Africa / 41

Quick index

• Suya — West Africa's night-market kebab, created by Hausa butchers: thin-sliced beef coated in yaji — a rub of ground peanuts, ginger, and hot pepper — then fanned out on skewers over open flame.
• Kyinkyinga — Ghana's cousin of suya: cubes of beef or goat rolled in tankora powder (roasted peanut, ginger, and chile) both before and after grilling, giving a double crust of spice.
• Sosatie — South Africa's braai skewer with Cape Malay roots: lamb cubes marinated overnight in a curried apricot-jam, onion, and vinegar blend, often threaded with dried apricots between the meat.
• Brochettes (East African) — In the Great Lakes region the French word 'brochette' names a whole bar culture: goat meat (occasionally fish or beef) salted, skewered, and grilled over charcoal, served with grilled banana or fried potatoes and cold beer.
• Moroccan Kefta Brochettes — Morocco's souk kebab: ground beef or lamb kneaded with cumin, paprika, fresh coriander, and mint, pressed around flat skewers and grilled over coals, then eaten folded into khobz bread.
• Moroccan Kefta Skewers — Ground beef or lamb worked with grated onion, cumin, paprika, and heaps of fresh cilantro and mint, then molded onto skewers and grilled over charcoal.
• Qotban (Moroccan Lamb Brochettes) — Small cubes of lamb marinated in cumin, sweet paprika, garlic, and olive oil, threaded tightly on thin skewers and flash-grilled at souk stalls.
• Mechoui — A whole lamb rubbed with smen, cumin, and saffron, then slow-roasted on a spit or in a sealed pit oven until the meat pulls apart by hand.
• Boulfaf (Liver Skewers) — Cubes of lamb liver wrapped in caul fat, skewered, and grilled over embers, so the fat bastes the liver as it renders.
• Tunisian Kefta Brochettes — Tunisia's take on the minced skewer runs hotter than its neighbors, seasoning ground lamb or beef with harissa, dried mint, and caraway before grilling.
• Dibi — Chopped mutton or lamb grilled over wood fire at dedicated late-night shops called dibiteries, then hacked into pieces and served on butcher paper with raw onions, mustard-vinegar sauce, and kaani chili.
• Balangu — A Hausa grilled-meat specialty in the suya family, but where suya leans on its peanut-spice crust, balangu is lamb or beef grilled naked over fire so the flavor is pure meat, fat, and smoke.
• Kilishi — Sheets of beef sliced paper-thin, sun-dried, painted with a peanut-yaji spice slurry, then briefly grilled to finish, a shelf-stable cousin of suya from northern Nigeria.
• Choukouya — Ivorian grill-shack lamb or beef, slow-grilled then chopped and tossed with a dry chili-onion spice mix, served with raw onion, mustard, and attieke or bread.
• Afra — The Gambia's answer to Senegalese dibi: chopped lamb or beef seasoned simply, grilled in dedicated afra shops, and wrapped in paper with onions, black pepper, and mustard sauce.
• Soya (Cameroonian Suya) — Cameroon's roadside skewer, larger-cut than Nigerian suya and rubbed with a peanut-chili spice blend before grilling over open flame; beef, goat, and gizzard versions all thrive.
• Brochettes (Rwanda & Burundi Goat Skewers) — In Rwanda, Burundi, and eastern Congo, brochettes of goat (and often pork or fish) are the default bar food, marinated lightly, grilled over charcoal, and served with grilled banana or fried potatoes.
• Mishkaki — Swahili-coast skewers of beef or chicken marinated in ginger, garlic, lime, and chili, grilled slowly over coals and sold by the stick at night markets like Zanzibar's Forodhani Gardens.
• Nyama Choma Skewers — Kenya and Tanzania's 'roast meat' tradition: goat or beef grilled slowly over charcoal with little more than salt, carved at the table, and eaten by hand with kachumbari salsa and ugali.
• Shekla Tibs — Cubes or strips of beef or lamb seared with niter kibbeh spiced butter, rosemary, onion, and jalapeno, brought to the table still crackling on a shekla clay brazier over live coals.
• Egyptian Kofta Meshweya — Egypt's charcoal kofta pairs ground beef or lamb with a high proportion of onion, parsley, and warm spices, grilled on flat skewers and almost always ordered as half of the classic 'kabab wa kofta' platter.
• Kebab Halla — A 'kebab' with no fire: beef chunks browned then slowly braised in a pot with masses of caramelized onion and warm spices until the gravy turns dark and glossy.
• Agashe — Sudanese street skewers of beef, lamb, or chicken rolled in a crust of ground peanuts, chili, and spices before and after grilling, a technique carried across the Sahel and closely related to suya.
