Ruam Kumen

The most popular Tiv staple food, made by pounding boiled yam until it becomes a smooth, elastic dough. It is widely eaten during both everyday meals and special occasions, and is considered the cornerstone of Tiv cuisine.

Yam

Yam is peeled, boiled until soft, then pounded in a wooden mortar (idyu) with a pestle until smooth and stretchy. It is moulded into portions and served hot.

Served with a variety of traditional soups and sauces including Pocho, Genger, Atuu, and Atyever.

Considered one of the most important staple foods among the Tiv people. It appears at nearly every significant meal, from everyday family dining to festive occasions. Sharing ruam kumen reflects Tiv communal values and hospitality.

Ruam is the general Tiv word for the starchy food, pounded or stirred, that is eaten with soups; a pinch of it can be shaped into a "spoon". Ruam kumen is the pounded form made from yam, but Akiga Sai, writing in 1935, notes that it can also be made from cocoyam, maize or sweet potato, though maize gives a poorer texture and sweet potato does not hold together as yam does.

Akiga records the Tiv account of how yam came to them. During a great famine, an orphan with nothing to lose dug up a tuber in the forest, roasted it and found it good; an old man who noticed the boy growing fat asked to be shown the plant and had the news spread, and people rushed to dig their share. Those who came late asked how others had heard so quickly and were told "i yôô a yôô", "it was announced", which Akiga gives as the origin of iyough, the Tiv word for yam. At first the Tiv only roasted yams or made them into flour. A visiting Udam man then taught his Tiv friend to pound boiled yam, and before mortars were made it was mashed on a hollow grinding stone. Akiga lists dozens of yam varieties in three groups: nuangegh, agbo and anumbe.

The Tiv food guide tivpeople.com names three main kinds of ruam: ruam kumen from yam, ruam nahan made from any kind of flour, and akpu from fermented cassava. It notes that some Tiv will say they have not eaten all day if they have not had pounded yam, even after eating rice or beans, and that the Tiv traditionally say u yôô, "you have cooked", after a meal in place of thanks.

Pounded yam is rarely eaten with a single soup. Daily Trust (2021) reported that in Tiv areas a bowl of hot pounded yam is commonly served with at least four soups, and that serving several soups, especially to a visitor, is part of Tiv custom.

Note on sources: some say the Tiv obtained the yam from the Udam; Akiga rejects this, saying the Udam only taught them to pound it.

Sources: tivpeople.com, "Tiv Food" (Internet Archive copy, 25 January 2025); Akiga Sai, History of the Tiv (1935), translated by Harold M. Bergsma and Martin L. Akiga, Africa 85(4), 2015, chapter two; Daily Trust, "An abundance of soups", 1 April 2021.

See the Tiv people and the Tiv language in our Nigeria Heritage Archive: the states and local government areas where Tiv communities live, neighbouring peoples, population figures and sources.