“Mandola”: form and content, dish and food

Sudan Events – Haffiya Elyas

Mandoula, is a plate carved from wood or a tree stem in a circular half ball shape, and decorated with multiple colors, spotless clean and usually jet-black in colour or dark brown. And when food is served it is usually covered with handmade piece of cloth, colorful and perfumed, the food is covered by a palm leave made cover to keep the meal warm and spicy, the aroma kept underneath the cover. It is one of the cultural manifestation from Darfur. Not every woman can handle the Mandoula, she has to be a chef in cooking and a connoisseur of the various types of vegetables and meats and spices that are used and added to this the type of natural oil, to be used.
Researcher of popular heritage in Darfur, Halima Adam, explains to Sudan Events that the “Mandoula” is presented to guests on highly specific occasions, a social event of vital importance of a guest from outside the community of a leader of some kind or a family that arrive for asking the hand of a woman in marriage etc.

When such an occasion arrives and when food is well prepared and placed inside the Mandoula, then a woman, well dressed and well savvy of the customs and how a lady acts in front of men, would emerge carrying the Mandoula and she places it in front of the guests in a ceremonial manner.
Halima said when eating food from the Mandola and the guest finds the food delicious, it is the custom that he announces publicly that the food was really good prepared by a Mairam- woman chef to announce the beautiful preparation and cheer loudly to alert those present to the wonderful taste of the food. she continues: “It is also preferring to give a gift to the lady, who prepared the foods.”
Halima asserted that, despite the development that has affected aspects of life in the Darfur region, it is difficult for residents to abandon the “Mandola,” as it thrives in social occasions.