History of Natto and Its Relatives (1405-2012 - SoyInfo Center

soybeans or fermented whole soybeans). Address: Research
Chemist, U.S. Dep. of Agriculture, Agricultural Research
Service, Grain Chemistry and Utilization Lab., Aberdeen,
Idaho 83210.
1867. Chie no Kai. ed. 2008. Kyô no rekishi, bungaku o
aruku [Walking through the history and literature of Kyoto].
Tokyo Japan: Bensei Shuppan. 314 p. See p. 61. [Jap]*
• Summary: Page 61: Early books about natto are Shinsaru
gakuki, written by Fujiwara no Akihira in the middle of
Heian period, Oojorôu onna no koto, written in the end of
Muromachi period, and Oyudono no ue no Nikki.
Note: The Heian period in Japan lasted from AD 794
to 1185. The Muromachi period lasted from 1336 to 1573.
The capital was Kyoto and the ruler was a shogun. Address:
Japan.
1868. Mintz, Sidney W. 2008. Fermented beans and western
taste. In: Christine M. Du Bois, C.-B. Tan, and S.W. Mintz,
eds. 2008. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. viii +
337 p. See p. 56-73. [37 ref]
• Summary: Contents: Introduction. The distribution of
fermented legumes in local food systems. The absence of
fermented legumes from Western food history. The future
of fermented legumes in the West. Address: Johns Hopkins
Univ., USA, emeritus professor of anthropology..
1869. Osborn, Donald Z. 2008. Soybeans and soybean
products in West Africa: Adoption by farmers and adaptation
to foodways. In: Christine M. Du Bois, C.-B. Tan, and S.W.
Mintz, eds. 2008. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois
Press. viii + 337 p. See p. 276-297. [48 ref]
• Summary: Contents: Introduction. History. Growing
soybeans in Africa. Soybeans as food. Soybeans for
Daddawa. Bean curd. Soybeans and bean curd in Niger.
Other local uses. Conclusion. Notes.
A table (p. 277) shows the earliest documentation of
soyfoods in West African countries. For each country is
given the year fi rst noted and the source. The countries
(listed alphabetically) are: Benin, Burkina Faso (former
Upper Volta), Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana,
Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria,
Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo. Note: Most of these dates
and sources are identical to those published earlier in:
Shurtleff, W.; Aoyagi, A. 1997. Soy in Africa: Bibliography
and Sourcebook, 1857-1997. Lafayette, California. Soyfoods
Center.
The section on “daddawa” is very interesting and well
annotated. “One relatively early and by now fairly common
adaptation of soybeans to local foodways in West Africa
has been its use as a substitute for seeds of the nèrè, or
African locust bean tree (Parkia biglobosa).” The resulting
condiment is known as daddawa (or dawa-dawa) in Hausa,
sumbala in the Mande languages, and iru in Yoruba. The
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HISTORY OF NATTO AND ITS RELATIVES 569
physical form of daddawa may appear as a small ball, a
patty, or a cluster of ripened beans, “but it is always black
in color and has a very pungent odor.” The product is traded
widely from the areas of production. For example, some of
the daddawa sold in markets in Niger was made in Nigeria.
Making daddawa is traditionally a woman’s work; it is
relatively labor intensive and consumes signifi cant amounts
fi rewood [which in many areas is increasingly scarce].
The section titled “Bean curd” notes that a milestone in
the effort to introduce tofu to West Africa took place when
Osamu Nakayama, a soyfoods expert, was brought to Nigeria
by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
in 1989-91 to work with IITA in Ibadan. Working with
local people, he saw the potential for making wagashi (also
called wara in Yoruba [or warangashi in northern Benin])
the West African name of a soft unripened dairy cheese,
from soybeans, curded with the traditional coagulant–the
sap of the giant milkweed or Sodom apple tree (Calotropis
procera). It took Nakayama six months of research to
fi gure out how best to use the traditional African coagulant
with soymilk. The resulting product is said to resemble
the West African dairy cheese more than Asian tofu, yet
it readily found its place as a substitute for the former. “It
compared well with the cheese in fl avor and texture, but had
the important advantage of being much less expensive to
produce.”
In the decade that followed, the making of African-style
tofu spread largely on its own through the north of Nigeria
and across the border into Niger, becoming an important
new source of income for many women. As it spread, new
soymilk coagulants “were identifi ed by local producers,
notably water in which tamarind fruit had been left to soak
and water from rinsing pounded pearl millet, left overnight”
to sour.
The section titled “Soybeans and bean curd in Niger”
begins: “Soybeans have been subject to a limited amount
of agronomic research in Niger and are not produced in any
signifi cant amount.” Note: This implies that soybeans have
been cultivated in Niger, although in small amounts. Endnote
14 states that there have been some ongoing soybean trials in
the southern part of the Dosso region.
According to American Peace Corps volunteers, tofu
started to be made in about the year 2000 in the southern
parts of the Zinder and Maradi regions. Since that time,
tofu has been made and marketed in Niger using soybeans
brought in from Nigeria, in many villages, towns, and
markets, mainly in the Hausa-speaking north-central part
of Niger. In 2001 it was possible to fi nd tofu in the weekly
markets of local villages in these areas, fried and sold with
hot red pepper spice. “By 2002 it was more ready available
in the cities of Zinder and Maradi and was produced in
Birnin’Konni in the Tahoua region. By 2003 it was available
in Gaya, and by midyear it was also available in Dosso town
in the Dosso region.”