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.

Beware of the naked man who offers you clothes African Proverb

It is easy to talk the talk and give advice African Proverb

African Proverb

It's easy to talk the talk and give advice on love, careers or even recycling on how things should be done. But, the person giving the advice does not act in a way that agrees with the advice they are giving. The proverb implies that a person should back up their talking with action.

A Somali man carries a large sailfish on his head as he transports it to Mogadishu's fish market in the Xamar Weyne district of the Somali capital.

It is easy to talk the talk and give advice


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Beware of the naked man who offers you clothes is a proverb used to call out hypocrites; people who are single but give advice on how to have a happy marriage, a person who is overweight supplying dieting tips, environmentalists who do not recycle, people on social media who want to show you how to become rich when they are poor, and politicians who send their children to private school while making speeches on the virtues of public school.

Hidden Agenda of Gift-Giving

Definition of giving with an ulterior motive is a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not: behavior that contradicts what one claims to believe or feel. Unfortunately, many people tend to attach strings to the gifts they give. In these times, one thing is hard to deny, there is a lot of contradicting behavior that flying around. People regularly and angrily lambast others for doing something, while doing pretty much the exact same thing themselves.
Read the popular African Folklore story about a hidden agenda of kindness. Iniko’s pretend kindness African-Folklore is a story about Iniko who pretend kindness by being gluttonous and selfish.


Maize seeds
Pretend Kindness

Pretend Kindness African-Folklore




Nuru asked her husband Iniko to attend to the food on the fire while she went to fetch water. On her return, she found her husband skimming off the stew from the top of the pot. 


After he filled a calabash high with stew, he hid it inside the house.


Nuru did not let him know that she had seen him and went into the house, poured the stew her husband took from the pot back into the stew pot. She then returned the calabash to her husband secret hiding place.


At dinner, when Iniko, trusting in what he hid, said to his wife "give me only a little and let our children have plenty," she said to him "abdntsa ate bil- guro bigela gullemrni, father, don’t call spray spring!" 


He did not understand what this meant until he went to eat what he had put aside for himself, and then found the calabash empty.




Did you know?
If you dig deep enough you can find many truths in African folklore stories.
Beware of the naked man who offers you clothes ~ African Proverb




"Beware of the naked man who offers you clothes" -African Proverb

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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