African Food and Art

Thank you to our latest donor, Tony. Thank you, Tony. We were able to purchase three new stainless steel pots to continue our cooking and teaching heritage.

What Color Do You Choose to Be

You can be any color, culture, race, or ethnicity you choose. 

It is not uncommon for our eyes to deceive us when it comes to perceiving the colors of people. This often leads us to erroneously assign individuals to certain racial, cultural, or ethnic categories that are not necessarily accurate representations of who they truly are. 

Such categorizations are often based on invented concepts and serve our own purposes, rather than reflecting reality. Ubuntu African philosophy "Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu" means that a person is a person through other people.


Ubuntu African philosophy "Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu" means that a person is a person through other people

Difference between race, ethnicity, culture, genotype, phenotype, and color are explained.


What is race?
Race has no genetic basis. Race is considered by many to be a made-up characteristic to objectify people who have the same physical characteristics or phenotype, such as eye shape, hair texture, or skin color. Race is not biological.

What is ethnicity?
An ethnic group is a category of people who belong to or derive from the cultural, religious, or linguistic traditions of a people or country. People who identify with each other based on similarities, such as common ancestral, language, social, and cultural experiences. Therefore, ethnic group is a subjective category based on others' personal feelings, tastes, or opinions.

Your Lying Eyes. Our eyes tell us that people look different but do our eyes lie to us placing humans into invented categories to suite our needs.
Sorting people
What is culture?
Culture is the learned pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior transmitting knowledge to future generations, and these shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices distinguish the person. Culture is a category based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions.

What is color?
Color shapes our perceptions of the world around us. Color is visual, the pigmentation of the skin. Color is a strong sensory sensation that shapes our everyday life. Colors give the sensation of feeling cheerful, depressed, cautious, or friendly.

To see color, you have to have light. When light shines on an object some colors bounce off the object, and others are absorbed by it. Our eyes only see the colors that are bounced off or reflected.

The sun’s rays contain all the colors of the rainbow mixed together. All light rays contain color. Light is made of electromagnetic waves. These waves spread out from any light source, such as the sun.

Race by Percentages in South Africa
The term Colored in South Africa refers to people of mixed races, while Indian and Asian are grouped into one category on the 2018 South African Census. South Africa's Indian population is the largest Indian population outside of India.

Race Percent
Black African 80.90%
Colored 8.80%
White 7.80%
Indian and Asian 2.50%


DNA African Study
Populations are genetically diverse because there is a complex relationship between ancestry, genetic makeup, and phenotype. In 1987, three scientists announced in the journal Nature that they had found a common ancestor to us all; African Eve was a woman who lived in Africa 150,000 years ago.

The theory is all people alive today can trace some of their genetic heritage through their mothers back to this one woman. Dr. Tishkoff, a professor of Genetics and Biology at the University of Pennsylvania studied genetic material variations, human evolution, and disease risk in global populations and her team studied 121 African populations, four African American populations, and 60 non-African populations.

The Khoisan people of Southern Africa were previously thought to possess the oldest DNA lineages, but those of the Sandawe tribe of central Tanzania are older. This suggests southern Khoisan originated in East Africa, according to Dr Tishkoff. Modern humans originated in Africa around 200,000 years ago and then spread across the rest of the globe within the past 100,000 years.

Genotype vs. phenotype
Genotype cannot be seen by the naked eye; it is the genetic makeup of an organism. Visible traits are known as phenotypes. A phenotype is an individual's observable traits, such as height, shoe size, eye color, and face shape.
  1. DNA Mapping 121 African Populations
  2. One Tribe Crossing the Gate of Grief Populated the World
  3. Worst serial killers recorded in history are women
  4. Indigenous healers and plants used
  5. Night running illness or magic
  6. Scientific Racism Ota Benga the human exhibited at the Bronx Zoo

Chic African Culture and The African Gourmet=

Week’s Best African Culture Posts

What is the difference between ugali and fufu

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How to make the popular African recipes Ugali and Fufu and what is the difference.  Ugali is a starch dish in Kenya and Tanzania made of fine cornmeal cooked in boiling water into a soft dough. Fufu is a thick, dough-like West African food made by boiling then pounding a starchy vegetable such as yam, plantain, or cassava or a mixture of starchy vegetables. The main difference between fufu and ugali is fufu is boiled first then pounded while ugali is simply boiled. Ugali recipe. Easy Ugali Recipe Prep time 5 minutes Cook time 30 minutes Total time 30 minutes Ingredients 4 cups finely ground cornmeal 8 cups water Directions Heat water to boiling in a saucepan. Slowly pour cornmeal into boiling water stirring continuously. Add more cornmeal if necessary until it is thick as soft bread dough. Serve immediately with vegetables, stew, or any dish you would use a spoon with to soak up the sauce, ugali is purposely bland tasting on its own. What is the difference between ugali and
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Top 20 Largest Countries in Africa

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African Country by Size List. Africa Which are the top twenty largest, smallest, and territorial country in Africa by land area? 1. The continent of Africa is the world’s second largest based on land area and population just after Asia. 2. Top five largest countries of Africa are Algeria, Congo Democratic Republic of the, Sudan, Libya and Chad. 3. Top five smallest African countries and territories are Mauritius, São Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles, Saint Helena and Mayotte. African Country from largest to smallest Area sq mile Area sq km Algeria 919,595 2,381,740 Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) 905,568 2,345,410 Sudan 718,723 1,861,484 Libya 679,362 1,759,540 Chad 495,755 1,284,000 Niger 489,191 1,267,000 Angola 481,354 1,246,700 Mali 478,767 1,240,000 South Africa 471,011 1,219,912 Ethiopia 435,186 1,127,127 Mauritania 397,95
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Ethiopian Midwest American Hotdish

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Our Ethiopian hot dish combines Ethiopian cooking with classic Minnesota Midwest casserole meal. The hot dish’s origins are a product of settlers traditions in Midwest America dating back to the early 20th century. A hot-dish or casserole is a one-pan meal that traditionally includes a combination of starch like potatoes, pasta, or rice, ground meat, vegetables, and a creamy canned soup base, all topped with crunchy goodness like breadcrumbs or tater tots. The concept of hot dish became popular in the Upper Midwest, particularly in states like Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin, in the 1930s and 1940s. This period was marked by economic challenges, including the Great Depression. The need for economical and filling meals led to the creation of dishes that could be stretched to feed many people using simple, affordable ingredients . Hot dishes became synonymous with potlucks, church suppers, and social gatherings. These events were central to rural and small-town communities, where
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Neck elongation rings how to put on and take off

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Neck elongation rings how to put on and take off. Idzila are Ndebele wives traditionally wear rings around the neck as a status symbol and wear rings around the arms, legs, and neck. Wearing Neck Rings. For centuries, married South African Ndebele tribes’ women saw wearing heavy rings around their neck as an honored status symbol. Neck rings are any form of stiff necklaces worn around the neck of an individual. The neck rings are usually made of copper or brass. During initiation, girls wear an array of colorfully beaded hoops called izigolwan around their legs, arms, waist, and neck. After marriage, the Ndebele wife would wear copper and brass rings around her arms, legs, and neck, symbolizing her bond and faithfulness to her husband, once her home was built. Idzila rings were believed to have strong ritual powers. Husbands used to provide their wives with rings; the richer the husband, the more rings the wife would wear. These outward symbols can be removed only in ca
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