Piper guineense

Piper guineense is a West African species of Piper; the spice derived from its dried fruit is known as West African pepper, Ashanti pepper, Benin pepper, false cubeb, Guinea cubeb, uziza pepper or (ambiguously) "Guinea pepper", and called locally kale, kukauabe, masoro, sasema and soro wisa. It is a close relative of cubeb pepper and a relative of black pepper and long pepper. Unlike cubeb pepper, which is large and spherical in shape, Ashanti peppers are prolate spheroids, smaller and smoother than Cubeb pepper in appearance and generally bear a reddish tinge. The stalks of Ashanti pepper berries are also distinctly curved whilst those of cubeb pepper are completely straight.

The plants that provide Ashanti pepper are vines that can grow up to 20m in length, climbing up boles of trees by means of adventitious roots. These are native to topical regions of Central and Western Africa and are semi-cultivated in countries such as Nigeria where the leaves (known as uziza) are used as a flavouring for stews. Like other members of the pepper family, Ashanti peppers contain 5-8% of the chemical piperine which gives them their 'heat'. They contain large amounts of beta-caryophyllene, which is being investigated as an anti-inflammatory agent. They also contain significant proportions (10%) of myristicin, elemicin, safrole and dillapiol.

Grains of Selim

The term Grains of Selim refers to the seeds of a shrubby tree, Xylopia aethiopica, found in Africa. It is also known as kimba pepper, African pepper, Moor pepper, Negro pepper, Kani pepper, Kili pepper, Sénégal pepper, Ethiopian pepper, Hwentia and Guinea pepper. The seeds have a musky flavor and are used as a pepper substitute. It is sometimes confused with grains of paradise. By far the most common name in Wolof is djar in Senegal, and this is how it is listed on most, if not all, Cafe Touba packages.

Description

As a spice the whole fruit (seed pod) is used as the hull of the fruit lends an aromatic note (with the taste being described as an admixture of cubeb pepper and nutmeg with overtones of resin) whilst the seeds lend pungency (they are also quite bitter). Typically the dried fruit is lightly crushed before being tied in a bouquet garni and added to West African soups (stews). In Sénégal, the spice is often sold smoked in markets as Poivre de Sénégal (the whole green fruit is smoked giving the spice a sticky consistency) and when pounded in a pestle and mortar it makes an excellent fish rub. These, however, tend to be the larger pods of the related species Xylopia striata.

West Africa

West Africa, also called Western Africa and the West of Africa, is the westernmost subcontinent of Africa. West Africa has been defined as including the 18 countries Benin, Burkina Faso, the island of Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, the island of Saint Helena, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sao Tome and Principe and Togo.

History

The history of West Africa can be divided into five major periods: first, its prehistory, in which the first human settlers arrived, developed agriculture, and made contact with peoples to the north; the second, the Iron Age empires that consolidated both intra-African, and extra-African trade, and developed centralized states; third, Major polities flourished, which would undergo an extensive history of contact with non-Africans; fourth, the colonial period, in which Great Britain and France controlled nearly the whole of the region; fifth, the post-independence era, in which the current nations were formed.