In my last blog post, I introduced the names of some Ghanaian swallows, and made an argument that processing technique and additional ingredients largely differentiated them from each other, even when the base ingredients were the same. I also commented briefly on modifications being made to traditional recipes, which I am going to talk more about in the third installment of this series.

In today’s post — which only took me a year to complete (it’s 2022, I’ll do better this year!) — I will give a brief background of some of the ingredients used to prepare our popular swallows in Ghana. I’ll introduce the main starchy staples, compare and contrast their nutritional values, and comment on their main uses in Ghanaian/West African cuisine. This is not an exhaustive list of the diverse food ingredients available in our food chain. The ingredients highlighted here were chosen because they are popularly consumed and tend to be the main ingredients in most Ghanaian swallows.

Staple Classification: Cereals, Starchy roots and tubers

Besides rice (which will not be the focus of this post), the main starchy staples consumed in Ghana are corn, millet, sorghum/guinea corn (sometimes classified with millet), cassava, yam, cocoyam (taro), and plantain. These ingredients form the basis of many Ghanaian dishes, with some similarities in their uses but many variations across different ethnic groups. These staples fall into two main categories: 1) cereals and 2) starchy roots or tubers.  Plantain is a bit tricky, as it is a fruit in botanical terms—a berry, to be precise –but due to its culinary uses and for the purposes of this post, I’ll classify it with the starches.

Cereals are grass crops. The starchy seeds of these grasses are what is harvested for consumption. When cereals are not refined, that is, when they are whole and have not been “polished” to remove the outer bran and germ, they are a good source of B-vitamins in addition to the carbohydrates they provide. They are also good sources of iron, copper, magnesium, manganese, phosphorous, potassium, selenium, and zinc.

Starchy roots and tubers on the other hand refer to the edible roots and underground stems of some plants, and they contain high levels of starch. They are generally not a good source of B-vitamins, but because they grow underground, are usually good sources of minerals like copper, manganese, potassium, and magnesium.

Ghana’s Starchy Staples

Corn/Maize

The widely accepted theory is that maize (I will refer to it as maize when I talk about it as a plant and as corn when I talk about it as a food ingredient) was domesticated in Mexico circa 9000 BP. Some recent genomic studies however trace the lineage of modern maize to South America, suggesting that the domestication of maize was not exclusive to Mexico.

Corn was introduced to Africa by the Portuguese in the 17th century, a move that some development economists suggest might have increased the supply of slaves during the transatlantic slave trade. Despite this history of slavery and colonization, maize is now a widely cultivated and consumed cereal across the African continent. Among the Ga ethnic group in Accra, it is central to their harvest festival known as Homowo, where kpokpoi, a ceremonial dish made with corn meal and palm nut soup is prepared to give thanks to the gods.

Corn is the main ingredient for other traditional dumplings, paps and porridges in Ghana, ranging from koko (corn porridge), kenkey, banku and tuo zaafi (TZ). It is also used for malt beers among the Ga known as nm3daa and asaana.

Millet and Sorghum/Guinea corn

Millet and sorghum, like maize are also important cereals in Ghana. Some varieties of millet like pearl or cattail millet are native to Africa and have been cultivated on the continent since prehistoric times. Sorghum is usually classified as a type of millet although millet and sorghum are two different species. I talk about them in unison because they have similar characteristics and nutritional compositions (see table at end of post). Grain sorghum can either be white or red, though I am used to seeing the red variety in Northern Ghana. The variety pictured above is the white type, which I bought online.

The most popular uses of millet and sorghum in Ghana are for porridge, specifically Hauska koko, and T.Z. In the North of Ghana, millet is also popularly used for a traditional beer called pito, as well as for snacks like zom (rough millet flour that can be soaked in water and sweetened, like the way gari is used in the South), masa (steamed millet patties) and Burkina or degue (a millet and yogurt dessert).

Compared to corn, millet and sorghum have a higher protein content.

Cassava

Cassava is a root tuber that originated from South America. Portuguese traders from Brazil introduced cassava to Africa in the 16^th century. Today, cassava is one of the most consumed starches in Africa, owing largely to its drought resistance. It therefore has great utility in arid regions and is a handy food. My mom has stories of how during the 1983 famine in Ghana, cassava was such a go-to food, so much so that people willingly consumed the very poisoning varieties out of desperation.

In addition to its high starch content, it is also high in manganese, potassium, copper and Vitamin C. Because cassava must be cooked before consumption (it’s high content of cyanide is neutralized when cooked), it should not be viewed as a good source of Vitamin C because Vitamin C is destroyed by heat. Cassava has the highest amount of carbohydrates and calories and the least amount of fiber compared to the other tubers featured in this post.

It is the main ingredient for fufu. It is also used to make gari (by grating, dehydrating and roasting the cassava), which can be cooked into eba, a popular swallow in both Nigeria and Ghana. Cassava meals similar to gari and widely used in Francophone West Africa include attieke and yake yake.

Yam

Yam — not to be confused with sweet potatoes! — is a tuber, like cassava, but a stem tuber. Yam is native to Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean as it thrives in tropical regions. If you want to learn more about the history of yam, check out this first episode “Our Roots”, of food history documentary High on the Hog on Netflix, where Dr. Jessica B. Harris explains yam’s African origins and it’s relevance to African American cuisine. In Ghana, it is central to many harvest festivals including the “Te Za” among the people of Asogli in the Volta Region, the “Fofie” among the Bono, the Ashanti yam festival, and the “Gobandawu” festival in some parts of Northern Ghana.

