Hanza was consumed extensively in the hunting-gathering tradition of the Sahel. The shrub that typically grows 2-4 meters tall provides a yellow fruit with a sweet, gelatinous juice, and a terribly bitter seed the size of a pea. This seed can be debittered by soaking it in successive water baths, after which it becomes a nutritious pseudo-cereal rich in proteins (20%), carbohydrates, iron, zinc and calcium. It is very drought-tolerant, and typically produces good harvests in years of failed rains, towards the end of the dry season when food reserves are at their lowest.
During the second half of the 19th century, this plant was turned into a symbol of drought and hunger. Particularly resilient, the seeds of the hanza were almost exclusively the available source of caloric-dense food for hundreds of thousends of Saheliens during the famines of 1972 and 1984. Even though this emphasizes its importance in food security, many consumed these grains by necessity and this has been anchored in the collective memory of the people. On top of this, due to the droughts the lack of water probably prevented full debittering and as a consequence its consumption was not pleasant.
