Foodways in West Africa: Time Trends and Diversity of Food Consumption Pattern

Foodways, the social, economic and cultural markers that enable us to identify lifestyles in present

and past societies, have emerged as a topic of great scholarly interest in Western Africa. Rapid

changes in the social and economic environment in the last 50 years resulted in a nutrition transition

observed in many sub-Saharan African countries, revealing large shifts in diet and activity patterns.

These changes in dietary pattern are reflected in nutritional outcomes and are paralleled by major

changes in health status that can be both positive and negative. As foodways have changed

fundamentally over the last few generations, it is important to investigate the drivers of these

changes, considering economic, political, social and cultural change, in order to understand why

People change their diet, and how they perceive the impacts this has on their health. In Senegal,

where nearly 40% of the population lives in poverty, rain-fed subsistence production has remained

a main pillar of the local food systems. Programs to reduce food insecurity, especially in the rural

areas are aiming at improving local food systems primarily through changes of agricultural practices,

while information on the impact on food availability, food preferences and nutritional diversity in the

different socio-ecological and cultural contexts has remained limited.