Book of Days Tales

On this date in 1960 the Mali Federation (French: Fédération du Mali), a country in West Africa linking the French colonies of Senegal and the Sudanese Republic (or French Sudan), became independent from France. It was founded on 4 April 1959 as a territory with self-rule but within the French Community. On 20 June 1960 the country declared complete independence from France. Two months later, on 19 August 1960, the Sudanese Republic leaders in the Mali Federation mobilized the army and Senegal leaders in the federation retaliated by mobilizing the gendarmerie (national police) resulting in a tense stand-off and the withdrawal from the federation by Senegal the next day. The Sudanese Republic officials resisted this dissolution, cut off diplomatic relations with Senegal, and defiantly changed the name of their country to Mali. Thus, the Mali Federation was one of the shortest lived independent nations in history.

As I have mentioned several times before, the cuisines of the countries of West Africa have an underlying unity. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the dish maafe, also called mafé, maffé, maffe, sauce d’arachide (French), tigadèguèna or tigadenena a stew or sauce (depending on water content) based on peanuts. It originates from the Mandinka and Bambara people of Mali. Variants of the dish appear in the cuisine of nations throughout West Africa and Central Africa. It can be made from lamb, beef, chicken, or without meat with peanut butter/paste, and tomatoes dominating.

Recipes for the stew vary wildly, but commonly include chicken, tomato, onion, garlic, cabbage, and leaf or root vegetables. It may also include okra, corn, carrots, cinnamon, hot peppers, paprika, black pepper, turmeric, and other spices. Maafe is traditionally served with white rice (in Senegal, Mauritania and The Gambia), fonio (species of millet) in Mali, couscous (as West Africa meets the Sahara, in Sahelian coutries), or fufu (boiled cassava flour paste) and sweet potatoes in the more tropical areas, such as the Ivory Coast. Um’bido is a variation using greens, while Ghanaian maafe is cooked with boiled eggs. A variant of the stew, “Virginia peanut soup”, even traveled with enslaved West Africans to North America.

The dish originated with the Mandinka and Bambara people of Mali. The proper name for it in the Mandinka language is domodah or tigadegena (lit. ‘peanut butter sauce,’ where tige is ‘peanut,’ dege is ‘paste,’ and na is ‘sauce’). With the huge expansion of peanut/groundnut cultivation during the colonial period, maafe has become a popular dish across West Africa, even outside West Africa such as in Cameroon and France. Here is a Senegalese version:

Maafe

Ingredients

2 tbsp peanut oil
1 large onion, minced
2 lbs lamb, beef or chicken cut into bite-sized chunks
½ cup creamy peanut butter
5 tbsp tomato paste
4 large carrots, scraped and cut into 1-in pieces
3 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a heavy pot and sauté the onions until soft. Add the meat and brown lightly on all sides.

Mix the peanut butter with 2 cups of cold water and add it to the meat and onions. Dilute the tomato paste in a cup of hot water and add it to the pot. Stir well and then add the rest of the ingredients.

Simmer gently for about an hour or until the meat is tender and the sauce thickens. Add water if the pot begins to dry.

Serve hot over white rice.