My Portion: African Style

During a recent training program in the village, I had lunch provided for those attending the sessions as the training was 9am-3pm.  Since the villagers walked 5-10 km to the training site, it is not possible, or timely, for them to return home at lunch time and then walk back again for the afternoon.

As my last post was about receiving a portion of food … I thought I’d show you what my portion looked like one of these days.

Normally, the Fulani eat together  from a large platter …. men together and women together.  The men are served first and then the women and children eat together in a separate location.  Sometimes small children and toddlers are served the meal in their own small separate bowl. 

They eat from a large platter as culturally, it is shameful for someone to know how much they eat …. from a platter, it is less obvious than filling a plate for everyone to see the amount you intend to eat.   A group of 4-6 people will sit around one of these large platters and scoop out the rice and sauce with their hands to eat.

One of my favourite “culture shock” moments of my first term was more a reversal of cultures.  My friend Abdoulaye and I had gone to visit his aunts as they wanted to prepare a special meal for me.  At the meal time, I sat on the floor with his aunts around a large platter of food and eating with my hands.  While my friend sat apart from us - with his own plate of food and fork (as the only male, he received a plate), sitting on the couch while watching the tv show “24” on the tv in French.  Yup - complete reversal of culture norms!!

Well … back to my portion!

As the group of trainees were male, I was served my meal in a separate hut.  Oddly enough, not with the women  - likely as I was the guest, I needed to be served before them …. and also oddly, the trainer was served in the hut with me. Though a male and we should not normally  be eating together, but as we were both guests to this family home, and probably as he was accepted as a member of my team, this was likely why culture was broken to serve us together.

Each of us was given our own pot of food:

This pot was mine!!!  

Way more food than I can eat.  And this after I asked them to reduce the rice they put in the pot for me!
 
In this pot of food, there is approximately:

• 4-5 cups of rice
• 4 pieces of meat

Side Note:

Receiving any amount of meat at a national home is another gift which humbles me.  The Fulani rarely eat meat (chicken, sheep, goat … never beef, they love their cows!) of any source … and usually only at special events: baby naming ceremonies, weddings.  As I sit around any platter with friends, the chunks of meat are invariably shuffled around the platter to rest in front of me.  As their guest, I am offered their best.  Even in this meal above – I mentioned they should put some of the meat on other platters …but I am their guest and receiving as much meat in my bowl as one platter to feed six was their honour to give – even though I had bought it all, especially the meat, for them!  

• 2 cups of sauce with veggies (cabbage, squash, carrots, onions, tomatoes)
• 2 potatoes

I’ve noticed that the Fulani can eat 2-3 times the amount of food in one sitting than I can – though this would likely be more than one of them would eat, I suspect that most of them could probably eat half of this on their own!

In the discussion regarding reducing my portion of food – for they had started with double the amount of rice, from which I talked them down to half the pot instead of the full - I learned that it was more culturally appropriate for them to give me more than I could eat - and they would finish off what I could not eat – than for them to give me less than maybe would fill me and risk my shaming them to ask for more.

For the Fulani, hospitality is a deeply ingrained lifestyle that I am learning to graciously accept even when my heart protests receiving from their scant ... a lifestyle I hope to more and more emulate in my own life.