Odka

This Gabra girl is traveling with her family literally in search of greener pastures. Kenya is home to several Cushitic tribes including the Borana, Gabra, Oromo, and Somali people. Like the nomadic Somali herds people, the Gabra people will collapse their homes and load everything they own on a few older female camels (which they keep as beasts of burden), and follow after the rains.

As you can imagine, Somalis do not have any way to refridgerate food. When an animal is slaughtered, it must be consumed immediately by the family/community. Like many nomatic cultures though, Somalis have found ways of preseving food. One of the most pleasant is Odka. When we share meals with our Somali friends, beans, rice and thin goat stew are the most common menu, but we are always in for a treat when odka is served. In our experience, odka has been made of camel meat and is served in a thick gravy with rice. Sharing from a common plate, we gather the food together in our right hands, form it into a small ball and eat it. For another perspective, here is a short essay from one of Somali students. She prefers to go by her nickname, "Melda".

Odka by Melda

Odka is commonly used in Somalia, and in particular Central Somalia. It is also made for couples on their honeymoon. Usually when a person travels from one city to another they will carry odka as a gift.

It is made of meat which is cut into small pieces mixed with oil. The oil that is used is not ordinary oil that we use for cooking. It is oil which is generated from cow’s milk. First, the meat is cut into thin long strips and then hung outdoors to dry. This is a traditional method of preserving meat. When the meat is dried, it is cut into small pieces and then it is cooked with oil. After that, we put oil made from cow’s milk on the odka so that it will not spoil.
Odka has a very good smell and it is tasty. It is always used for breakfast, but sometimes it is used for dinner by couples on their honeymoon. A few Northern provinces eat odka at lunch but this is rare.