Africa owes a debt of gratitude to Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern

[HamdenRice]

No, really.

Today I read and responded to yet another post by a DUer that takes as an underlying assumption that Africans only eat because western charities feed them.

I realize this is a common innocent mistake based on lack of knowledge. I certainly don't want to call out anyone, and again, I think it's an innocent mistake based on teevee coverage, but the post in particular assumed that people in the Ivory Coast were hungry, and being fed by western charities.

Ironically, the Ivory Coast exports food that you eat -- chocolate. It is the biggest exporter of chocolate in the world, most of it grown by small farmers, who practice agro-forestry. In other words, because cocoa trees must grow in shade, under other larger rain forest trees, cocoa production provides an incentive to preserve the rain forest.

Besides cocoa, Ivory Coast's small farmers grow a variety of other crops and animals, and the country is generally food self sufficient -- with the deficit in certain popular foods, like rice, being paid for with exports -- much like most countries in the world.

If there is any single fact that most Americans need to learn about Africa it is this: The vast majority of food that Africans eat is grown by other Africans.

But still. It's unbelievable, but it's an extraordinary widespread belief here on DU that Africans only eat because western charities feed them. Most Americans seem to think that Africans used to run through the jungle naked catching and eating wild animals (plus the occasional missionary) and now that they can't do that, they simply wait on their haunches for western charities to distribute food aid to them.

Few seem to know that about 80% of the sub-Saharan African work force is in farming, and that Africans have been farming for several thousand years, and that many crops we eat and cooking techniques we use in the Americas -- rice, bananas and plantains, peanuts, sweet potatoes, kidney and lima beans, water melon, okra, fried food in general, come from Africa. (Rice and plantain/bananas come originally from Asia, but were disseminated to North America from Africa, to which they had already spread before Columbus.)

It sometimes seems that most Americans get almost all their information about Africa from "Feed the Children" pity fests.

How many posts have you read about starving Africans? As though being African and starving are pretty much synonymous?

Although it's just light entertainment, I have to give it to Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern for their shows on the Travel Channel. Both of them basically travel around the world and sample other cultures' cuisines. Both tend to emphasize the strange, but Bourdain also eats home cooking and high end dining, while Zimmern focuses almost exclusively on the strange (hence the name of his show, Bizarre Food), and especially street food.

But both have traveled to and eaten in Africa and what comes across in their shows there, which must be a revelation to many Americans given their level of knowledge of Africa, is --HOLY COW! Most Africans are farmers. They grow their own food! They sell food in markets! Where other Africans buy it! Most Africans are eating food grown by Africans! They make wine and beer and eat and drink and have a good time like people from all over the world! Most of the food tastes really good! Some of it is disgusting -- but then, so was some of the food in England, the US, Iceland, wherever.

Zimmern has traveled to and eaten in Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania and Morocco. Bourdain has traveled to and eaten in Ghana, Namibia, and Egypt.

All with good cheer.

I just wanted to acknowledge them somehow for performing this small service.

[dionysus]

1. haven't seen the other show but bourdain is a national treasure.

:thumbsup:

[DrDan]

4. when sober . . . which is perhaps half the show

[HamdenRice]

20. It's amazingly subversive to see a guy get drunk and smoke cigs on tv

For that alone, he's a treasure. Real life.

He was plastered on palm wine in Ghana.

[juno jones]

31. He's a line cook.

I really need not say more.

Kitchen Confidential is true. We are a bunch of hard-bitten, drunken bastards reeling thru life surrounded by...good food, good wine, excellent and diverse company and a sense of humor that can peel paint.

PS, we are mostly liberal, but many need incentive to vote. Health Care maybe?

[HamdenRice]

32. At heart, he still is

That book is amazing on so many levels.

Ironically, I thought the funniest and strangest part was also one of the calmest. He tells the story of interviewing for a job with a mysterious restaurant owner. It goes really well.

Then the owners says, "what do you know about me." Bourdain says, "nothing."

He's shown the door and doesn't get the job.

Half way down the block he realizes the owner had asked, "what do you know about meat"!

:rofl:

He's priceless.

[juno jones]

35. Yep.

:loveya:

That part struck me as well.

He is genuine. And his work is not only funny but poignant. I don't read a lot of other culinary writers, despite my profession, however, Bourdain is a pleasure, someone who encourages you to grow in your tastes rather than dictate your taste from above.

Bon Appetit!

[semillama]

21. Andrew Zimmern....

http://www.andrewzimmernatemyballs.com/

[juno jones]

2. Bourdain is cool.

And a bit of a legend amongst us who toil in the nation's commercial kitchens. :)

I love the light he shines on other cultures and their food. I saw some of the shows he did in SE Asia. Looks like he has lots of fun. And I envy his food experience.

