Casamance okra-and-peanut stew with palm oil, smoked fish, dried shrimp — heavier and nuttier than soup kandja.
Diola/Manjago of Casamance and Guinea-Bissau frontier. The name «suppu-kanja» blends Portuguese «sopa» (soup) and Diola «kanja» (okra), reflecting the Portuguese trading-post history of Cacheu/Ziguinchor since 1588. Modern form codified post-1960 independence.
Guinea-Bissauan caldou de mancarra is the closest cross-border cousin; the dish is the Sunday family meal in Ziguinchor and Bignona. Restaurant Le Perroquet in Ziguinchor (since 1972) lists it daily. Diola chef Aminata Sané of Dakar's Le Djoloff revived it on a fine-dining menu in 2018.
Russet-brown rather than orange like kandja proper — the peanut paste turns it earthy. Mucilage still pulls strings, but less so. Smoked fish dominates the nose; the palm oil sits at the back. Heavier than kandja, more main-course than soup.
Peanut paste added after the palm oil and onion base, before okra goes in — sequence matters or peanut burns. Smoked fish (typically yaboi sardinella) dry for 5 days first, dried shrimp likewise. The combination of three ferments + okra is what makes the southern Casamance form distinct.
Variations
Casamance suppukanja (peanut + palm oil), Guinea-Bissau caldou de mancarra (more peanut, less okra), Saint-Louis kandja (no peanut at all, lighter), and the diaspora version that adds tomato (contested).
On the Palate
Where Suppukanja sits in the Senegalese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
4 steps · 7 min active + 1 hour 5 min waiting
- 15 min
Sauté 1 chopped onion + 4 garlic in palm oil 5 min.
Watch outSoften the onion and garlic in the palm oil without letting them brown much — this is a gentle base, and scorched garlic will haunt the whole pot.
- 25 min
Add 500 g sliced okra + 200 g peanut butter + 200 g smoked fish; stir.
Watch outStir the peanut butter in right after the base and before it cooks long — peanut paste catches and burns fast on the bottom, so keep it moving and add the okra promptly.
- 360 min
Pour 1.5 L water; simmer 1 hr until very thick and nutty.
Watch outSimmer until the pot turns thick and glossy and smells deeply nutty — thin and watery means it hasn't cooked down enough, the okra hasn't given up its body yet.
- 42 min
Serve over rice.
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