Hearsay has it that some Ivorians can eat attieke morning, afternoon and night time.
The fermented cassava meal has lengthy been a marker of nationwide id in Ivory Coast, beloved throughout all ranges of society within the West African nation. And now, the United Nations has secured attieke’s standing as one of many area’s most necessary servings.
In December, UNESCO (the United Nations Training, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation) recognised attieke’s icon standing by itemizing the dish as an intangible cultural heritage. That transfer elevates the tangy meal to the standing of different globally famend culinary favourites like South Korean kimchi and Mexican tacos.
For Ivorian ladies who’ve ready the dish in huge quantities on the market, and who’ve handed down the intensive cooking ability over generations, attieke can be a approach to bond and a path to monetary freedom.
Pronounced “at-chie-kay”, the meal is usually known as Ivorian couscous and has been marketed by some as a gluten-free various to common couscous.
Now, with the UNESCO recognition, its branding may obtain a brand new enhance. However what are the origins of attieke, why do Ivorians like it a lot, and the way does one put together the dish?
Why was attieke recognised?
A UNESCO panel added tangy attieke to the organisation’s listing of intangible cultural heritage on December 5 on the physique’s nineteenth session on safeguarding non-physical heritage in Asuncion, Paraguay. The listing highlights culturally important practices, information, or expressions which are specific to a area or nation.
Alongside the Ivorian dish, UNESCO recognised 10 different cultural meals or drinks, together with Japanese sake, a conventional rice wine; and Caribbean cassava bread eaten by Indigenous communities.
In contemplating attieke, UNESCO famous the talents associated to its manufacturing. “The information and abilities are handed down orally and thru commentary inside households … The associated information and abilities play an necessary function within the social lifetime of communities,” it stated.
Attieke’s intense, multiple-day preparation strategies have been handed down over generations in Ivory Coast as ladies typically organise themselves into native manufacturing companies and produce it in huge batches.
Ramata Ly-Bakayoko, Ivory Coast’s delegate to UNESCO, stated on the session in Paraguay that the meal was based mostly on “exact gestures and conventional methods which have lasted for hundreds of years” and that it’s “deeply rooted” in life and tradition.
What’s attieke’s origin and its conventional significance?
Attieke is an accessible and inexpensive dish that has grow to be a staple in household meals, UNESCO famous. Additionally it is typically served at weddings, birthdays, or different occasions, with a aspect of spicy pepper sauce, grilled or fried tilapia fish, and chopped onions.
The dish is usually ready by ladies within the southern lagoon elements of the Ivory Coast, particularly from the Adioukrou, Avikam and Ebrie teams. The truth is, the identify stemmed from the Ebrie time period for the meal: “adjeke”.
In more moderen many years, manufacturing has unfold throughout the nation, and demand for attieke is rising in neighbouring nations like Burkina Faso, Ghana and in African diasporas throughout Europe and North America.
Producers are more and more exporting a pre-cooked type of the meal that may be simply ready at house. Nations like Burkina Faso are additionally seeing attieke producers.
How is attieke made?
The steaming fermented cassava pulp typically takes three to 5 days to make from scratch.
Normally, teams of ladies collect to make the meal in enormous batches after which portion and promote it to market distributors in small plastic baggage.
Magnan, a days-long fermentation course of, offers attieke its distinctive twinge. Right here’s how the meal is made historically (plus straightforward alternate options for single-home cooking):
- First, barely boiled or braised cassava roots are soaked for one to 3 days to ferment and act as yeast within the closing product.
- Then, extra recent roots are peeled, reduce, and washed. Along with the fermented roots, some overheated palm oil, and a few water, the combination is then crushed in a grinder. The ice crush choice on a home-use blender would obtain comparable outcomes.
- Afterwards, the pulp is portioned into plastic baggage and left for about 12 to fifteen hours to ferment additional.
- Subsequent, the fermented paste is totally squeezed to get the water out. Sometimes, Ivorian ladies put together the meal in batches utilizing an industrial press. For house use, inserting the paste in a sieve material or bag, placing a flat board on it, after which inserting heavy objects like stones on it for hours may obtain comparable outcomes.
- Then, the drying paste is sieved, often with a 5mm sieve to get out the chaff. Ivorian ladies then use their fingers to fluff up the paste so granules type higher.
- The dried paste is thereafter unfold out in skinny layers on tarps and specified by the solar to dry. That course of takes about half an hour or extra, relying on the climate. At house, an oven would do the job.
- Once more, the now fully-dried granules are sieved and fluffed to take away any fibres or different materials.
- Subsequent, the granules are steamed – moderately than cooked – in conventional pots designed to carry sizzling water beneath the dried attieke. At house, a steel sieve lined with some material and positioned inside a pot with sizzling water may do. Steaming takes 30 to 40 minutes.
- Lastly, the completed product, gentle and fluffy in consistency, is usually packed into small plastic baggage on the market in markets.
What are the controversies surrounding attieke?
Many Ivorians are passionately territorial about attieke. Some see growing ranges of manufacturing in neighbouring nations as a risk to nationwide id.
In 2019, there was outrage on Ivorian social media platforms after a Burkinabe chef and entrepreneur, Florence Bassono, founding father of Faso Attieke, gained an award at an agricultural and animal assets honest in Abidjan. Many Ivorians had been angered {that a} non-Ivorian nationwide gained the competitors over native entrepreneurs.
In December, following UNESCO’s recognition of the meal, locals advised a Radio France Worldwide (RFI) reporter that the worldwide recognition was necessary and would assist Ivorian attieke stand out.
“We regularly hear that Burkina Faso is first or China is first in attieke manufacturing, and we who created attieke are final,” one native in Abidjan’s Anono suburb advised the reporter.
In 2019, the Ivorian authorities started a bid to trademark the identify, “Attieke des Lagunes” or “Attieke of the Lagoons”, and its intensive preparation strategies, with a purpose to shield its authenticity.
In mid-2023, the African Mental Property Organisation (OAPI), which incorporates 17 French-speaking African nations, licensed Ivorian attieke and its manufacturing strategies by granting it PGI or “Protected Geographical Indication” standing. That label highlights attieke’s particular cultural hyperlink to Ivory Coast and distinguishes it from merchandise made in different nations.
What different African dishes have UNESCO heritage standing?
With its new standing, attieke joins the Senegalese rice dish, thiebou dieune – the one different sub-Saharan African dish recognised with the UNESCO honour.
Originating from the northern metropolis of Saint Louis, the meal, pronounced chee-buu-jen, is ready with fish and greens and is usually eaten for lunch or dinner. Within the dominant Wolof language, it actually means “rice and fish”.
UNESCO recognised the dish in 2021, together with the rumba dance from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Kenya’s Isikuti dance was additionally inscribed on the listing in 2021.
