Documenting Acholi traditional food in Uganda: an annotated bibliography

Abstract

The knowledge of traditional food habits in Africa is being lost at a rapid rate and yet they could be used to improve the lives of African residents and African migrants. Moreover, such information can be utilized by the global community for improving the current globalized food culture, which has largely been responsible for the obesity and diabetes epidemics currently plaguing the world. There is therefore the urgent need for documentation, compilation and dissemination of this rapidly eroding wealth of information. This study was carried out to document sources of the hidden riches among Acholi traditional food products that are in danger of disappearing despite their value. The major objective of the study was to identify and categorized the different types of Acholi traditional foods; identify the sources of information on Acholi traditional foods from newspapers, internet, text books, databases, magazine, journals and any other documented outlets; and compile an annotated bibliography on documents dealing with Acholi traditional foods. Methodology included literature study and content analysis to identify relevant information on Acholi traditional foods by identifying and categorizing the different types of Acholi traditional foods; identifying the sources of information on Acholi traditional foods from newspapers, internet, text books, databases, magazine, journals and any other documented outlets; and compiling an annotated bibliography on documents dealing with Acholi traditional foods.

The findings indicate that attempts have been made to study and document Acholi traditional foods, although most researchers concentrated on studies concerning legumes, cereals and some few crops of commercial value but there are still inadequate information concerning all forms of traditional foods in Acholi region; and recommends that more studies and researches on the different Acholi traditional foods should be undertaken so that they can be documented and preserved as knowledge bank for present and future use.