[dionysus]

7. how would you like it of gordon ramsay paid a visit to your establishment?

;)

[juno jones]

29. Dunno.

But then again I'm of the old school. I apprenticed with some outstanding chefs. I'll put my chops, dicipline and endurance up against anybody. If he wasn't impressed...well he's a prick anyway :).

Bourdain is one of us. A drunken, free-living line cook with a talent for writing and a hellava sense of humor.

[On the Road]

12. I Absolutely Loved Bouirdain's Special "Into the Fire"

about returning to his old NYC restarant to work a double shift as a line cook.

Most amazing presentation I've ever seen of how restaurants operate and what it's like to work in one. It's been years since I left that type of job, but I want all my family too see that show to know what it's like.

[Skinner]

3. "an extraordinary widespread belief here on DU"

I'm getting pretty tired of people making unsubstantiated blanket statements about the perceived ignorance of large portions this community.

This community is not as stupid as many people want to believe. If you're going to claim that "it's an extraordinary widespread belief here on DU that Africans only eat because western charities feed them" you might want to back that up. Or at least make clear what you mean by "extraordinarily widespread". Is one person out of tens of thousands "extraordinarily widespread"?

[HamdenRice]

9. Let's just say it's a recurring theme in discussions about food aid here.

Most of the post is aimed at "Americans," and I base that on what Africans tell me Americans have asked them about their homes.

It doesn't mean people are stupid. It means they lack information. There is almost zero information about African agriculture in the MSM.

On edit: African friends who visit America have told me, over the course of two decades, that the single most frequent question they get is, "Did you have to sell your skins and buy clothes at the airport in Africa before you got on the plane?" That's how little information is getting out there.

[cali]

13. sorry, I don't buy that the most frequently asked question of

Africans visiting this country, is "Did you have to sell our skins and buy clothes at the airport in Africa before you got on the plane?" That rings entirely false.

[HamdenRice]

15. That's what they tell me

You'd have to tell that to them, not me.

[cali]

16. I'll put this simply: I don't believe it.

it defies logic- unless you're talking about one friend. I find it highly improbable that a multitude of people would say this same thing.

[HamdenRice]

19. Many of the people I'm talking about were exchange students posted to the south

I met many of them through anti-apartheid work in the 80s. US AID had a program to provide scholarships to black South Africans for high school and college.

But it didn't want them all concentrated in NY, DC, LA, etc., so it spread them out all over little high schools and colleges across the country.

Many of them reported the same first question -- did you have to exchange your skins for clothes at the airport.

Heard it from many African exchange students sent to many different places, but especially those sent down south.

[dionysus]

25. unfortunately, our country is loaded with morons. it's entirley possible.

for instance, my next door neighbor, 25, didn't know if the nazis were russians or germans, and didn't know if vietnam was before or after WW2...

unfortunately teh stupid is strong in this country :(

[HamdenRice]

46. There's one actual African in this thread. See what she says.

Post 40. It may not be about trading skins for clothes, but it's pretty much at the same level.

You're probably over estimating the level of knowledge most Americans have.

[Lex]

17. Thanks for pointing that out. I've never even seen that allegation here

at DU "that Africans only eat because western charities feed them." Except in the current OP.

[Zenlitened]

37. Re: "unsubstantiated blanket statements"

It's a step up from outright lies. For example, all the "racist jokes" posted all over DU, allegedly. I've never seen these "racist jokes" on DU, only posts claiming such things exist in large and noticeable degrees. :(

[xultar]

5. Anthony Bourdain is sooooooooo sexy

[bdamomma]

38. in a strange sense he seems very sexy.

[CatWoman]

39. !!

:hi:

I'll hand wrestle ya for him :)

[bunnies]

44. omg I cant stop looking at this photo...

Its like a car accident. :wow: Am I attracted? Repulsed? I dont know! :banghead: Damn you catwoman! :spank:

[CatWoman]

45. bwahahahahahahahahaha

:rofl:

[lunatica]

49. gasp!

He's got enough for all of us!

My respect for him just went up a notch or two. Anyone who has that kind of humor is almost perfect in my book.

[Sultana]

6. Wut?

As an African I don't give a shit what ignorant Westerners think of us, we know who were are.

Yes, we owe a debt of gratitude to 2 rich white men....NOT! :eyes: They won't change ppl's opinion of us.

[HamdenRice]

8. It's important for the "foreign policy public"

I realize that what people think in general doesn't affect Africa -- which will continue on its path to development.

But in a broader sense, educating the American public is important because it affects American policy.

