Mande women also identified in primary sources as Mandingo and Mandinka women lived in the geographic area of the present-day countries of Burkina Faso, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, and Ghana, among others. They came from largely agrarian societies but those who lived in the vicinity of the large rivers worked chiefly with fish. Men fished and the women helped prepared them for sale and ran local fish markets. Pounding the entire fish in a wooden mortar as they came out of the water and exposing them to dry in the sun represented the most common way of preparing them for sale. Fish could be purchased in a variety of ways including fresh caught or preserved in salt.
African Fish Stew Recipe
Ingredients
Use dried or fresh fish (sea bass, croakers, porgies or rock)
Vegetable oil
Green bell pepper
Onion
4 ripe tomatoes diced or 1 can of crushed who tomatoes
Thyme
Salt
Black pepper
Method
Use dried fish that needs to be soaked overnight to hydrate or cut up, season, and fry fish. Sauté onions and green bell peppers in a skillet. Remove mixture from skillet and add to fish in saucepan. Add tomatoes and stir. Sprinkle thyme, salt, and black pepper to taste. Cover; simmer for about 15 minutes. Serve with rice or cassava, serves 4.
