Fufu and Dumboy

Bowl of fufu with soup

Bassa woman pounding dumboy in mortar with pestle

Fufu (or foo foo, fu fu, fu-fu) is found all throughout Western Africa, while dumboy is more closely associated with areas around Liberia.  Both dumboy and fufu are served as a doughy ball that has been pounded and strained from a starchy food like rice, semolina or cassava.  The pounding is usually done in a large, wooden mortar and pestle and the straining with a cloth and a large bowl.  In Liberia fufu is usually made from dried and fermented cassava root; while dumboy is made from fresh cassava.  

Pounded cassava from the mortar

Boiling the pounded cassava

Ma Sarah is straining the pounded and boiled cassava

Both fufu and dumboy are usually served with a "soup" that is poured over these doughy balls of starch.  My theory is that chicken and dumplings are a recreation of this old country fufu that enslaved Africans made with found ingredients in the US.  Think one big dumpling in a bowl with the chicken soup poured over it and you have something rather similar to this African dish.     

Forming the pounded, boiled & strained cassava into doughy balls of fufu

In Liberia fufu and dumboy are not chewed, but rather swallowed in smaller balls that you pull off of the bigger dough ball.  It used to be considered rude to chew the dumboy or fufu, but it is often overlooked when us foreigners do it wrong.  However, if you get the chance to eat fufu or dumboy with a Liberian community see if you can just swallow a small ball of it whole like the Liberians do.  I found it to be an enjoyable way to enjoy this particular dish.  Also, people often use their finger to make a small indentation in the ball they pull off of the bigger dough ball and soup and put inside that indentation before you swallow it.  That seems to help it go down more smoothly!

Getting ready to swallow some dumboy served with goat liver and pepper soup.

Now which do I prefer; dumboy o fufu?  It seems like I should enjoy the dumboy more having been raised around the Bassa tribe (the Bassa in particular are associated with dumboy).  However, if I am only to be in Liberia a short time I will usually go with the fufu as I trust the fermentation process to help kill harmful bacteria that are foreign to my sensitive stomach.  I know of several Americans who have had problems after swallowing dumboy because they had not yet adjusted their innards to that which lives in dumboy.   That being said, if you're up to the challenge and/or have acclimated yourself to Liberia, you should try swallowing dumboy as well as fufu.  I swallowed both to no ill effect while in Liberia in 2011.

A Chop Shop sign in Monrovia advertising Fufu

Fufu covered with a meat loaded soup

To me the best part of the fufu or dumboy experience is the soup.  The actual fufu/dumboy has little taste in itself, but when combined with the right ingredients it is an overall culinary delight!  Here was my favorite Liberian meal when I visited in 2011:  fufu covered with pepper soup with fish and some ground bennie seed paste put on top of that.  Delicious!  It was also kind of fun to say as the bennie seed (sesame seed) paste was called dudu in Bassa and so I would ask for dudu for my fufu (say that a couple times; it's fun to say!)

There is also a very hard fufu called GB that is served more in Nimba county (I believe it is associated with the Mano and Gio peoples).  GB is traditionally served with what we would consider rotten meat in the soup and the hard blocks of GB are swallowed like large chunky pills.  I saw several chop shops with the letters G & B painted on them and assume that is what was served there.  I have not tried this yet and I'm a bit hesitant;  but who knows?  Maybe someday... and maybe someday you too will also be able to try and swallow some Liberian fufu or dumboy if you have not already.  It is an experience you won't soon forget!

Kitchen is almost closed after a long day of making fufu

      

Furtermark Beach

Sand, trees, rock & sky at Furtermark Beach, Grand Bassa County, Liberia

If you make it to Buchanan while in Liberia you should checkout Furtermark Beach.  I think this used to be an old LAMCO beach as I believe there was someone with the last name of Furtermark that worked at LAMCO at one point.  I assume it is named after him for some reason.  LAMCO (the Liberian-American-Swedish Minerals Company) has a fascinating history in and of itself and I have fond memories of visiting the old compound near Buchanan and the one up in Yekepa when I was younger.  I'll have to see if I have some old pics of those places somewhere and do a post about all that, but for now I'd just like to share some images of one of the many beautiful beaches that are in Liberia:  Furtermark Beach.



To get there I would "charter" a taxi in Buchanan and ask them to take you to Furtermark.  (To charter a taxi means that you'll pay more but you'll have it for the whole day (or half day) and you won't have to find a taxi for the return trip)  You'll go through the gates of the Arcelor Mittal property to get there.  (Areclor Mittal bought up the old LAMCO properties in Liberia).  The guards will ask why you're entering but an answer of "Furtermark Beach" was sufficient to let us through.

Coconuts covered the ground below the coconuts trees all along the beach

The restaurant/bar on the beach site is frequented by dock workers after working hours and things can get rowdy there in the evening from what I hear, but it was practically desolate when we went to visit in the late morning.  Like many beaches in Liberia you also need to be careful of the strong rip tides, walking alone in desolate areas & standing out on the rocks that jut out into the waves (we almost lost a couple of people who went out to get a closer look at the crashing waves!).  

Walking the beach heading back to the Palavar Huts at Furtermark Beach proper

As far as I can climb a coconut tree!

