🧑🤝🧑 Xhosa
Also known as: amaXhosa, Xhosa people
A Bantu people of South Africa's Eastern Cape province; a bride is welcomed with amasi as a sign of acceptance into her new family.
The Xhosa (amaXhosa) are a people of the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. As with their neighbours, cattle were historically a measure of wealth and part of marriage and family rituals, and dairy products were everyday food.
The main traditional dairy product is amasi, a thick sour milk. Raw cow’s milk is soured in a calabash or leather bag, and the whey is then drained off. Amasi is eaten with maize porridge or drunk. It is linked to a wedding custom: according to accounts, a bride arriving at her husband’s home is served amasi with a piece of meat as a sign of her acceptance into the new family. Details of the ritual may vary between communities.
Today amasi is a mass-market product throughout southern Africa, made industrially with starter cultures. Home souring is still practised, especially in rural areas.
What it includes
- Traditional products
How it connects to milk
🧑🤝🧑 Xhosa ← among ← 🥣 Amasi → made from → 🥛 Cow's milk → type of → 🥛 Milk
Links
- Where they live
- 🌍 Southern Africa
- Traditional products
- 🥣 Amasi
Frequently asked questions
What is amasi for the Xhosa?
A thick sour milk made from raw cow’s milk; it is eaten with maize porridge.
What Xhosa wedding custom involves amasi?
According to accounts, the bride is served amasi with a piece of meat as a sign of her acceptance into the new family.
Where do the Xhosa people live?
Mainly in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.
Similar
Sources
- Wikipedia — Amasi
- Maleke et al. Processing, nutritional composition and microbiology of amasi: A Southern African fermented milk product. Scientific African, 2021