Making Attieke

The Attieke is a famous side dish from the Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) cuisine also known as the “Couscous of Ivory Coast”.

The Attieke is traditionally made by women in villages across the country and in the outskirts of the main cities.

While visiting my family, which lives in Abidjan, I had the opportunity to visit a small village–Petit Bassam.

I was fascinated by the process and the hard work of those amazing women.

Attieke is made from the root of the Manioc shrub (known as Cassava).

The Manioc comes from outside of the village. Women start by peeling and cutting it in pieces, then, grating or granulating it and mixing with it previously fermented Cassava.

As you can see in the images below the Attieke is than put in large bags and crushed with the help of industrial irons.

Reading a little bit about the Manioc, I found out that the Cassava is the third-largest source of nutritional carbohydrates in the tropics, following rice and corn.

Abidjan, December 2020