🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Zulu

Zulu are a Bantu people, the largest in South Africa, living mainly in that country. For the Zulu, the largest people of South Africa, cattle have historically been a measure of wealth and part of ceremonies, and milk an important food. Fresh milk was rarely drunk: it was soured into amasi.

Raw cow’s milk is left to ferment for one to five days in a calabash or leather bag; the thin whey (umlaza) is poured off and the thick remainder is eaten, usually with maize porridge. In Zulu tradition amasi is considered a food that gives strength and health. It also carries taboos: people in a ritually “impure” state — for example, after contact with death — are by custom expected to abstain from amasi.

Today amasi is also made industrially: the milk is pasteurised and fermented with starter cultures containing Lactococcus lactis. It is sold throughout Southern Africa under the name “maas”. Researchers note that the composition of homemade amasi is still poorly studied.