How dishes are connecting West Nile’s multicultural society

At 84, Pascalina Aletipas still knows her way in the kitchen. Regularly, both children and grandchildren bank on her culinary craft for a well-cooked meal of Nyete. 

Nyete is a vegetable salad made from the black-eyed peas, and very common among the Kakwa in Uganda, DR Congo and South Sudan. 

This cooking is something Aletipas learnt while still a refugee in neighboring DR Congo.

“When war broke out, I ran with my family to DR Congo. We abandoned our food here, that how we got learn about this food,” she says of the mixture of Greens with Peanut Butter. 

The family had gone to live in Eastern Congo’s communities for safety but were not documented by relief agencies or even the government. This meant that they were not entitled to food rations. 

Aletipas and her family could barely find a meal and were forced to live on Nyete, which is a 

Foreign to them, they appreciated the delicacy due to its availability and the short time it required to prepare even during turbulent times.

“We went to DR Congo when we were used to a different type of food. It was really difficult to cope, we struggled so much to feed the family. Their food was not something we had even heard of,” Aletipas explains

However, after a period of crisscrossing the Nyete has now become an adopted delicacy. 

“We later got used to the food, and it became part of us in a long run. Now we eat it as a normal meal,” Aletipas adds. 

Agriculture and food are core components of human existence. Hence, culture and food traditions play a central role in society and in shaping human behaviour. 

According to Agnes Kirabo, the Executive Director at Food Rights Alliance, a non-profit that advocates for rights and access to food, the movement of people influences and affects food systems.

“Our food systems are rooted into our culture. Unfortunately, this is the first thing we suspend or least think about when we migrate,” she says. 

Bordering two countries, South Sudan and DR Congo the internal movement between the countries has changed the way of life and food for this region.

As a multinational and cultural melting point, nationals from South Sudan, Ethiopia, and DR Congo have faced influenced their ways of life and food here. 

Brenda Siyasa is a chef at Habesha restaurant with one year’s worth of experience in the craft of preparing Ethiopian foods. 

“I didn’t know for example any Ethiopian foods, but it now part of our cuisine here. I didn’t know the food I never knew about would be a source of my livelihood,” Siyasa says. 

Amir Ismael, a 25-year-old mechanic and resident of Arua City, who has tried most foods in the region, food to him is a symbol of diversity.

“We eat everything in Arua. And this food culture is moving beyond our borders,” he says. 

According to Kirabo, this evolution should be a testament to allow migrants live the way they will with their desired food cultures and choices as a way of preserving them to avoid extinction even in the host communities.

 “When we talk about food culture, it is not food alone, it is our culture and heritage,” Kirabo states. 

While traditional Ugandan dishes like Nyete remain popular, the market now boasts a vibrant array of international flavors. 

Aletipas is confident that the story of westnile’s food will for ever remain a long and continuous script, that “will go on and on”. 

This culinary exchange is not just about food, but about building bridges between cultures and creating a sense of shared identity. The vibrant blend of Flavors in West Nile is a powerful reminder that migration can be a catalyst for cultural enrichment and a celebration of the human spirit.