Nsenene

Nsenene is the Luganda name for a long-horned grasshopper (more commonly called bush cricket or katydid) that is a central and south-western Ugandan delicacy as well as an important source of income. The insect is also eaten in neighbouring areas of Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania. Traditionally in Uganda, nsenene were collected by children and women. They were given to the women’s husbands in return for a new gomasi (a traditional dress for women). Although the women were made to do the treacherous work of collecting nsenene, they were never allowed to eat them. It was believed that women who consume nsenene would bear children with deformed heads like those of a conocephaline bush cricket. Nowadays, nsenene are consumed by most women in the areas where this insect is traditionally eaten.

Taxonomy

Nsenene is often misidentified as Ruspolia nitidula. In fact, R. nitidula is a Eurasian species. Specimens from southern Africa have been synonymised with this species, but further research may show them to belong in fact to a different species. The species that occurs most commonly in Africa is R. baileyi and this is actually the correct scientific name of nsenene. This does not exclude the possibility that among the nsenene caught for consumption there may occasionally be a different species, like R. differens, R. persimilis or R. punctipennis.

External links

• Ruspolia page of the Orthoptera Species File
• Nsenene chronicle