• Masikita — Madagascar's street skewer of zebu beef, marinated in ginger, garlic, and sometimes a touch of sugar, grilled over charcoal and sold in bunches by evening vendors.
• Kebab Libi — Libya's take on shish: lamb cubes marinated in the national bzaar spice mix (turmeric-heavy, with grated onion and chili), skewered with fat and charred over charcoal, served with khubza bread, harissa-spiked salad and often chips.
• Melfouf — The Eid al-Adha morning rite of eastern Algeria: cubes of fresh lamb liver wrapped ('melfouf' means wrapped) in lacy caul fat, skewered and grilled so the fat self-bastes the liver, eaten within hours of the sacrifice.
• Kebda Eskandarani — Alexandria's signature street meat: thin-sliced beef liver flash-seared on a flat steel griddle with garlic, green chili, cumin and cardamom, then shoveled into a small French-style roll with pickles and tahina.
• Shaiyah — A Sudanese gathering dish distinct from the peanut-crusted agashe: fatty lamb or mutton chunks dry-seared in a wide pan over open fire in their own rendered fat with onion, salt and chili, stirred until crusted.
• Mosakiky — In northern Madagascar and on Nosy Be the ubiquitous zebu skewer goes by mosakiky rather than the highland masikita: thin strips of humped zebu beef threaded on slim sticks, grilled fast over charcoal and eaten with fiery sakay chili paste, often alongside a hunk of manioc.
• Mozambican espetada — Portuguese and Madeiran settlers left Mozambique a beachside espetada habit: cubes of beef or whole prawns skewered, basted with garlicky piri-piri butter and grilled over coals at Maputo and Tofo beach bars.
• Angolan espetada — Luanda's roadside grills and beach barracas thread beef or goat onto skewers and fire them over charcoal, seasoned with garlic and the local jindungo chili that stands in for piri-piri.
• Gochi-gochi — Gochi-gochi — a Shona onomatopoeia for the sizzle — is Zimbabwe's pick-your-cut braai culture: at butchery-bars in Harare and Bulawayo you buy raw beef or goat by weight and the resident griller cooks it on the spot, sometimes spiking smaller pieces onto sticks.
• Muchomo — Uganda's signature stick meat: fist-sized chunks of goat, beef, pork or chicken impaled on long wooden skewers and roasted leaning around open charcoal fires, then hawked through bus windows at highway stops like Namawojjolo on the Kampala–Jinja road.
• Somali suqaar skewers — Somali grill houses take suqaar — the small-dice cut of meat usually flash-fried with xawaash spices — and thread it onto skewers over charcoal, with hilib ari (goat meat) the most prized version.
• Djiboutian brochettes — At Djibouti-ville's port-side grills, French brochette form meets Somali, Afar and Yemeni cooking: cubes of goat or young lamb are marinated with cumin-heavy xawaash-style spice and grilled over charcoal, served with laxoox flatbread or French fries in a legacy of the colonial garrison town.
• Brochettes créoles — The Mascarene islands' picnic kebab: pork or chicken cubes marinated in siave (soy sauce), ginger, garlic and honey — a Sino-Creole signature — grilled at Reunion's beloved weekend pique-niques along the coast and at Mauritian family barbecues, where Indo-Mauritian massale versions run alongside.
• Seychellois fish brochettes — Beach grills on Mahe and Praslin skewer chunks of job fish, snapper or tuna rubbed with the Seychellois crush of ginger, garlic and crushed chili, then grill them over coconut-husk coals and serve with Creole tomato-onion satini.
• South African espetada — South Africa's large Madeiran-Portuguese community made the espetada a restaurant institution in Johannesburg and Durban: massive cubes of rump rubbed with coarse salt, garlic and bay leaf, grilled on a long skewer that arrives hung vertically at the table so the juices baste the meat as it is carved off.
• Guinea fowl khebab — In northern Ghana, especially around Tamale where guinea fowl is the prestige bird, khebab men skewer pieces of akonfem, rub them with the same yaji-style pepper-and-groundnut spice used for chichinga, and grill them over open coals.
• Tchachanga — Lome's street-grill specialty of Hausa butcher lineage: chunks of goat grilled over charcoal, sliced, then dusted with peanut-chili spice powder and served with raw onion and mustard-touched pepper sauce, often wrapped in paper to eat on the move.
• Tsire — Tsire is the stick-mounted original of the suya family: thin strips of beef threaded ribbon-like onto slender skewers, oiled and coated in kuli-kuli (groundnut cake) based yaji spice, and grilled by Hausa mai-suya from Niamey's night markets eastward to Chad, where the trade travels under the name agashe.