Peanut Butter’s Popularity Spreading Across the U.S.
Peanut butter was not “invented” by a St. Louis physician 99 years ago.
The Ewondo and other Beti peoples, who live in central Cameroon, have been grinding peanuts into a butter-like paste for time immemorial. I know this as a fact because I lived in Yaounde, Cameroon, for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer and often observed my friends and neighbors hand-grinding peanuts into peanut butter the traditional Beti way with two specially carved stones called an akok and a ngok . This hand-ground peanut paste is used dozens of different ways in Cameroonian cuisine.
Cameroon is not the only African country where peanuts are used extensively as a source of protein. Peanut-butter soups and stews are a staple food in many African countries, and the use of a ground peanut paste (e.g., Virginia peanut soup) was brought to this country by African slaves.
Peanut butter, the latest American mania, is really an African import. It is an example of one of the many ways Africa influences our lives.
WILLIAM JOSEPH MILLER
Los Angeles
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