For example, if you look at the World Trade Organization, the US and Europe pursue policies that damage African farmers tremendously. And the WTO rules themselves don't at all require this.

A first step in rallying public pressure to get the US to stop damaging African farming is to get Americans to realize that most Africans are farmers and that anti-farmer policies at the WTO are the source of much of the suffering they are seeing on "Feed the Children" type adverts.

Bourdain and Zimmern at least show that Africans are mostly farmers and produce their own food.

I lived in and traveled to Africa over a period of 20 years, and stayed with many farm families.

If the Liberian farmers I lived with could have exported their delicious green oranges to America, there probably wouldn't have been a civil war.

[On the Road]

10. Why Couldn't Liberia Export Oranges?

Is there a trade issue? Are there economic barriers in the US that are preventing Africa from developing?

(BTW, I think that the way allowed the country to descend into chaos in the 90s was inexcusable, especially considering that the entire country was established and populated by people from the US.)

[HamdenRice]

14. The Florida lobby

It's an amazingly complicated system to get agricultural produce imported here.

It would take a book to explain it!

The easiest way to knock off a country that wants to export to here is to say that it will carry disease or insects. That pretty much creates an impenetrable barrier. Florida orange growers use it mercilessly, which is why you rarely get oranges from anywhere else.

Then there are all sorts of WTO rules. The WTO is kind of analogous to criminal law -- it looks completely fair on its face. But if you have fifty high powered lawyers in Geneva your outcome is very different from if you can't even afford to post one trade rep to Geneva. Western countries can throw up completely baseless suits before the WTO and poor countries can't answer them simply because they don't have funds for a lawyer/trade rep to the WTO.

Just to get into the WTO, you have to negotiate with every other member -- which requires a staff of maybe 30 lawyers minimum, posted to one of the most expensive cities in the world.

You might want to look into the banana wars between Europe and America -- neither of which produce bananas. But basically, various rich countries were fighting over protecting their client state banana producers in the West Indies, Central America and Africa, and all sides (except the banana producers themselves) were atrocious.

It's the biggest scandal in the world economy, imo. If we could rally the public behind small farmers in those countries, to get at least a fair application of WTO rules, a lot of poverty would go away.

That said, Liberia has the most delicious oranges and grape fruit I've ever eaten. One of the funny things about them is that they stay green, even as they become sugary sweet on the inside. They could make a fortune if they could sell them here.

[On the Road]

27. Wow, I Had No Idea

Thanks for explaining. That is really a perverse system.

Sounds like African countries could develop export economies only by becoming client states of the US or another major power, with all that that entails. So much for helping the third world develop.

BTW, what countries would you consider safe and developed enough to travel in right now? Would love to go there, but don't want to drag a loved one into an uncomfortable or dicey environment. I have a relative that grew up in Cameroon and another in Ghana, but I have the feeling both have gone downhill in the last 20 years.

[HamdenRice]

30. See ("Ooops") below

Even if a country is a client state of a European country, the US may barge in and prevent the European country from helping the client.

Ghana is pretty safe and definitely on the upswing. It started out as one of the better off West African countries, had some very difficult times in the 60s, 70s and 80s, but for most of the last 20 years has had very strong growth. Also it's very welcoming to Americans and very English speaking.

Botswana is a gem, but it's much farther and more expensive to get to. The land scape of the part where people live (the eastern border with South Africa) is kind of boring (semi desert and savannah) but it has some of the greatest natural wonders in the world in its generally uninhabited interior (eg Okavango). People are great! If you watch "Ladies Number 1 Detective Agency," series on tv these days you'll get the general picture.

I would also add South Africa -- it's the most developed and modern by far -- except crime is pretty bad and you need some serious street smarts to survive Johannesburg -- but it's my favorite place in Africa. I just don't recommend it to everyone.

[On the Road]

42. Thank You, I Will Keep an Eye Out for That

Looks like discount flights to Accra are less than $1000 if you choose dates carefully. An ethnic discounter might even do a little better. And I assume it's cheap once you arrive.

I thought about Gambia last year, since it's stable and has a developed tourist industry, but flights are astromoical from the US. Guess it's mostly Europeans.

I would love to see Africa but it's a little daunting, and I don't care for package tours.

[HamdenRice]

28. Ooops -- clarification

I just googled "banana wars" and the result points to the late 19th century banana wars.

I meant the trade dispute of the late 1990s, which had the overall effect of decreasing banana exports from former European colonies to Europe, in favor of US banana exports to Europe.

The US basically prevented Europe from continuing to help out its own former colonies in the Caribbean and Africa by importing their bananas into Europe, in favor of US multinational Chiquita.

http://www.forbes.com/2001/04/12/0412bananas.html

[Ganja Ninja]

11. I watch all of Bourdain's shows.

He may have eaten in Namibia but it didn't look too appetizing.

