A printed book or PDF download version of The Congo Cookbook is
available from lulu names of African foods It could be argued
that Africa's linguistic diversity is greater than its
gastronomic diversity. Simply put, the number of African
languages is greater than the number of African foods. The
African continent is home to hundreds, maybe thousands, of
languages (though perhaps only 40 African languages are spoken
by two million or more people), but there are far fewer
foodstuffs. This means that a certain food prepared a certain
way might be known by one name in one place, and by another name
in another place. For example, what can be called Black-Eyed Pea
Fritters, or Bean Croquettes, or Bean Balls (in English) are
called Akara in The Congo Cookbook. That is one name for them in
at least one language in Western Africa, but they are also known
as Binch Akara, Kosai, Koose, and Kwasi, and probably many other
things. Akara may or may not be the most common name. As if
there were not enough African languages,