Atuu

A Tiv soup made primarily from okro. It has a characteristic slimy texture that makes it an ideal companion to pounded yam and similar staple foods.

Okro, local seasonings, optional meat or fish

Okro is sliced and cooked with seasonings and optional meat or fish until the soup reaches a smooth, slimy consistency.

Commonly served with Ruam Kumen and similar staple foods.

One of the most commonly eaten soups in Tiv cuisine. The name Atuu reflects the Tiv term for okro, highlighting the direct connection between the Tiv language and local food culture.

Okra is one of the oldest Tiv soup ingredients. Akiga Sai, writing in 1935, lists it with squashes and sorrel among the original soup plants, and places okra and afialegh in the class of viscous soups, as opposed to the non-viscous "strong" soups such as bushi, ashwe and igar. He records that women planted okra on the yam farms during the early rains, alongside peppers set in the shade and the brown melon used for soup.

Okra soup remains a staple. Daily Trust, describing food sellers in Benue in 2021, listed okro among the soups indigenous to the Tiv and recorded both fresh and dried okro soups, as well as igande atuur, on sellers' menus, usually as one of several soups served together with a bowl of pounded yam.

Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) is an erect, often much-branched annual 2 to 4 metres tall. Its young pods, up to 20 cm long, are cooked fresh or dried and are valued because they are mucilaginous, which is what thickens the soup; they should be picked young, as older pods soon turn fibrous. The pods are rich in pectin and a fair source of iron and calcium. The leaves, flower buds and calyces can also be cooked as greens, with a pleasant sour flavour, and the dried leaves can be powdered and stored.

Sources: 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; Useful Tropical Plants database (Fern, K.).

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.