44 Feasting with the Nyangara in southern Sudan
Rick Bein
About 50 kilometers north of the Uganda border a small crowd of Yanguara tribesmen from southern Sudan hungrily watch, politely waiting for me to do something. A large bowl brimming with roasted flying termites (Macroterms spp.) sits before me. I pride myself with being able to eat almost anything that someone else can eat, but insects? They look like dark reddish brown half inch sticks with wings sticking out.
I am thinking: “This is not the going to be easy!”
Termite preparation by Mercy Uchenna YouTube 2008
South Sudan regions map.png by Peter Fitzgerald is licensed under CC BY 2.5
“Patrick, what am I supposed to do?” Patrick Ladu, one of my students from the University of Khartoum is very patient with me. His tribesmen are also patient.
You are the guest of honor and you must eat first. No one will eat until you do! This is a delicacy as they have prepared the very best for you!”
Mustering my courage, I pick a couple of large two-centimeter-long bugs off the top and before I can change my mind, put them in my mouth. Immediately the crowd dives into the community bowl of termites, filling their mouths with ecstasy.
I am overcome with their delight at what they are eating, forgetting what is in my mouth, and I begin chewing. To my amazement, I find the termites pleasingly salty with a pretzel like texture. I try to grab a few more, but that is my last bite as the pile disappears in the frenzy!
This is an East African delicacy that is craved for its saltiness. The heavy tropical rains of Southern Sudan, Uganda and Western Kenya wash most of the natural salt out of the soil. As a result the salt content in plants is also low. Termites obtain minerals found deep in the subsoil where they dig their burrows and salt being one of them is concentrated in their bodies, making them a high demand item by the local people as they seek to meet the salt deficiency in their diet.
In the mid-1970s they were a great snack food. People walked around the East African markets with paper cone wraps full of roasted termites munching as they went along. Instead of eating popcorn at the movies, they snacked on termites!
When I returned to Kenya in 2007, I noticed very few people eating termites and those that kept the habit were in small villages.
African termites build huge hard clay mounds up to ten feet high in which they live. They process decaying vegetative material in the soil, eating the plant material and depositing the mud-like material to form the mound. In this area of Africa, termites are welcome and when a new termite mound starts to appear, the first person to see it puts a claim on it along with the right to collect them.
Termite mound with author, Photo by Rick Bein 2012
Some of the termites swarm in the evening following a rainstorm and fly off to start a new colony. The local people know when this is going to happen and just before dark, dig a shallow rectangular hole measuring fourteen by