Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts of the discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book considers Laurens van der Post's lead and examines the depictions of food and foodways in African narratives to explore what those foods can tell us about the relationship of people to the lands they inhabit and to the politics that informs the foods they eat and the methods by which they obtain those foods. It focuses on various versions of the epic about the eleventh-century founder of the empire of Mali, Sunjata. The book discusses changing food traditions and violence in the work of two Nigerian novelists, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Ken Saro-Wiwa, and the Zimbabwean Yvonne Vera. It also focuses on Ben Okri's Famished Road cycle and Chris Abani's GraceLand to explore the ways capitalism and imposed consumer culture impact access to food and reflect shifting foodways in urban Nigeria.