#fonio

Summer Fonio Salad

Kposo, also called Akposso or Ikposo, is a West African ethnic community concentrated in the Plateaux Region of southern Togo, especially the Amou, Wawa, and Ogou prefectures west of Atakpamé, with a smaller population across the border in Ghana. Their language, Ikposo, is a stable indigenous Niger-Congo language; Ethnologue places it in the Kposo-Ahlo-Bowili subgroup and notes that it is learned and used as a first language in the community, even though it is not widely taught in schools. In everyday social life, Akposso communities are described as rural and agriculture-centered, with subsistence farming, seasonal festivals, a five-day calendar, and the Ovazu harvest festival linked to fonio, alongside strong oral traditions. Their historical experience was also shaped by colonial partition after World War I, when German Togoland was divided between British and French administration, splitting communities that had previously been contiguous; that border logic still matters in the region today. More broadly, the Akposso sit within the Togo Hills borderland, an area known for ecological and cultural diversity and a long, dynamic socio-political history, which helps explain why their identity is both locally rooted and deeply connected to neighboring peoples and cross-border movement.

🖤🖤🖤fonio🖤🖤🖤

Savoury Fonio Porridge (Vegan +GF)

Russian River + Brooklyn Fonio Belgian-style Blonde Ale (Picked up at Windmill Farms). A 3 of 4. A classic, well-done Belgian blond with some nice floral and spice notes in the nose and the expected Belgian yeast, and a clean body and finish. Interestingly done with the fonio grain, but I'm not sure you'd notice that on its own.

Ethiopian Sweet Potato Fonio Tacos (Vegan)

(Note, Cereals in this case does NOT include cereals that attained their own category: Oats, Rice, and Corn/Maize)

The benefits of fonio are so marked that academics and policymakers are now calling for the grain – alongside other indigenous foods, such as Ethiopia’s teff, as well as cassava and various millets and legumes – to be embraced more widely across Africa to improve food security. ... These ancient foods, with their greater nutritional benefits and resilience to drought, could break the continent’s reliance on imported wheat, rice and maize, which often do not grow easily in Africa but now dominate people’s diets. ... Michel Ghanem, an agronomist who co-founded the Forgotten Crops Society, is calling for more investment in these neglected foods. ... “You have lots of indigenous crops – like teff, fonio, sorghum – that people still eat today but have been neglected by funding agencies, the international research organisations, but definitely not by consumers. And it’s now that we should invest in these because they could close that [food] gap.” Researchers say these neglected foods have several nutritional benefits, often with lower glycemic index ratings than refined flours and white rice, while also having important micronutrients. Research in the 1990s into neglected African crops by the US National Research Council found that fonio and finger millet were rich in the essential amino acid methionine, which is often lacking in western diets, while teff was high in protein, amino acids and iron. ... Edie Mukiibi, vice-president of Slow Food International, which campaigns to protect threatened local food cultures, says imperialism imposed “monoculture” farming on Africa and other colonised regions of the world, destroying biodiversity in agriculture.