In class at one point someone brought up the question of whether yams and sweet potatoes are the same thing, so I looked it up for confirmation, and the answer is somewhat confusing. To begin with, yams and sweet potatoes are definitely distinct vegetables. This seems simple, but the confusion comes in to play at most American grocery stores, because what are marketed as yams usually aren't actually yams. In most grocery stores, there are two kinds of sweet potatoes offered: firm sweet potatoes and soft ones. Firm ones have golden skins and a pale interior flesh and are usually called sweet potatoes at stores. Soft sweet potatoes have copper exterior skins and orange flesh on the inside and are often marketed as yams at stores. A real yam is a completely different vegetable, the vast majority of which are produced in Africa. So when someone says yam in America, they typically mean a sweet potato, but the yams that Achebe is writing about are different.
Here is an article that explains this somewhat confusing situation with helpful pictures: https://www.thekitchn.com/whats-the-difference-between-yams-and-sweet-potatoes-word-of-mouth-211176
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Apparently, part of the reason that distinguishing between yams and sweet potatoes in America comes from the fact that sweet potatoes can have several different colors. People used to be accustomed to the white ones. Then when the orange-looking ones were introduced, people began to call them by the English version of the African word "nyami," yams. Not sure how accurate this part is, but that was partly because slaves from West Africa used "nyami" to refer to these orange sweet potatoes, which looked like the yams they were accustomed to.
If you think you're well-versed in the difference between yams and sweet potatoes, you can check out this quiz I found online (I did alright): https://www.ncsweetpotatoes.com/pop-quiz-sweet-potato-or-yam/
Post a Comment