I have yet to get the courage to go surfing (or sliding as they call it in Liberia) and am not really able to read waves at this or any beach for surfing purposes.  However I will say that they seem a little rough and choppy to me and you actually get waves going back out towards the sea in a few places.  The waves I saw at several Robertsport beaches (which surfers say are great) seemed much more uniform and lasted much longer.  I got in the water at Furtermark Beach for a bit and the rip current was too strong for an enjoyable swim but was fine for just playing in the surf.  This beach is perfect for walking, photography, sand sports, sitting, eating and plain old relaxing Liberian-style.

Some seeds found on the beach

Graduation - Liberian Style

Graduate on parade in Buchanan c. 1977

Graduation Day and/or Senior Day in Liberia is much like a holiday.  Graduates get gifts, there are parades; people dress up in costume and paint; there is singing and dancing and partying and feasting.  These Liberian traditions of celebrating Graduation Day seem to tie into some of the Poro and Sande graduation ceremonies while also incorporating some Western influences from the "Settlers" as well.  They are so enmeshed I'm not sure I can separate out the two influences anymore than one could separate the influences upon Mardi Gras in the US Gulf South.  In fact, while participating in Liberian graduation ceremonies in 2011 I was reminded of the Krewes and parades of the Louisiana Carnival season of which I had observed with curiosity first hand while living there.  Surely the African culture played a significant role in the development of US Mardi Gras along with the Native Americans and the Europeans.  But back to Liberia...

Liberian revelers decked out for Graduation/Gala Day in Buchanan, Liberia c. 1977

Graduation or Gala "Queen" on her float
in parade through streets of Buchanan c. 1977

When I lived in Liberia in the 70's and 80's there was a different way that Liberian's celebrated Graduation Day and that seems to have changed.  In those days the graduates would parade through town dressed in a "military-style" costume.  This militaristic posing no longer dominates the graduation and gala day ceremonies in Liberia.  This is an understandable change.  You see, the demonic tsunami of death and destruction that ravaged Liberia throughout the 90's and up till 2003 was also dressed up in military garb and lingo.  Warlords called themselves 'general' so and so and dressed the part while also costuming out their posses of death with military uniforms as they were able.  The soldier became something to dread and fear and run from and lost any appeal it may have previously held in the mind of Liberians.  In other words, soldiers are not as "in vogue" in Liberia as they used to be.

                         Graduates in "military-themed" uniforms march in Buchanan c. 1977

Graduation Band marches through Buchanan with the crowd "second lining" the ceremony sans umbrellas c. 1977

What remains of these ceremonies are the colorfully painted family groups that march through town and disrupt traffic and oftentimes the actual ceremonies themselves.  In the States we urge the audience to refrain from clapping until everyone has received his or her diploma.  An occasional air horn and/or drunk dad sounds out even in our ceremonies and we typically shake our heads and smirk while waiting for "our" graduate to cross the platform so we can perhaps let out a little yelp of our own.  Our traditions do not allow anything that would completely overrun the ceremony itself.  This is not necessarily true in Liberia anymore and something that has also changed in her culture.  

Family and friends parade to the ceremony with singing and dancing

Undergraduates awaiting the beginning of the ceremony

Graduates ready to enter the building for the ceremony

Of the two graduation ceremonies I attended in Buchanan there was shouting and mobs of people running up to the front to carry off their graduate all through out.  The speech of the Dux (Valedictorian) and the names of other graduates were often not even heard announced amongst the noise.  This is not how graduation ceremonies were before the Civil Wars but it has become more the norm.  I would feel comfortable describing these new sort of "ceremony" as organized chaos hanging by a thread.  Throngs of people swarmed up and down the aisles and crowded the stage and even shouted down a school leader for not adequately paying the teachers or holding back their child's diploma.  It was rather intense to say the least!  

Graduates embrace family and friends outside after the ceremony

Outside the ceremony itself are even more family members and revelers waiting for their graduate to emerge.  They are often painted in school colors and decorated with palm branches.  They also like to hit metal cans or jugs or drums and chant and dance around the graduate.  There is a definite festive mood in the air!  Our vehicle was stopped en route to one ceremony by a group of partiers that actually started yelling and banging on our vehicle.  However, the smiles and laughter on their faces communicated that this was a celebration and not a riotous mob.  It was right on the line between sheer terror and joy for me, much like many things are to the foreigner visiting Liberia.

Graduation/Gala Day parade in Buchanan c. 1977
Liberia Christian High School

All in all the day or days of Graduation are marked with festivities and merriment.  Graduates are given gifts and lauded by relatives.  People are proud of their graduates and the graduates are all smiles at the attention.  The obstacles they have overcome in getting their education is indeed something to celebrate and the lessons they have learned in the process are more than "book".  May Liberia continue her proud tradition of celebrating those that seek education and may those that receive it give back to the communities that gave them the opportunity.  Blessings on Liberia!

The Queen rides through Buchanan c. 1977

Loading up in a truck for Graduation Parade, Buchanan, Liberia c. 1977

Dressed up and ready to party - Buchanan c. 1977

Smiles and shouting!

The Queen makes her way through Buchanan, Liberia c. 1977

You know its a party when the band starts!  Buchanan, Liberia c. 1977