Good to see you are looking at diet, As you may be aware i am into African solutions, particularly tasty African beverages and foods that are healthy and my upcoming Mountain County Fresh Label. Hibiscus tea is an indigenous African beverage, thank for your kind patronage.
Below is an excerpt on
ngima ya ogimbi, and how African (Kikuyu) used it for "reinforcing blood" from Facing Mount Kenya, you may want to try it. Make it and eat with a thick kienyeji "fry" chicken , pressure cook and extract one cup of soup to drink, then make a thick "fry", make a terere fry with some nettle inside if possible,or add nettle to the ngima mash, eat with your hands! Yummy! Also enjoy the story (not the FGM part but social part)
"About a fortnight before the day of initiation the girl is put on a special diet, namely, njahi and
ngima ya ogembe composed of a particular kind of Gikuyu bean (njahe), and together with a stiff porridge made of a small kind of grain (ogembe) ground into flour and mixed with water and oil. This diet is used in order to prevent the loss of blood at the time of initiation (physical operation) and also to ensure immediate healing of the wound, as well as a precaution against blood poisoning. The girl is properly taken care of by her sponsor,
motiiri, who examines her and gives her all necessary instructions about the initiation ceremony. In this examination attention is directed to ascertaining that the girl is not near maturity and that menstruation is not likely to begin for at least a month after
irua and the healing of the wound. She is also closely questioned to verify that she never bad sexual intercourse or indulged in masturbation. If she has broken any of the prohibitions of the Gikuyu social codes, the girl makes a confession to the
motiiri, who reports the confession to the girl's parents. The service of a
motahekania, or a “family purifier," is then engaged to purify (koruta mogiro) the girl and prepare her for the irua.
Three or four days prior to the actual physical operation the girl is taken to the homestead where the ceremony is to take place. There she meets the rest of the initiates. The initiates are all introduced to the elder of the homestead and his wife, who adopt them as their children for the purpose of the irua. On this special day the boys and girls of the irua group, together with their relatives and friends, join in singing and dancing the whole night, and at the same time beating sugar-canes in mortars to prepare a special kind of beer for a ceremony called
koraria morungu, which is supposed to keep the gods awake. This ceremony is considered an act of communion with the ancestral god (morungu), whose protection is invoked to guide and protect the initiates through the irua ceremony and at the same time to give them the wisdom of their forefathers. During the dancing and singing no girl or boy is allowed to go to bed, as this is regarded as missing the opportunity of direct contact with morungu, which would result in misfortune at the time of the irua".......continued on this rink
A New Kenya