Maggi Counter-Archive
Aframomum melegueta
NAMES
Efom Wisa (Twi) / Ataare (Yoruba) / Ose oji (Igbo) / Fam-wisa / Chitta (Hausa) / Obro (Yoruba) / Mbongo spice / Grains of paradise / Alligator pepper
Botanical Notes
The Aframomum melegueta belongs to the same family as Ginger, the Zingiberaceae. The plant grows in swampy areas along the coast of West Africa. The seeds are contained in a 5 to 7 centimeter long fruit which develop from purple flowers. The plant can grow up to 1.5 meters in height.
Culinary Uses
Ataare seeds are an important ingredient in the pepper soup which is prepared in western Nigeria. Its taste has been described in many different ways. It is said to have a pungent scent of ginger and cayenne pepper, to have a billowing aroma and to have flavours reminiscent of jasmine, hazelnut, butter and citrus. Ataare is also used in Nigeria to make a drink called Ogogoro that is said to have healing properties.
Medicinal Uses
In the Lagos state, Nigeria, Ataare kernels are one of many spices used to treat diabetes. The pepper is also often mentioned as a spice that is used against cancer.
Socio-Cultural Uses
In the Yoruba culture, Ataare seeds are a common item used in the naming ceremony of newborns, along with bitter kola, salt, honey, cold water and a hot drink. In this ceremony, one seed of Ataare is put on the baby's lips which signifies that the child should grow up and multiply like Ataare has many seeds. More generally, Ataare seeds symbolize the wish of having many children.
Colonialism and Slave Trade
The region between Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast was referred to as the "Melegueta Coast" by English and Dutch businessmen in the transatlantic slave trade. The Royal African Company's slave trading vessels contained corn, palm oil and melegueta kernels which were the ingredients for what slave trade sailors called "slabber sauce". Beans or spoiled meat topped with this sauce made up the typical afternoon meal for captives during the Atlantic crossing.
Library
1 / Naming ceremony
Bamidele, Rasak. 2010. “NAMING CEREMONY: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE IGBO AND YORUBA CULTURE IN NIGERIA.” Continental J. Arts and Humanities. http://eprints.lmu.edu.ng/1207/.
2 / Inventory of antidiabetic plants in selected districts of Lagos State, Nigeria
Gbolade, Adebayo A. 2009. “Inventory of Antidiabetic Plants in Selected Districts of Lagos State, Nigeria.” Journal of Ethnopharmacology 121 (1): 135–39.
3 / The DIasporic Roots of Hot Sauce in Black American Culinary Culture
Kelly Kean. n.d. “I Got Hot Sauce in My Bag, Swag”: The Diasporic Roots of Hot Sauce in Black American Culinary Culture.
https://www.oxfordsymposium.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Sharp.pdf
4 / On Pepper Soup Spice & Finding Names
Kitchen Butterfly. "On Pepper Soup Spice & Finding Names." Kitchenbutterfly, 21 August 2018, https://www.kitchenbutterfly.com/2018/on-pepper-soup-spice-finding-names/.