ABSTRACT
The basic food in Ghana consists of a starch of some kind, served with a rich, highly spiced soup. Just what is served with the soup varies from one part of the country to another and with the time of year. In the savannah, where grain crops thrive, the basis of the daily main meal is porridge, cooked very well until thick. Cassava flour is also used to make porridge, either mixed with maize or other flours, or in lean times by itself. Where the rainfall is sufficient, on the borders of the forests, yams are the staple. They resemble a denser form of potato, and are usually pounded with water until they form a sort of dough which is known throughout Ghana as fufu. There is a mysterious boundary between Ghana and her neighbours to the west which the cultivation of rice has until very recently largely failed to cross. So while imported rice is eaten in the towns, and sometimes bought for special occasions by those who can afford it in the rural areas, it has not been a staple in Ghana as it is in the Ivory Coast, Liberia and the countries to the west. There are interesting exceptions. A few isolated peoples like the Avatime of the Volta region have cultivated rice for centuries, and in the most important of the annual politico-religious ceremonies of the Gonja of northern Ghana rice, not grain, must be used for the ceremonial meal. I suggest that groundnut stew should be served with rice, because this is readily available and easy to prepare. But the stews of which this is an example are not ordinarily eaten with rice except by better-off people in the cities, or on special occasions.
