Cameroon – CM002A
Composition: Clay
Colour: Black
Shape: Raw
The Mabele Clay originates in Cameroon. It is a salty, lightly smoked and smooth edible natural clay.
Mabele Sm Clay
Cameroon – CM002A
Composition: Clay
Colour: Black
Shape: Raw
The Mabele Clay originates in Cameroon. It is a salty, lightly smoked and smooth edible natural clay.
Hello guys,
Thanks for the museum, I am a little curious about Mabele. In my native country of the Democratic Republic of Congo, we do have Mabele also. The way, it is prepared from Congolese Youtube shows, it is from clay and peope mold them into log and burn mabele to open fire.
My question is when you say that it originated from Cameroon, the picture above looks like natural edible stones. My question is whether mabele in the Central Africa Region has the same name but it is eaten differently? Thanks
Dear Consolata,
Thank you so much for your contribution! It is indeed very valuable to hear from you. We haven’t had the chance yet to properly get acquainted with Congolese geophagy and Congolese edible earths yet. Indeed it seems Mabele is a name given to edible clays in Central Africa. We believe that even if it bears the same name, it still is different as the clay has most likely different chemical compositions according to what region/country it has been excavated from. About the how it is cooked/eaten, we unfortunately don’t have enough knowledge about the Mabele’s existence in different countries yet to be able to discuss this. But thanks to your contribution we are learning more!
The Museum of Edible Earth
And we also got Mabele in a shop in Amsterdam. This one seems to come from Congo indeed: https://museumofedible.earth/product/smoked-mabele-clay/
The texture is very gummy. It doesn’t dissolve. I’m getting salty licorice. It tastes like a stone. It tastes like snow.
It’s not bad. I like this. You taste the smokiness. BBQ rocks. You taste the smell.
Like clay in ceramics workshop
You can draw with it, it doesn’t wipe away
I like the texture