Teff, an ancient grain from the Horn of Africa, is so fine that its name is derived from “teffa”, the Amharic word for lost. Outside the region teff is largely unknown, which belies its ubiquity in Ethiopia and Eritrea, where it’s not hyperbole to say the teff-based flatbread injera is eaten with every meal.
“Teff is a staple in Ethiopia,” says Nethanet Assefa, owner of now-closed Sydney Ethiopian restaurant Alem’s House. “It’s a superfood: gluten free, iron-rich, and when it’s fermented for injera, it’s good for gut bacteria. It’s starting to be grown in Australia and you might find teff flour cookies and cakes, but in Ethiopia, it’s purely for injera.”
Injera is a spongy, tart flatbread made from teff flour and water. The mixture is fermented for up to five days, depending on the ambient temperature. In an Ethiopian household enough injera is usually made to last three days. For a big family that could mean 60 to 80 pieces cooked on a hot griddle and stored in a mesob (a conical, lidded basket).
“Breakfast, lunch, dinner, everything comes with injera,” says Ephrem Solomon, co-owner of Melbourne-based restaurant Sinq. “It takes a lot of skill to make. You can give two people the same batter and the injera might come out differently. The perfect injera is soft, light and has a lot of holes, which we call eyes. If someone’s injera has no eyes, they need more skill.”
Injera has a threefold function as bread, utensil and plate. The flatbread is topped with various dishes called wat, which are scooped up with torn pieces of injera. “Wats are spiced stews,” Assefa says. “A wat might consist of meat, pulses, fish, or vegetables.”
Leftovers are never wasted. “Stale injera is dried so it won’t spoil,” says Solomon. “The torn pieces are cooked with tomato sauce and berbere spice to make a dish called firfir.”
Indigenous to the Ethiopian highlands, teff was domesticated between 4000 and 1000 BC. Over the millennia, the grain has ventured outside the country along trade routes. Evidence of seeds dating back to 3300 BC were found in Egyptian pyramids. In the early noughties, teff was sent to the Netherlands, where in 2007, Dutch agronomist Jans Roosjen took out a patent.
Roosjen had partnered with the Ethiopian Institute of Biodiversity Conservation, studying teff. Seeing the commercial potential, Roosjen claimed the grain and sold teff products until his company went bankrupt. Although the patent was declared void in the Netherlands in 2019, in other parts of Europe protection remains in place.
Indigenous crops expert Dr Bula Wayessa, spoke to the BBC on the subject. “[Roosjen’s patent] represents a manifestation of global power relations in which multi-million-dollar corporations based in the global north excise cultural appropriation in Third World countries,” he said.
Teff and injera are inextricably linked with Ethiopia. “I struggle to explain how important, how central injera is to our culture,” says Tinsae Elsdon, founder of Dinner with Tinsae and coffee roaster, Djebena Coffees. “Farming the grains is so delicate and detailed, and in every ethnic group, in every house, we use it. It’s about lifestyle, and for the diaspora, it’s about childhood memories.”
