Ugali (also sometimes called sima, sembe or posho) is a dish of maize flour (cornmeal) cooked with water to a porridge- or dough-like consistency. It is the most common staple starch featured in the local cuisines of the eastern African Great Lakes region and Southern Africa. When ugali is made from another starch, it is usually given a specific regional name.
The traditional method of eating ugali (and the most common in the rural areas) is to roll a lump into a ball with the right hand, and then dip it into a sauce or stew of vegetables and/or meat. Making a depression with the thumb allows the ugali to be used to scoop, and to wrap around pieces of meat to pick them up in the same way that flat bread is used in other cultures.
Ugali is relatively inexpensive and is thus easily accessible to the poor who usually combine it with a vegetable stew (e.g. sukuma wiki in Kenya) or meat stews and makes a filling meal. Ugali is easy to make and the flour can last for considerable time in average conditions. Maize from which the flour is obtained is hardy and will grow reliably in dry seasons. For these reasons, ugali is an important part of the diet of millions of people of Sub Saharan Africa.
In Swahili (both in Kenya and in Tanzania), it is known as ugali, also in Tanzanian street name it is called Nguna
In Kenya, it is also known as kimyet in Kalenjin, ngima in Kikuyu, kuon in Luo, Obusuma in the Nyole dialect of the Luhya tribe, nkima in the meru language and obokima in the Kisii language (Ekegusii).
In Uganda, ugali has several regional names including posho.
In Rwanda, ugali is called "ubugali".
Read more about Ugali: Similar Foods
Other articles related to "ugali":
... The foods that are universally eaten in Kenya are ugali, sukuma wiki, and nyama choma ... It is usually eaten with ugali and kachumbari ... Among the Luhyas residing in the western region of Kenya, ingokho (chicken) and ugali is a favourite meal ...
... and historic Ugandan foods include Ugali - usually from maize but also other starches, regional names include posho and kwon ... Ugandan expatriates make ugali from cornmeal, masa harina or grits ... Kwon is a sort of ugali made from millet but in other regions like eastern Uganda they include cassava flour Groundnuts - peanuts are a vital staple and groundnut sauce is probably the most commonly eaten one ...
... Dishes include ugali, injera, wat, sukumi wiki, and halva ... Cornmeal is used to make ugali, a popular dish with different names ... Ugali and fufu are eaten in the region ...
... In South Africa, cornmeal mush is a staple food called mealie pap elsewhere in Southern Africa it is called isitshwala or bogobe in Setswana or sadza in Zimbabwe, nshima in Zambia and Malawi, and "Oshifima" or Pap in Namibia ... Fufu, a starch-based food from West and Central Africa, may also be made from maize meal, in which case it may be called fufu corn ...
... The starch traditionally comes from ugali (maize meal) or matoke (boiled and mashed green banana), in the south, or an ugali made from pearl millet in the north ... Ugali which is maize flour is mixed with water to make porridge for breakfast mainly for children ... is added to some water in a saucepan and stirred into the ugali is firm like American cornbread ...