food Odd One Out

You get ten seconds to pick the food photo that doesn't belong. After each round you learn the difference, like fufu versus mashed potatoes or ugali versus grits.

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Read more: Ugali vs Fufu

African Food Word Puzzle

Find ten dish names hidden in a letter grid, from jollof and injera to ndolé, bobotie and suya. Each word comes with its country, so you learn to say it before you cook it.

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Read more: How to Eat Fufu

East African Food Word Search

Hunt for 30 East African dishes hidden forward, backward or diagonally, from ugali and pilau to chips mayai and the Ugandan rolex. Short notes about the dishes scroll along the bottom as you play.

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Read more: Bamia na Nazi: A Culinary Map of the Indian Ocean in One Pot

Kitchen Pair Rush

Two lanes of ingredients slide past each other. Tap when the same one, like plantain, yam or egusi, sits in the center window in both lanes. There are six stages, and each gets faster or trickier.

Play now →

Read more: Red Palm Oil & Nigerian Groundnut Stew

Recipe Rhythm

You see a recipe's ingredients in order for a moment, then tap them in that same order as they float around, from jollof (tomato, onion, pepper, rice) to egusi. Finish a level to unlock a little kitchen note.

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Read more: The Kitchen Groove

Spice Interference

Tap the spice you're asked for, like berbere, mitmita, clove or piri piri, while the others try to distract you. Each correct tap shows a few words about how that spice smells and is used.

Play now →

Read more: Adhabu ya Kaburi: Zanzibar's Clove Trade

Teff Dinner Rush

Family is coming for dinner, and you're making teff bread on your own for the first time. Drag texture tags to the right stations to keep the batter steady and finish a batch before they arrive.

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Adinkra Movers

Rows of Adinkra symbols slide in different directions. Tap the one that matches the symbol in the golden window. It's a quick test of focus that has you looking closely at each symbol's shape.

Play now →

If you play one with your kids, your students or your friends, I would love to hear how it went.

Visit the Sankofa Kitchen

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Cite The Source

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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.

To every mother of millet and miracles —
thank you.

The African Gourmet

Feeding a continent

How coils of metal turned into meals on the journey to Ujiji

How coils of metal turned into meals on the journey to Ujiji

In 1871, Henry Morton Stanley led over 150 people into the interior of Africa
Polio, Disability, and the Architecture of Hunger in Kano

Polio and the Architecture of Hunger

Food & Disability
Water's cultural significance

Water's Cultural Significance

From Ancient Wells to Space-Age Filters

African Gourmet FAQ

Questions Readers Ask

What is The African Gourmet?

The African Gourmet is Ivy’s home for sharing, exploring, and keeping alive African culinary heritage, online since 2006. Here, foodways—ingredients, techniques, rituals, ecology, labor, and trade—are treated as a way into understanding culture. The site is a living timeline, bringing history and today’s kitchens together so you can see culture changing in real time.

Why "Gourmet" in the name?

The name goes back to our beginnings as a culinary anthropology project and to a value we still hold: discernment. "Gourmet" here means a careful, taste-and-smell-first way of keeping food traditions alive. We choose depth over breadth, giving each post—whether a West African stew or the political story of a cashew nut—the care and context it deserves.

How do you check your facts?

I check my sources, note where stories disagree, and credit the people who shared their knowledge. My aim is to go beyond a list of facts and tell each food's story carefully, in layers. You can browse the stories by theme in the Research Guide.

How is content selected and organized?

We choose what to write about by asking three things: significance, context, and enduring value. Each post is tagged by theme (Foodway, Ingredient, Technique, Ritual, Ecology, Labor, Seasonality, etc.) and must meet our sourcing standards. We aim to be specific—tagging by ethnolinguistic group, region, and nation—so Africa’s many food stories are never flattened into one.

What geographic and cultural scope do you cover?

Our hope is to keep food traditions alive across all 54 African nations. We especially want to lift up stories that are too often overlooked. You will find deep looks at major cuisines alongside small, very local practices that broader surveys often leave out.

How do you handle sources when archives are silent?

When written records are absent, we cite living practice as a valid source. We hold ourselves to careful standards: interviews are written down (with permission), practices are observed in context, and knowledge is credited to the people and communities who hold it. This lets us honor what can’t be held in the hand—sensory knowledge, oral techniques, ritual contexts—with the same care as a printed text.

Can researchers and the public access the site?

Absolutely. Everyone is welcome here. All 20 years of posts are searchable and organized for many uses: academic research, lesson planning, journalism, and your own learning. We encourage citation. For in-depth research help, please contact us.

How does this work ensure genuine cultural preservation?

By working the same careful way since 2006, we have built more than a collection; we have created an irreplaceable record of context. We keep not just a recipe, but the labor, seasons, and meaning around it. This long, patient commitment helps future generations understand not only *what* was eaten, but *how* and *why*, in all the richness of its cultural moment.