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Fufu-pounding machine
Fufu-pounding machine

A quiet revolution as fufuo goes ‘high-tech’!

If anybody had asked me to suggest something to complement the Farmers Day celebration, one star attraction that I would have recommended for the durbar today at Kintampo would have been a fufuo-machine, a ‘fufuomaker’.

The reason is that at long last what I term the ‘high-tech’ method of preparing fufuo or fufu seems on course to becoming part of Ghanaian cookery! 

I’m sure that as in past years, at the observance in Kintampo, Brong-Ahafo, prize-winning farm produce will be on display, including plantain and the tubers: yam, cocoyam, and cassava – the ingredients for fufuo. 

Usually at such events, manufacturers of related machinery display their products, so surely a machine that takes the labour out of preparing fufuo belongs at a Farmers Day durbar. After all, much, if not most, of the plantain and tubers will end up as fufuo. 

In the past, it was only in certain parts of Ghana that fufuo was a standard in the diet. However, at present, it seems that it has become a national dish, although the accompanying soup may vary in quality and contents, according to affordability.

I can’t remember the number of times over the years that the invention of a fufuo-preparing machine has made headlines in this country. Notably, usually such reports have been met with great scepticism because people didn’t think fufuo prepared by machine, and not by pestle and mortar, would taste right.  

Well, I have tasted machine fufuo and I can testify that it is ‘the genuine article’, as the saying goes.

And I have discovered that the ‘fufuo-machine’ which has been missing from our media for some time now has apparently gradually, and quietly, been gaining acceptance in many places.  A quiet revolution has been taking place!

I became a convert after I decided to send my househelp to investigate an intriguing notice I had seen months earlier at the entrance of a house in my neighbourhood. What I remembered was that it was advertising a ‘fufu-machine’ service. The househelp came back with the encouraging news that there was indeed a commercial fufuo-preparing machine there. Some days later, we decided to give it a try. 

We cooked our normal quantity of ingredients, plantain and cassava; and cocoyam and she took it to the fufuo-machine house.  

She was back so soon that I thought that the facility had closed when she got there. But no, the task had been accomplished in no time! And the taste of my cocoyam fufuo prepared by machine, my first sampling of ‘high-tech’ fufuo? As indicated, it tasted just fine!   

The next day I went to check it out myself. The attendant put the tuber chunks into a receptacle powered by a generator and slowly the dough-like mass came out. If one wants very soft fufuo, the ‘dough’ goes into the machine again. 

For our quantity, for four people, the whole process took not more than five minutes and it cost GHC3.00 (but I’m told that outside Accra the charge is much lower). The customer then takes it home to mould into the normal fufuo shape, according to desired sizes. 

Asked about patronage, the owner said it had been very good initially, “but now I think soup-making has become too expensive for most people.”

Conversion to the fufuomaker seems to be spreading by word of mouth. Interestingly, it was during a recent visit to my hometown, Dormaa-Ahenkro, that I had heard about it again, reminding me of the notice near my house in Accra.  

There, catching up on family news, developments since my last visit, when the talk turned to food, for some reason somebody casually said “as for fufuo, these days we have no problem with the pounding as we do it by machine.”  

I could hardly believe it when they assured me that the machine-prepared fufuo, tasted good.  I insisted on being taken to the facility to see it. However, unfortunately, it was too early in the morning and it had not opened for business; as I was leaving for Accra I couldn’t wait for the opening time. 

I have since then found out that the commercial fufuo machine is also in use in some places in Kumasi, including the Bantama Market.  At one such Kumasi venue, I was told, pounding with pestle and mortar is also available but customers usually prefer the machine as it’s much quicker.  

As the league of high-tech-fufuo eaters seems to be gradually growing – Dormaa-Ahenkro, Kumasi and Accra – I wonder where else these machines are in operation.

I also wonder if any Ghanaians abroad are using the machine there, because in London, for instance, the Ghana shops, as well as some Asian ones, stock plantain, cocoyam, yam and cassava. 

For decades Ghanaians abroad had been making do with potato flour and potato starch combination to prepare their imitation fufuo, until the advent of the now popular fufu flours: plantain, cocoyam and yam.   

Who knows, the next development might be Ghanaians abroad investing in fufuo machines – if they haven’t started already! But before that, maybe smaller sizes for household use will be readily available.

It appears that the machines are made by our skilled indigenous engineering entrepreneurs, who have been working on the design for some time and have finally succeeded. 

But why has it taken so long for a machine that prepares acceptable fufuo to be invented and popularized? Perhaps if white people were fufuo eaters, that invention would have come sooner.   After all, there are portable bread-making machines for domestic use, and I have one.  

You put in the ingredients: water, flour, margarine, yeast, etc press a couple of buttons and in an hour or so, it beeps to announce that the loaf is ready. It even enables you to choose the colour of the crust: light or dark brown. 

If the fufuomaker catches on, that could have a positive effect on the environment. Fewer   pestles and mortars means more trees saved, I guess. But, on the other hand, could the power or electricity that will be used by the many who will be changing to high-tech fufuo affect the energy supply? 

Anyway, I don’t have the answer. Mine is just to announce my discovery: that pestle-and-mortar quality fufuo by machine is now a reality!

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