[On the Road]

24. Did You See Zimmern's Show on Uganda?

That must have been alarming even for him. They were collecting swarms of flying ants to fry up, and were plucking them right out of the air for a snack. Not having modern plumbing or refrigeThere were all kinds of fermented meat products without refrigeration made in holes in the ground. And then there was the trip at night to feed the jackals with strips of meat hanging from sticks in their mouths.

It's a little sensationalistic, but not many shows on that channel give such a good view of everyday life and normal people in undeveloped countries like Uganda. I think it really helps viewers to picture these countries as normal places with real people.

[HamdenRice]

26. And yet, despite the sensationalism, you get the impression they mostly eat plantains

which is pretty accurate. The Buganda kingdom (which became the core of Uganda) was able to dominate the region because they perfected a way of growing an almost perfect food that takes very little labor -- the plantain/banana.

I like the way he shows the bizarre, but you always come away knowing what's home cooking and what's bizarre and what's both.

[Ganja Ninja]

33. I've seen a couple of his shows but not that one.

I'm going to have to start tivo-ing his shows.

[BlooInBloo]

18. I think it would be helpful if Americans learned that Africa isn't a country.

[Karenina]

36. Now wouldn't THAT be a grand start!!!

:rofl::loveya::rofl:

I DEFY anyone reading this thread to approach 5 young people tomorrow (let's say under 55) and ask them to name 5 African nations.

:rofl:

[Sultana]

40. Who's the President of Africa?

What Africa's capital? Isn't it that big place that start with a "S"?

.....things I've heard from folks.

Did u ride an elephant and run withe lions and cheetahs? :eyes:

[BlooInBloo]

41. Hah! I know a trick question when I see one!

No one - Africa had a coup!

:rofl:

[HamdenRice]

43. "Did u ride an elephant and run withe lions and cheetahs"

As you can see upthread, it's hard for well informed Americans to comprehend how uninformed most Americans are about Africa. African friends have told me they got similar questions when they first arrived -- like people from big cities like Johannesburg being asked if they had to kill lions to survive.

[JoDog]

22. Personally, I've learned a lot

about world food from those 2 shows. Bear in mind, I was pretty much starting from zero. Grew up in a small white town and didn't get my first taste of Chinese food until college.

[mainer]

23. They are BOTH cool. I'd love to eat dinner with either one of them.

Although I think I'll skip the bug course.

[Ganja Ninja]

34. If I wanted to eat beaks and claws and chicken asses ...

I'd order a box of Chicken McNuggets.

[Odin2005]

47. I went to a little, immigrant-owned Ghanaian restaurant once and the food was AMAZING!

Be warned, do not get Kelewele as appetizers unless you want to burn your mouth off!!! :rofl:

[Arkana]

48. Zimmern's a freak--I have no idea how he chokes down half the stuff he eats on that show.

[Gabi Hayes]

50. does that mean the people who eat the food indigenous to its preparation are freaks, too?

[Arkana]

52. No, it means they're simply used to eating that kind of thing.

I personally cannot envision myself eating what they eat.

That's what I meant.

Jesus fucking Christ.

[Gabi Hayes]

53. har.....not being a mind reader, I wrote.....

but you know what I meant, right?

and a hearty JFC to you, too!

[Arkana]

54. Zimmern is nuts though.

He's certainly a braver man than I am--the full-sized fried bugs I saw him eat in Vietnam or something (can't remember the place) made me a little green.

[Gabi Hayes]

55. have to agree with you on that. I usually can't even watch without sound.

I don't even want to know what some of that stuff is

I had some brain tacos awhile ago...free samples in the store. I bought a bunch, took them home.

ate a few, then the texture started to get to me.

my sister came home for a visit and I gave her one, which she liked. when I told her what it was, she blew lunch.

I couldn't eat any more of them, and tossed the last few

[alfredo]

51. I lived in Ethiopia for a few years. Their cuisine is quite sophisticated.

The grain they use for their bread is the most nutrition grain in the world. Thank Africans for the coffee you drink. They've been drinking it for thousands of years. The spices they use rivals the spices found in other societies.

A suggestion: Next time you make chili, substitute the chili powder with Berbere, the Ethiopian spice mixture.

Here's a good berbere recipe:

http://www.congocookbook.com/sauce_recipes/berbere.html

One warning: Roast the cayenne/spice mixture outdoors or in a very well ventilated kitchen.
Also, I use a lot more cayenne than they show. YMMV

A shout out to my Eritrean brothers and sisters.