Whenever I am ill I don't feel like eating any other food except Acheke. When I eat it I feel better, and then at least I am able to have around again. Acheke is made from garrie, which is product of cassava, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, onions, Maggie stock cube, fish, salt, pepper and oil.
I like acheke because of this story, which my brother used to tell me: There was once was a man, who had a daughter, and they used to sell garrie together. One day, his daughter went to sell her garrie. She was beaten by a boy who was her friend. She reported the matter to her father. Her father went there without asking questions; he then kicked the boy. After kicking the boy he boxed the boy on his head. The boy ran away crying and the daughter followed him. The father was annoyed at his daughter and then he decided not to sell the garrie, but to cook it.

Here is a story that my grandfather used to tell me about the elephant: In a village called Solima, in the district of Pujehun, there was once a woman who was asked to bring an elephant tooth as a sacrifice. If she didn’t the tooth she would lose her child and her husband. As result, she decided to grind cassava and to make foo-foo with a delicious sauce and to take it to the center of the forest. She then took cover under a big tree.

The elephant came and ate the food and decided to be there every day because it considered the food to be delicious. So the woman did this for a month. One day she was able to face the elephant with the food. She slowly removed the tooth of the elephant. Her family was saved. From that day on they began eating foo-foo themselves.

During the war, this sauce helped to save the life of thousands of people by making it their daily food when there was absolutely no other food to be found. It substituted for rice, the country's staple food .It is very easy to prepare and it is grown throughout the country. There is a story about ‘Sakii tomboi’ which my grandmother used to tell me:

There was an old man in a village; he had a fast-growing cassava garden. When the man went to the farm he noticed that some one had been uprooting his cassava from the garden. It happened many times without him noticing who was taking the cassava. One night he decided to stay on the farm to find out who was guilty. At midnight he heard footsteps and then he went in the direction of the noise.

It was dark, so he at first did not notice the person. He caught a man and he asked him, "What's your name?" The man replied that his name was James. "Do you know that I receive my income from this farm to look after my family?" asked the old man, "Yes sir," said the thief. "But why do you come and steal from me?" asked the old man, "I too want to have an income," said the thief, so the old man decided to take the thief to the police station. On their way the thief called him Daddy but the old man ignored him, saying "I am not your father - my children are not thieves like you."

Then the young man called him again and at that time he looked and saw that the man he had caught was his son, James. When he noticed that the thief was his own son, he had no option but to go home. On their arrival his wife asked him if he had caught the thief. He said, "No sweetheart, but I learnt today to never trust any one and never say you know a person's character other than yourself."

My story is about a man living in a small village, called Potoru. He was a very lazy man and did not like to work. He was the last to get up in the morning and first to go to bed. When everyone was on their farm he visited every farm house, and each farm house that he visited give him food to eat. Then a time came when the people stopped giving him food. He was hungry, so he decided to ask people to give him land that he could be planting too.

After he did this he saw the benefit of farming, and from then on he did so every season until he had enough to eat. Later he thanked the people for forcing him to work for himself and for helping him to make a difference in the community.

Potato leaves and many other dishes are popular but there is a specific dish that is so special and has a different significance to my culture and most especially to my family. This recipe is special to me because it keeps me healthy. Potato leaves, which are the most popular and special of all dishes to me and my family, has a very delicious sauce.

It is believed that the special nutrients in potato leaves are good for the physical and spiritual body. Even if I eat other food in the day, I will feel hungry and weak. I must eat a palatable potato leaf dish. This potato leaf is known as 'jolar' in our local cultural language (Mende) In my culture and country and it is believed that if you are well fed with potato leaves (jolar) you can live for long time because it protects you from witchcraft. This food prevents me from falling ill and makes me feel fed.

My grandmother used to tell me an interesting story about the cock and the bull which made grow more interested in this dish. There are many steps involved in the preparation of this food that is reflective and unique to my culture. There is a story about the origin of this recipe. This story is not like any story; it is from a historical story called 'joyoe' (meaning ‘send’):

The cock and the bull story, which my grandmother used to tell me, goes like this - Mr. Cock was a gardener who planted potato leaves. Mr. Bull was an idler. Mr.Cock had planted some potato leaves and it had grown well and was fresh. One day, Mr. Cock cooked a delicious potato leaf dish and invited Mr. Bull to a dinner. Mr.Bull enjoyed the dish so much that he decided to steal Mr. Cock’s potato leaves. He stole these potato leaves for a very long time, at the expense of Mr. Cock.

As result, Mr. Cock decided to make a human-like structure (a scarecrow) that was very sticky in the center of the garden. When Mr. Bull came to steal the plants, he saw this scarecrow and thought it was a real human being. Mr. Bull thought that he had been caught and so he acted in an arrogant way to the man standing in the garden. He went to the man and said, "Do you think I used to steal here?" The scarecrow did not say anything.

Mr. Bull continued to talk a lot and then he decided to touch the image. As he touched the image his front hoofs got stuck; then used his head and his head also got stuck. "Please let me go," he cried. Mr. Bull was helpless. He was caught and was disgraced publicly.

Moreover, this recipe is special to me in a way that it has helped me greatly. There are different ways of preparing beans akara but this way makes my culture more unique and more special. We include onion and cooking oil. Other cultures use palm oil. According to my culture, it is believe that when couples give this cake to each other, they will remain in love forever and no demonic force will be able to separate them.

The knowledge of making this recipe has helped me to make money and I do help my parents with my schooling bills. Beans akara originated in a village called Kombeama in the Kenema district in Sierra Leone, where people used to cook the beans as a soup. One day, the ingredients used to prepare the beans soup were not available. As result, a woman decided to soak and prepare it in the way as I have explained above. Although it was not advanced as it is now, she thought of doing so because her children were hungry for two days and they had been crying of hunger.

Until now, this food still remains a way to keep up life in most African countries. In conclusion, beans akara is a special food to my culture and will always continue to be served at marriages or receptions.

According to our tradition there is always separate provision made for elders. So he went and sat among the elders. They started giving out banana bread. He ate all they gave to him and even asked for more. At the end of the day he was fed up and unable to eat other foods. He felt sick so they took him to his house and sent for a doctor.
When the doctor came the first question he asked was, "What’s the problem?" The man replied, "I have no problem doctor, only that I have eaten one sweet banana bread." Then the doctor replied, "Just one sweet banana bread?" The doctor did not finish saying the words when the man interrupted saying, "Not necessarily sir, I was greedy…"

The doctor gave him treatment and warned him never to eat too much banana bread. He replied in a very low voice, "I will never do this again, doctor."

Put a pot on the fire and pour oil and allow it to be very hot. Take a tablespoon full of the mixture and put it in the oil. Allow it to have a golden brown color before being removed. Now you can prepare a soup if you wish that you can eat with the rice cake.

They then take the child into the forest and put it under a cotton tree where witches and wizards live. The child that has been put under the tree covered with a white cloth. Then the ground rice is put around the child, after which ceremonies are performed. The mother is always sent home while the ceremony is been performed. If the child is a demon, he/she will change to a snake and enter into the tree.