Traveling and experiencing the local cuisine is essential to developing a greater understanding of any culture. This is particularly true in West Africa, where the region’s rich culinary legacy is essential to its identity.
West African cuisine reflects the region’s eventful history spanning millennia and its diverse topography – encompassing everything from dense emerald-green mangroves, expansive lagoons and glittering wetlands to the drier sun-bleached regions and pulsing urban neighbourhoods. Culinary traditions demonstrate the revered intimacy between communities and their land and the innovative spirit of the local people.
To experience West African food is to encounter the beliefs that characterize and connect various West African cultures. Different cuisines have unique cultural meaning, playing a significant role in social rites, events, and customs. From the modest kola nut, given to guests as a mark of welcome from Benin to Sierra Leone, to log-like yams given as a symbol of power and/or fertility, West African foods reveal more about the communities that produce them.
What to anticipate from West African dishes?
While there are regional differences, commerce and movement between groups that straddle colonial lines, as well as the abundance of specific ingredients throughout the region, result in commonalities amongst West African cuisines.
Rice, fleshy and tuberous yams, cassava, plantain, and millet are all starchy mainstays that are used in many meals. These can be pounded into soft, billowy folds, blended into smooth, creamy porridges, cooked, steamed, or fried. Native greens, such as root vegetable leaves and a broad range of amaranths, are cooked into nourishing, pulpy soups. Fresh and dried seafood, beef, lamb, chicken, and guinea fowl are popular ingredients. Red peppers and tomatoes complement the sweet earthiness of traditional West African meals such as Ghanaian red red (creamy stewed native beans) and mtopo mtopo (a chunky, brothy yam pottage).
Here are eight native meals and beverages to sample while traveling through West Africa on Intrepid’s new tours.
1. Yassa (Senegal, Gambia)
Yassa, a traditional Senegalese meal, is popular for its bright and spicy flavour. Chicken (or fish or lamb) is cooked with plenty of treacly caramelised onions, lemon, and mustard. It’s typically served with rice to compliment its full-bodied flavor and garnished with olives for an additional burst of brininess. Yassa is a popular family dish that can be found at most local eateries, particularly in Dakar’s bustling neighborhoods.
2. Bissap (Senegal, Togo, Gambia) / Sobolo (Ghana)
Bissap is a pleasant beverage produced by steeping dried hibiscus in sugar, water, citrus fruits, and warming spices like clove and cinnamon. It is typically served chilled and has a stimulating and slightly tangy, berry-like flavor that is instantly distinguished by its deep beetroot color. Bissap can be found throughout West Africa; for example, it is known as sobolo in Ghana and zobo in Nigeria. You can drink it at street vendors and local pubs, or it’s incorporated into inventive mocktails and cocktails at trendy, high-end restaurants.
3. Thieboudienne (Senegal)
Thieboudienne is regarded as the crown jewel in Senegal‘s diverse and vibrant culinary culture. Drawing from the natural abundance of seafood across the coast of Senegal, the dish sees a fresh, local catch – usually a white fish – simmered with a rainbow of vegetables such as silky aubergine and mixed bell peppers and rice. A blend of tomato, scotch bonnet and aromatics like green and white onion add depth, and tamarind is often used to add a lively, tangy kick.
Typically served in generous bowls to be enjoyed in groups, thieboudienne has come to symbolise the Senegalese ethos of teranga – a philosophy of sharing and enjoying time with others, whether loved ones or new connections. Tuck into a bounteous thieboudienne at Dakar’s markets, or at local restaurants – no-frills joints and smarter spots alike.
4. Kelewele and kebabs (Ghana)
Kelewele is a popular street meal prepared from ripe, sweet, and sticky plantain marinated in a spicy blend of ginger, garlic, and chili, then fried until honey-brown. This snack or side dish is commonly served with skewered grilled meat, typically beef. Kelewele sputters in oil, and kebabs are flipped over jolting flames at various roadside booths across Accra.
5. Mafe (Senegal) / Domoda (The Gambia) / Nkatenkwan (Ghana)
Senegalese mafe, also known as Gambian domoda, is a luscious and buttery peanut stew. It frequently incorporates tomato, peppers, succulent bits of chicken, beef, or lamb, as well as root and leafy vegetables, to enhance the hearty stew’s nutty, savory, and gently spicy flavor. Peanut stews with varying textures, such as Malian tigadèguèna, are popular throughout West Africa. The Togolese version is known as asindessi, while in Benin it is known as aziin nusunnu. Peanut stew is frequently served as a weekend treat, accompanied by rice, millet or rice dough, or fufu (pounded starchy root vegetable), making for a filling and satisfying dinner. For a more traditional experience, try it spooned straight from a sizzling vat at a nearby casual eatery.
6. Sodabi (Benin, Togo) / Akpeteshie (Ghana)
Sodabi is an alcoholic spirit distilled from the fermented sap of palm trees. A harmonious blend of sweet, fruity and festive spice flavours, it can be unsuspectingly potent (you’ve been warned!), though the alcohol content varies depending on the distillation process used. The spirit has been imbibed for centuries across West Africa (a popular Nigerian variety is known as ògógóró) and has a history as warrior’s drink.
You’ll find a bottle on the table at most social gatherings, as it’s the tipple of choice to toast to good times and commemorate celebrations and rites of passage. It also plays an important role in some spiritual and religious ceremonies, where it can be used to cast away evil spirits or offered as a gift to the deceased to help keep them content in the afterlife.
7. Gbomo dessi (Togo)
This healthful Togolese tomato stew is loaded with spinach or native leafy greens. It is cooked with onions, garlic, chillies, and indigenous unrefined red palm oil (not to be confused with non-local, commercial palm oil), which adds a nutty and flowery note to almost all West African meals. The stew is typically seasoned with gbotemi, a fragrant Togolese spice mixture that includes toasted and finely crushed cloves, anise, carom, ginger, and cardamom, resulting in a particular aromatic flavor profile. Chicken, beef, shrimp, crab, or smoked fish can all be added, and it’s typically served with rice, akoumé, or ablo (steamed dumplings made from millet, rice, corn, and/or cassava flours) for a hearty dinner.
8. Kenkey and fish (Ghana)
Kenkey is produced from fermented maize dough, hence its distinct, slightly puckery kick. It is eaten across Ghana, but is notably popular around the coast, where it is customarily served with crispy, salty, fried fish and a spicy red pepper sauce. Vendors who specialize in kenkey will serve this well-known dish. It’s also a popular menu item at ‘chop bars’ (casual roadside eateries named after the local pidgin word for ‘eat’).
Intrepid’s new West Africa tours will take your taste buds on a voyage through Senegal and The Gambia, as well as Benin, Togo and Ghana. Discover what else is new in Africa and beyond in 2025 with The Goods.