Rap[Jang]

This blog entry marks my general appreciation for rap (sourgum). It’s a staple food here and grown on every homestead.  It’s delicious. Its used to make kuin (i.e. ugali/posho). But its much stickier and more flavoursome that the kind made with white refined maize flour that is imported from Uganda. Very rare to find rap in bigger towns, where imported maize is heavily relied on (because its widely available and doesn’t require lengthy preparation.) Rap is village food.

I took a few photos last weekend of rap being prepared.

After the harvest in September/October time the rap is stored on a elevated platform, called kat (kat rap to be precise). See left. When flour is to be prepared it is taken down and moved to the smooth mud platform in the centre of the homestead (baai cielic)

Once you have a big pile of it, thrash the hell out of it (köm) with a stick so that the grain comes off the stalk.

All the stalks are removed and the grains and the husks (ayiel rap) collected and then winnowed (wiiu rap).

Then you are ready to pound it (ɣol) to make flour. [note: this is disastrous and totally incorrect technique!]

Enjoy with a variety of soupy sauces.

Just returned from an Easter weekend in Wunrok (Twic County) which I'll be writing about soon.