Fulani Cuisine : Nono and Fura Nono

The Fulani are a historically pastoralist group living across most of the Sahel and often moving seasonally to areas to the south.  The most common foodstuff they market are butter and nono.    Nono is made by lightly fermenting the milk after the butter is extracted.  They use cultures containing several bacteria for this, and the end product is somewhat akin to both buttermilk and yogurt, but not really tasting like either.  The nono is often sold with fura mixed in; this is cooked millet often spiced with ginger and hot pepper.

 

Fulani woman with calabash of nono.  Near Shendam LGC, Plateau State, Nigeria.

 

During fieldwork in Plateau State, Nigeria, we lived in a hamlet in between a Fulani encampment and a market town.  The Fulani women passed by our compound almost every day and stopped to sell me a jug of fura nono.  I had a standing order, even when I was out.  The women were delighted to sell some of their wares before headloading it into town, and I was sure of getting fresh nono, before the flies got to it (our cook would store it in our propane-powered frig for me).

It was absolutely delicious and I got rather badly addicted to it.  When I was driving home at the end of the day, I would start thinking about the cold fura nono waiting there and my jaw would start to ache.

Mashing the balls of  fura into the nono.