A Balanced Diet in Local Communities is a Sham
Hadijah KIBIRA (Uganda)
Uganda, once described as the pearl of Africa, has a favorable climate that allowed all
kinds of food crops, fruits, and vegetables to be easily grown organically. The soils too
are conducive in over two-thirds of the country’s land area. The country is also
economically dependent on agriculture, growing both food and cash crops, together
with a prosperous animal husbandry. It is basically from the home grown food cropsthat the Ugandans derive their food.
Being a country of cultural diversity (over 50 tribes), Uganda has a diverse food culture.
Each tribe has a special delicacy and different ways of preparing the food. However, thefood culture can be identified with the four broad regions in the country, thus, eastern,western, northern and central/southern.
In the different regions, different food crops are grown and eaten as staple foodeverywhere in the region. These staple foods vary from matooke (banana-type) in thecentral region, millet in western region, posho (mingled maize flour) in the northern,and sweet potatoes in the eastern. The food is eaten in three meals including breakfast,
lunch and supper.
In the rural mostly poor households, breakfast is comprised of hot black tea, usually
without sugar, and taken with leftovers from the previous night’s supper. This isnormally taken at around 11:00 am after working in the garden or early morning
before going to work in the garden. In the middle income communities, the black tea
contains sugar and is taken with bread. Milk is a rare commodity unless the region is acattle keeping region like the western region. Even in homes where milk is produced, it
is usually sold off for an income. The breakfast is never comprised of a balanced diet.
The lunch and supper are composed of similar foods depending on the region where thehousehold is found. The food is usually made up of two types; a carbohydrate and aprotein, for example, mingled maize flour and beans, cassava and beans, sweet
potatoes and groundnuts, mingled millet floor and beans, etc. The protein is cooked assoup or sauce while the carbohydrate is regarded as the food. Meat is a rare delicacy
eaten once a week in middle income homesteads and barely monthly in poorhouseholds. Chicken is a special dish for festival days like Eid (Muslim festival) andChristmas.
In the central region where I come from, matooke is the area’s delicacy cooked withground nuts. The matooke are peeled, tied in banana leaves, while the groundnuts arecrushed, mixed with water and the mixture put in a young smoked banana leaf. These
are covered by many banana leaves in a source pan and steamed. This gives it anaroma that stimulates everybody’s appetite. The longer it is cooked, the better the taste
but with less nutrition.
In the good olden days, fruits like mangoes, guavas, jackfruit, and papaws that are
perennial were enjoyed fresh from the trees any time of the day particularly bychildren. However today, in many parts of the country, these fruits are sold tomerchants who take them to urban areas where they are sold at high prices.
Vegetables too, although widely home and wildly grown, are a rare species on theUgandan local menu in all regions unless cooked as sauce. Unfortunately, they are
overcooked and loose almost all food value.
Today, however due to changes in climate, the weather is no longer favorable toagriculture. Long droughts that have been experienced by all regions have changed thefood culture from three meals a day to only one. Most regions are currently facing
serious famine, with some regions seeing deaths. Coupled with a long period of
insecurity, the northern region has been worse hit by the food crisis in Uganda.
Families depend on wild fruits and vegetables collected from far away forests. Childrenare malnourished and starving to death. Currently, being the mango season, manyfamilies depend on mangoes for breakfast, lunch and supper. Women are especiallyaffected and something must be done.