West African Cuisine

The cooking traditions of the West African coast and the Sahel behind it, built on starchy staples, yam, cassava and rice along the coast, millet and sorghum further inland, most often paired with a richly spiced stew or sauce. Palm oil, peanuts, okra and chili pepper run through much of the region's cooking; the one-pot spiced rice dish jollof rice, claimed and argued over by Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal and other coastal states, is the region's best-known modern export. The Atlantic slave trade carried West African staples and techniques directly into the cooking of the Americas, most visibly in the Creole and Gullah kitchens of the southern United States and the Caribbean.