In South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and many other parts of sub-Saharan Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

, a relatively coarse flour (much coarser than cornflour

Cornflour

Cornflour may be:* Cornmeal, flour ground from dried corn* Cornstarch , the white, powdered starch of the maize grain* Masa, the flour of hominy* Wheat starch, in Australia...

 or cornstarch

Cornstarch

Corn starch, cornstarch, cornflour or maize starch is the starch of the corn grain obtained from the endosperm of the corn kernel.-History:...

) made from maize

Maize

Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...

 (mielies or mealies; from Portuguese "milho").
It is a staple food

Staple food

A staple food is one that is eaten regularly and in such quantities that it constitutes a dominant portion of a diet, and that supplies a high proportion of energy and nutrient needs. Most people live on a diet based on one or more staples...

 traditionally made into many forms of dishes, such as Umngqusho

Umngqusho

Umngqusho is a Bantu dish with several variants:* Made of stamp mielies with sugar beans, butter, onions, potatoes, chillies and lemons, made to simmer.* Made of mielie-meal, semolina and peas....

, sour-milk porridge, pap

Pap (food)

Pap , a traditional porridge made from mielie-meal , is a staple food of the Bantu inhabitants of South Africa...

, or even Umqombothi

Umqombothi

Umqombothi, from the Xhosa language, is a beer made from maize , maize malt, sorghum malt, yeast and water. It is commonly found in South Africa. It is very rich in Vitamin B. The beer has a heavy and distinctly sour aroma. The beer does not have a very high alcohol content, usually less than...

 (a type of beer

Beer

Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...

). Compare "samp

Samp

Samp is dried corn kernels that have been stamped and chopped until broken but not as fine as Mielie-meal or mielie rice. The coating around the kernel loosens and is removed during the pounding and stamping process. It is used in the Xhosa variant of Umngqusho and sometimes eaten with Chakalaka...

" and "sadza

Sadza

Sadza in Shona, Isitshwala in isiNdebele, pap in South Africa or nsima in the Chichewa language of Malawi, is a cooked corn meal that is the staple food in Zimbabwe and other parts of southern and eastern Africa. This food is cooked widely in other countries of the region.Sadza in appearance is a...

."

It is similar to Italian polenta

Polenta

Polenta is a dish made from boiled cornmeal. The word "polenta" is borrowed from Italian.-Description:Polenta is made with ground yellow or white cornmeal , which can be ground coarsely or finely depending on the region and the texture desired.As it is known today, polenta derives from earlier...

 or American grits

Grits

Grits are a food of American Indian origin common in the Southern United States and mainly eaten at breakfast. They consist of coarsely ground corn, or sometimes alkali-treated corn . They are also sometimes called sofkee or sofkey from the Muskogee language word...

except that it is usually made of a white rather than a yellow maize variety.