43 8 
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
some time and are deserted by the hen. Like the Kruboys of West Africa, the 
negro of Central Africa likes his egg “ full of meat.” Fish is usually split open 
and roasted. It is often dried first in the sun and may be eaten in this way 
without further cooking. Sometimes it is made into a stew with peppers and 
vegetables and is then used as a relish to be eaten with the porridge; or, more 
rarely, it is fried in fat or oil. 1 
The meat of poultry or beasts is roasted (spitted on sticks stuck in the 
ground against a fire) or stewed in a pot with vegetables and condiments 
(peppers, turmeric, salt, etc.). When men are very hungry flesh is but slightly 
cooked before it is devoured. 
The native likes a little meat as a relish with his doughy porridge or rice : 
but he can quite well do without it and can get on much better without meat 
than if deprived of all vegetable food. Still when meat comes in his way (after 
successful hunting or at big feasts) he can devour an enormous quantity and 
gorges himself till the pains of indigestion are intense. In some districts a 
meat diet is partaken of by the young men for several days before going to war. 
I have nowhere met with any tribe among whom obtained the practice of 
drinking blood or eating it cooked, as is characteristic of so many East and 
North-East African peoples. 
Salt is much liked. It is an absolute necessity of existence in the negro’s 
opinion. Salt is put into porridge and above all into the relish eaten with the 
porridge or rice. 
The cooking is done in small and large clay pots. Where tins have not 
been introduced by the Europeans, large potsherds are used as frying-pans. 
Women do most of the preparing and cooking of the food ; but any man 
or boy can at a pinch cook for himself or his comrades. 
Certain fancies and peculiar customs prevail regarding articles of diet. 
Eccentric things are eaten by persons of both sexes for special purposes, while 
on the other hand wholesome and ordinary forms of food may be excluded for 
more or less fanciful reasons. Thus among the Wankonde the women never 
eat fowls. The Angoni, Yao and A-nyanja men sometimes eschew fowls as 
an article of diet for various reasons. Some men never eat goat, affirming that 
it makes them unwell. 2 Other tribes refuse to eat fish or a particular kind 
of fish. Men will eat the flesh of lions to make them brave; libidinous persons 
consume the testes of goats as an aphrodisiac ; the heart of a brave enemy 
is cooked and devoured by those who wish to share his courage. Many people 
have a particular liking for the half-digested grass found in the stomach of 
antelopes or oxen. 
Fire is made by twirling a short cane or stick in a notch or hole cut in a flat 
piece of wood. The stick is continually pressed down and is twirled backwards 
and forwards between the palms of the hands till the tinder (usually dry bark- 
cloth) is ignited. Then the smouldering tinder is placed in a handful of dry 
grass leaves and blown gently into a flame. Fire, however, is not often made in 
this special way. In the village there is always sure to be a burning brand 
in one or other of the house fires from which a new fire can be lit; and men 
going on a journey will take smouldering sticks along with them and endeavour 
to transport fire in this way rather than go to the trouble of creating it by 
friction. 
1 Frying is not a common method of cooking among those natives who are not under the influence of 
Europeans or Arabs. 
2 And, according to Dr. Cross, goat’s flesh does occasionally have this effect on individuals. 
