Cooking to be Modern but Eating to be Healthy: The Role of Dawa-Dawa in Contemporary Ghanaian Foodways

Abstract

Dawa-dawa, the Hausa name for the fermented paste made from the seeds of the African locust bean tree (Parkia biglobosa) is a widely used ingredient in soups in the semi-arid regions of West Africa. With a very distinctive odor and taste, the perceived palatability of dawa-dawa has decreased over the past few decades, a shift in taste that has occurred alongside the increased availability of industrially produced bouillon cubes marketed for soup preparation. Instead of dichotomizing dawa-dawa and bouillon cubes, the intent of this paper is to use dawa-dawa as a means to explore how global pressures complexly contribute to processes of dietary change in rural West Africa. In this context there are two distinguishable fronts of global capitalism—one that shapes norms of what it means to be a “modern” cook or eater and one that shapes preferred and healthy diets as inaccessible. The intersection of these two processes produces what I argue are eaters in rural Upper West Ghana who overtly disregard dawa-dawa for its sensual properties, but who simultaneously and in a more covert manner retain alliance to its nutritional contribution.

Keywords:

• dawa-dawa
• Parkia biglobosa
• fermented food
• non-cultivated food
• nutritional security
• dietary change
• West Africa

Acknowledgements

The author would like to extend thanks to Theresa Miller and Greg de St. Maurice for organizing this special issue as well as their editorial guidance during the preparation of the manuscript. She also offers thanks for the insightful comments and suggestions provided by an external reviewer. Thanks, as well, to the solid readership and advice of Joeva Rock. As always, gratitude to her research assistants and friends Abdulai and Lizzy Salifu and the engagement of the Ghanaians who not only participated in the research, but who welcomed the author into their communities.