Ancient customs and habits of African nations: the tradition of eating soil

Are there really soil eaters? Yes, quite a few. In sub-Saharan Africa, from the Gulf of Guinea in the west to the Indian Ocean in the east, many black people have a tradition of eating soil.

In Tanzania, East Africa, children were found holding a red "candy bar", which looked like the small ham sausage sold in China. Locals said it was a kind of mud stick!

In the local market, there will be baskets of mud strips on vegetable and fruit stalls, made of red mud, because Tanzania's land is red, and these mud strips are used to supplement nutrition for pregnant women. It is said that children also eat mud sticks, but adult men do not. Children in Africa eat it as snacks and eat it with gusto. It feels like eating a piece of chocolate. Eating mud strips feels a little salty, astringent, and vaguely fishy. It is really impossible for ordinary people to swallow.

It is understood that eating soil among Africans is an ancient custom and the result of thousands of years of adaptation to nature. South Africans conducted research and found that soil contains 65 elements needed by the human body. In some parts of Africa, people use clay to treat diseases such as diarrhea and cholera.

Of course, not all soil can be eaten. Local people dig up the soil layer, take red soil less than a few meters, take it home, pick out impurities such as small stones and weeds, mix it with water into slender strips of moderate hardness, cut them into sections with a knife, and then roast them with fire. Dry, can kill the bacteria.

Tanzania's neighbor Kenya also has a custom of eating dirt. They mixed the soil they wanted to eat into their daily tapioca, corn, potatoes, and banana rice, cooked it, and then ate it together.

In Africa, the recipe for finding and mixing soil is the secret of many tribes and families. But nowadays in Africa, fewer and fewer people in cities are eating soil. First, it is relatively convenient to seek medical treatment, and secondly, it is not easy to find suitable soil sources in cities. However, in vast rural areas, the disappearance of this custom is not a matter of one day's work.

In fact, ethnic groups in many countries in the world have the custom of eating soil. In some places in Haiti, people have a tradition of eating mud cakes. They believe that people cannot do without the land and need to get nutrition and spirit from the soil. The best soil in Haiti comes from a place called Anche in the center. You can buy 5 mud cakes for 10 cents in the market. Some ethnic groups in countries such as Sweden and Finland also have the custom of eating soil. When Siberians have to leave their homes, they will make some mud balls and chew them while walking to express their longing for their hometown.