A NATION BURDENED BY THE GHOSTS OF ITS PAST

Ugandan's Favorite Foods

I asked my interviewees a simple question: What is your favorite food? While I got back a variety of answers, they all had the same key aspects: Matoke, Posho, Irish Potato, and Cassava. One interviewee, Twikyirize Mercy, broke foods down into the regions of Uganda saying matoke is a staple food in central Uganda; the Irish potato is a staple in western Uganda; and cassava is a staple in northern and eastern Uganda (c2).

While the video doesn't break the foods she covers down regionally, many of the items mentioned are addressed by YouTuber, "Girl Vs Globe." An additionally piece that she covers that my interviewees did not mention, is Rolex, a popular street food in Uganda.

Additionally, insects high in nutrition make up an important part of many Ugandan diets. Although cringey to some, the grasshoppers depicted below are considered a delicacy! (g28)

Children in the village Bweyogerere hunt for termites by hacking into the mound and covering it with cloth to gather the insects (i15).

A woman selling roasted and salted grasshoppers at a market in Kampala (i15).

In a forest on an archipelago in Lake Victoria, a farmer searches for dead palm trees, the home of the larvae of the Capricorn beetle (i15).