There was a clear winning book this month & it’s a fairly short read, but before we get to that I’d like to share my astonishment that a club member has already read 5 of the proposed books—Anna Ruth! She lived in Cameroon for 2 years, but we’ve had others who lived in other countries all of their lives & still haven’t come close to that number. 😮
And what would a voting results post be without another great global cookbook? Here’s one which just came out in September written by someone who grew up in Cameroon on an organic farm. She later moved to the US where she became a Certified Integrative Nutritionist, chef, & TV personality before founding Yummy Spoonfuls Organics, the first nationally-distributed organic food for kids.
“I want you to close your eyes as you hold this book in your hands and understand that it is yours to create magic, to reinvent yourself in the kitchen in ways you never thought possible. It doesn’t matter if you weren’t raised in a home with skilled cooks or entrenched in healthy food traditions as I was. It doesn’t matter if you have no culinary experience at all. I am sharing my kitchen, my mami’s kitchen, my grandma’s bare-bones, gadget-free kitchen that produced the healthiest, most mouthwatering meals. This book you are holding—full of recipes, knowledge, life stories, and tips I share with my own family and clients—is an extension of who I am. I hope it helps and brings you joy, too.” —From the introduction
When Agatha Achindu came to the US from Cameroon, she didn’t know what to make of the aisles and aisles of canned foods in the grocery store. She started making meals with fresh ingredients for her college roommate. After her first community dinner for 50 fellow students, word spread. Fast-forward 30 years: What started as small workshops teaching moms how to make nutritious meals blossomed into a career dedicated to helping families live life unprocessed, and eat flavorful, nutrient‑dense foods that can help prevent chronic disease and other food-related health concerns. No matter what Agatha does, her dishes are always based on one fundamental principle she learned from her mami: You are what you eat. Throughout her career, she has shared this ethos: for each and every person—no matter their age, background, or locale—to grow and thrive without the daily aggravation and hardship (and expense!) of preventable chronic diseases. Agatha has been on an unrelenting mission to make families and communities healthier, to live a life that is bursting with vibrant energy, age gracefully and in good health. It is never too late to start eating food that will nourish our body, mind and soul.
Bountiful Cooking celebrates these matrilineal culinary philosophies with 100 recipes packed with life-giving nutrients. Not only are these recipes healthy, but with global flavors, they also serve as cultural nutrition for the whole family. Agatha’s recipes will make you fall in love with food—and recognize that food, a sacred source of life and feeding, is the highest expression of love.
But what book are we reading?
A slim novel at only 169 pages (4 hours 48 minutes on audio) which you’ll be able to read even though we’re getting a late start this month!
A powerful, heartrending, and insightful novel of a trio of women in Cameroon who dare to rebel against oppressive, long-held cultural traditions—including polygamy and domestic abuse—that define and limit their lives.
In North Cameroon, well-to-do young Ramla is torn from her true love and wed to a manipulative older man. Safira, her co-wife, juggles envy and empathy for this new bride with disappointment in the husband she desperately loves. Like her older sister, Ramla, Hindou is married off to a man she does not know or want, a distant cousin whose instability and violence terrifies her.
From an early age, these women were raised to submit to men, or risk shame and repudiation of themselves and their families. They are advised to have munyal—patience. They are told that their fates are the will of the All-Powerful, and that it is unthinkable—or rather, impossible—to defy tradition. They are reminded of the Fulani proverb which holds, “At the end of patience, there is the sky.”
Yet Ramla, Safira, and Hindou are tired of waiting for a happiness that may never come. Their lives are driven by impatience and clouded by the suffering rooted in forced marriage and physical abuse, but it is this oppressive culture that binds them together.
Djaïli Amadou Amal makes her literary debut in English with this remarkable novel that breaks taboos as it denounces the cultural mores of Africa's Sahel region. Inspired by the author’s own experiences and written with grace, strength, and veracity, The Impatient is a moving testimony to a shared pain and a call for change—an unflinching depiction of the psychic damage traditions can have on the women who must abide by them and a denunciation of violence against all women and the normalization of domestic abuse—not only in Cameroon but around the globe.
“A stark and unflinching view of an oppressive culture.” —Publishers Weekly
(A special thank you to book club member, Elke Richelsen for the suggestion.)
Happy reading! (If you want to read & discuss the winning book together, join our online book club on Facebook.)