Moringa Lattes and Tigernut Kebabs: How Ghanaians Are Reclaiming the Power of Indigenous Food
In Ghana, a new food movement is challenging the long-standing idea that sophistication in the kitchen must come from foreign ingredients, international recipes and Western culinary traditions. From moringa lattes and tigernut kebabs to innovative dishes built around locally grown crops, a growing community of chefs, farmers, entrepreneurs and food enthusiasts is working to put Ghanaian ingredients back at the centre of the country’s food culture.
At the heart of this movement is the Ghana Food Movement (GFM), a community seeking to reconnect Ghanaians with the richness of their own food heritage while demonstrating that Indigenous ingredients can be nutritious, commercially viable and exciting enough to appeal to a new generation.
Finding a different culinary path
For Abiro Wisdom, the journey began after three years at catering school in Accra. Wisdom graduated in 2019 with professional culinary training, but instead of pursuing the conventional path into international hotels, he realised that something important was missing from his education.
His training had focused heavily on international cuisines, including French, Italian and Mexican food. Yet the nutritious and diverse foods he had grown up eating in Bolgatanga in northern Ghana barely featured in the curriculum.
The experience left him questioning where he belonged in the culinary industry. “I didn’t see myself there,” Wisdom recalls of the big international hotel chains. “I felt I wouldn’t be myself working there, I wouldn’t be able to talk about the food from where I come from.” Rather than abandoning the culinary world, Wisdom chose a different direction.
He joined the Ghana Food Movement and became an advocate for Indigenous Ghanaian ingredients, food systems and culinary identity. “We’re a community of food lovers, of believers in the potential of Ghanaian food,” he says.
Rediscovering the wealth in Ghanaian agriculture
The movement comes at a time when Ghana remains significantly dependent on imported food and ingredients. For the GFM, however, the answer to some of the country’s food challenges may already exist within its own agricultural landscape.
Northern Ghana, in particular, is home to a remarkable range of crops, grains, vegetables and other ingredients that are naturally suited to the country’s climate. Many of these foods are also nutritious and resilient, making them potentially important ingredients in building a more sustainable and locally driven food system. The GFM wants to change the way these ingredients are perceived.
Instead of treating Indigenous foods as something that belongs only in traditional kitchens, the movement is exploring how they can be transformed into modern, commercially attractive products.
Tigernuts, for example, have traditionally been used to make milk. But the organisation has experimented with turning them into burgers, kebabs and other contemporary dishes. For Aimee Wallin, the group’s Malian-Swedish co-managing director, the goal is not simply to tell people that Indigenous food has potential. People need to experience it. “We want people to taste what we are about, not just talk about what we are about,” she explains.
Turning Indigenous ingredients into modern experiences
What began in 2019 as a network of volunteers has developed into a more organised nonprofit movement. The group initially brought together chefs, farmers, entrepreneurs and food-security experts who shared an interest in transforming Ghana’s food system.
Members organised pop-up dining experiences in cafés and other available spaces, often creating three-course meals centred around a single Indigenous crop. Today, the movement has its own kitchen, where new recipes and ideas are developed and tested.
Wisdom is among those regularly brainstorming ways to give familiar ingredients an entirely new identity. Moringa, for instance, can move beyond traditional preparations and become part of contemporary drinks and meals.
The concept is simple but powerful: if young people are willing to spend money on fashionable international food trends, why shouldn’t Ghanaian ingredients be used to create equally attractive alternatives? That thinking has inspired ideas such as moringa lattes and tigernut-based alternatives to popular meat dishes.
The organisation also hosts monthly pop-ups, dine-and-dance events, panel discussions and recipe-testing sessions involving chefs and local businesses. Through these activities, the GFM is demonstrating that Indigenous food is not merely a cultural artefact. It can also be a source of creativity, entrepreneurship and economic opportunity.
Food as culture, identity and power
For Wisdom, the campaign goes far beyond what appears on a restaurant plate. His understanding of food has expanded into questions of economics, politics, agriculture, identity and sustainability.
He now sees a direct connection between what people eat and the farmers who grow it, the land where it is produced, the markets where it is sold and the wider economic systems that determine how food reaches consumers. As a chef, he believes that understanding and communicating this story is essential. “My goal is that we have a generation of chefs who believe in Ghanaian food and its own identity,” he says.
The GFM’s work has also attracted international recognition. This month, the organisation was named a Champion of Change in the 50 Best Restaurants Awards, highlighting the wider significance of its efforts to transform Ghana’s food culture.
Challenging a colonial food legacy
The movement is also confronting a much deeper historical issue. Across Africa, colonial economic systems often prioritised cash crops grown for export over food production for local communities. Crops such as cocoa and peanuts became central to export economies, while food systems were increasingly shaped by external demands.
Imported foods and agricultural inputs subsequently gained greater importance, creating systems in which countries could become dependent not only on foreign food but also on imported seeds, fertilisers and pesticides. That dependence can leave countries vulnerable when global crises disrupt supply chains or cause international food prices to rise. Wallin argues that the problem is not simply economic. It is also cultural.
For generations, Western culinary practices have often been presented as more sophisticated or desirable, while Indigenous methods and ingredients have been undervalued. “The narrative has always been that our practices are wrong and the west’s practices are right,” she says.
The GFM is challenging that narrative by showing that Ghanaian ingredients can be the foundation of innovative, modern cuisine without losing their cultural identity.
Winning over a younger generation
One of the movement’s biggest challenges is reaching young Ghanaians, many of whom are increasingly influenced by global food trends circulating on social media. Matcha lattes, bubble tea, smash burgers and other international food trends can quickly become popular among urban consumers. Rather than resisting those trends, the Ghana Food Movement sees them as an opportunity.
If young people are attracted to fashionable food and drinks, Indigenous ingredients can be presented in equally creative ways. Instead of matcha, there can be moringa. Instead of conventional meat-based dishes, there can be tigernut-inspired alternatives.
The strategy is not to reject global food culture but to ensure that Ghanaian food has a strong and visible place within it.
Taking the knowledge of the elders into the future
Perhaps the most urgent part of the movement is the need to preserve traditional food knowledge before it disappears. Across Ghana, generations of farmers, grandmothers and community elders possess knowledge about Indigenous crops, preparation techniques, seasonal foods and sustainable agricultural practices. Much of this knowledge has been passed down orally rather than formally documented. For Wallin, preserving it cannot wait.
“If we want to talk about what our future food system should look like,” she says, “we need to talk to our grandmas, to our grandpas, to the farmers out in the communities because they sit on that knowledge.” The message is increasingly clear: Ghana’s food future may depend partly on its ability to remember its food past.
Reclaiming the plate
The Ghana Food Movement represents a growing effort to redefine what Ghanaian cuisine can be. It is about taking ingredients that have existed for generations and giving them new life. It is about helping farmers find stronger markets, encouraging chefs to embrace local produce and showing young consumers that Indigenous food can be fashionable, profitable and innovative.
Most importantly, it is about food sovereignty, the belief that a country should have greater control over what it grows, what it eats and how its food system operates. For Wisdom and Wallin, reclaiming Ghanaian food is therefore much bigger than creating an interesting menu. It is about culture. It is about economic independence. It is about sustainability. And ultimately, it is about power.
As Ghana looks towards the future, the ingredients needed to build a stronger and more self-reliant food culture may already be growing in its fields. The challenge now is to recognise their value, preserve the knowledge surrounding them and bring them proudly back to the table.
