In all the Ugandan boarding schools I studied in,
I ate more maize meals than rice or tubers.
You can say I grew up on maize.
At home during holidays,
My cousin Charles would prepare pure white posho for us,
Leave the top flat like a French cut.
Othertimes we ate popcorns while watching movies.
My SMACK classmates called it amaleisure,
Because they were eaten during leisure.
Roasted maize sold on the street in the evening,
Can satisfy hunger,
No cooked dinner!
The Lugbara call it kaka.
Boiling seeds with beans plus fried onions,
Creates the traditional anyoya dish.
Mashing up the seeds and boiling in banana leaves,
Turns maize into ombangulu bread.
My cousin Dania taught me that.
Maize ripens for people without teeth too!
