Namibian cuisine facts for kids
Namibian cuisine is the cuisine of Namibia. It is influenced by two primary cultural strands:
- Cookery practised by indigenous people of Namibia such as the Himba, Herero and San groups
- Settler cookery introduced during the colonial period by people of German, Afrikaner and British descent.
Indigenous cookery
In the precolonial period indigenous cuisine was characterised by the use of a very wide range of fruits, nuts, bulbs, leaves and other products gathered from wild plants and by the hunting of wild game. The domestication of cattle in the region about two thousand years ago by Khoisan groups enabled the use of milk products and the availability of meat.
Colonial cookery
Namibia was settled by German colonists during the nineteenth century, and German influence on white Namibian cookery remains very strong. One example of German settler cuisine is Wiener schnitzel.
Brewing
Beer was brewed by many indigenous tribes in the territory that is now Namibia. The recipes depended on locally available ingredients and were brewed to make for instance sugar beer and honey beer. The German brewing tradition continued in colonial German South-West Africa. After it quickly proved impractical and expensive to import it from Germany, breweries were established all over the colony. However, when after World War I many Germans were deported and an economic depression set in, most breweries went out of business.
German lager beers including Tafel and Windhoek lagers are still brewed in the country for domestic consumption and export.
