Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1895 — African Bread. [ARTICLE]

African Bread.

‘‘The staple article of food,” writes a traveler in Africa, “is guanga or cavassa bread. It is made from the manioc root, from which tapioca and mauioca are produced. The manioc resembles the elder bush; the roots form Into tubers like sweet potatoes. The way In which the guanga or cavassa bread is prepared is as follows: The tubers are thrown into a bamboo basket and are kept under water for live or six clays, until they begin to show signs of decomposition. They are then taken out, the skins are removed, aud they are pounded Into pulp in a mortar. The dough is rolled Into balls of about two pounds In weight, wrapped up in banana leaves, tied securely with rattan strings, and put into a big earthen pot and boiled for three or four hours. The cavassa bread Is then ready for use. It will keep for three weeks if properly made andtaken care of. To see a company of natives stripping the covering off their two pound loaves and munching them in concert does not tend to whet the appetite. When you begin to experiment with It you find It has a sour smell and a sour taste. The natives In making It manage to get a lot of sand mixed into it, making it feel rather gritty when eating it. Whether this is done to aid digestion or whether it is the result of accident is a matter of conjecture. But even in spite of the thought of the mudholes in which one has seen the tubers rotting, with hunger for a sauce, one gets to be able to eat the native bread, and after a time he even begins to like It."