Yam has a lower starch content for the same weight of cassava, and also has a high content of vitamin C (which again, is not available after cooking). Yam is usually boiled with other starches like plantain and cocoyam (ampesi) and eaten with a sauce in many Ghanaian traditions, though it is also a popular ingredient for fufu in the North of Ghana. It is also popularly fried into chips and eaten with spicy pepper sauces and fish or turkey. It can be made into a vegetable soup or pottage known traditionally as mpotopoto.

Cocoyam/Taro

Cocoyam, or taro is a pantropical root crop that I found has a complex origin story. Many of the sources I came across situate it’s earliest domestication in Southeast Asia, with some species also native to tropical America. It is currently widely cultivated in Africa.

In Ghana, cocoyam seems to be popular for making ampesi, but it can be pounded into fufu, and also used for mpotopoto. Taro leaves, traditionally called kontonmire, are eaten widely in Ghana and is usually made into a sauce that is paired with ampesi. Cocoyam has slightly more protein compared to yam and cassava. Because the ancient variety of taro (Colocasia spp) commonly consumed in Ghana is not available to me currently, I usually purchase the “new cocoyam” varieties (Xanthosoma spp), or malanga, which are native to South America (see picture below). These are comparable in taste and texture to the taro I am used to eating in Ghana.

Plantain

Plantains are technically fruits (like bananas) but are usually classified with the starchy staples (rather than as fruits) because they contain a high level of starch, especially when they are green. The ripened version is sweet because the starch is broken down into sugar.

Bananas (and by extension plantains) are believed to have originated from South-East Asia, although genomic studies place it’s domestication in New Guinea about 8500 years BP, and its introduction to Africa as early as 4500 years BP.

Green plantains are boiled and eaten as ampesi by the Akan and throughout Ghana. It is also pounded with cassava into fufu. Contrary to popular Ghanaian believe, plantain is NOT a rich source of iron (I know, sorry to burst your bubble). For some reason, probably because of their black seeds, people associate plantain with iron, but this is a myth. Rather, plantain is a good source of potassium, copper, magnesium, Vitamin C, and vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid). As with cassava and yam, you would not want to rely on plantain for your Vitamin C because boiling will reduce the Vitamin C content of your plantain. The best plant sources of iron include legumes, nuts and seeds, whole grain cereals, some mushrooms, and dark green leafy veggies —NOT plantains!!!

The table below shows the nutrient content of the popular Ghanaian starches discussed, focusing on quantities of total calories, protein, fat, carbohydrates and a qualitative overview of key micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). It is important to note (and I can’t repeat this enough), that even though some starches are high in Vitamin C (plantain, yam and cassava), you should not rely on these for your Vitamin C intakes because these starches need to be cooked before consumption and Vitamin C is destroyed during cooking. Also, these values signify quantities per dry portion, so when comparing calorie content, it is important to compare cereals with other cereals and tubers with other tubers since cereals are generally dried at harvest while tubers are usually not dried before consumption (unless when used for flours).

*Micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) supplying 10mg or more per 100g of product were listed. See key for names of micronutrients symbols below.
¹Yellow corn usually has higher Vitamin A (in the form of Beta carotene) than white corn
**Plantains are biologically fruits, but classified with starchy foods because of the high content of complex carbohydrates

Note: Values, except for plantain obtained from the West African food composition database. Values for plantain obtained from the USDA Food composition database

Macro-/Micronutrient Key for Table
CHO=Carbohydrate
Vit=Vitamin
Fe=Iron
Mg=Magnesium
Mn=Manganese
P=Phosphorus
K=Potassium
Se=Selenium
Zn=Zinc

To be continued…

Upcoming: In the next post, I will delve into the different Ghanaian dishes prepared from these ingredients, their preparation methods and the variations being made to them in “modern” times.

Suggested Articles

Cherniwchan, J., & Moreno-Cruz, J. (2019). Maize and precolonial Africa. Journal of Development Economics, 136, 137–150. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2018.10.008

Guira, F., Some, K., Kabore, D., Sawadogo‐Lingani, H., Traore, Y., & Savadogo, A. (2016). Origins, production, and utilization of cassava in Burkina Faso, a contribution of a neglected crop to household food security. Food Science & Nutrition, 5(3), 415–423. https://doi.org/10.1002/fsn3.408

Kistler, L., Maezumi, S. Y., Souza, J. G. de, Przelomska, N. A. S., Costa, F. M., Smith, O., Loiselle, H., Ramos-Madrigal, J., Wales, N., Ribeiro, E. R., Morrison, R. R., Grimaldo, C., Prous, A. P., Arriaza, B., Gilbert, M. T. P., Freitas, F. de O., & Allaby, R. G. (2018). Multiproxy evidence highlights a complex evolutionary legacy of maize in South America. Science. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aav0207

Ramanatha Rao, V. & Bioversity International. (2010). The global diversity of taro: Ethnobotany and conservation. Bioversity International. https://www.bioversityinternational.org/fileadmin/_migrated/uploads/tx_news/The_global_diversity_of_taro__ethnobotany_and_conservation_1402.pdf