A few months ago I was browsing the dried fruit/snack aisle in my local grocery when I saw a blast from the past. Jackfruit. Regular readers may recall that I have covered jackfruit a couple of times--most recently on July 6th, 2024. I decided to give the fruit another chance. It was from the Mavuno Harvest company, based out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
To explain the question marks in this post's title, the label for this food had a first for me. Instead of simply stating where the product came from, it read, "Product of Uganda or Sri Lanka." Or? They don't know where it came from? This still puzzles me. But more on that later. Anyway, Mavuno Harvest founder Phil Hughes was a Peace Corps volunteer, and he served them in the rural Kenyan village of Miti Mingi in 2005. Where he noticed that the local farmers grew a lot of fruit, but due to lack of storage, processing facilities, transportation, etc., up to two thirds of their harvest went to waste. Depriving potential customers of delicious and nutritious food, and the Kenyans (and other Africans) of a viable source of much-needed income. So, Hughes decided to correct this. He started Mavuno Harvest in 2011. And the company purchases the excess fruit from the African farmers and dry it, and then process it, and ship it around the world. The business is heavily focused on conducting fair trading, paying the farmers fairly, and promoting sustainable agriculture. Alternate Mavuno dried fruits include dates, bananas, coconuts, papayas, pineapples, and mangoes. The company also markets a line of dried fruits that are covered in dark chocolate. Along with a dry roasted nut line, and "fruit bites." These products, not shockingly, are free of GMOs and are 100% organic. If you're curious about the name, "mavuno" is a word in Swahili that means "harvest" or "first fruit." It can also refer to "fruits of labor," and a celebration of the harvest. So it makes perfect sense for a name of a business that markets dried fruit and such. Finally, while it's possible that the jackfruit I ate came from Sri Lanka, it seems that Mavuno mainly uses products from Sub-Saharan Africa. Which would make it more likely to have originated in the African nation of Uganda. (Also, I already discussed Sri Lanka in my July 6, 2024 post, so I wanted to now talk about Uganda a bit. So it's partially that, too.)
Mavuno Harvest dried organic jackfruit: The fruit was a yellowish-orange color. Cut into thin strips, about the size of a typical potato chip. They had a sweetish odor. The texture was dry and chewy. There were no sweeteners added, and it shows. The strips were somewhat sweet, but kind of blandish. But, these jackfruit strips kind of grew on me as I kept eating them. By the end I thought they were okay. Not great, but alright. So I would recommend them, but not in a very enthusiastic way.
Now let's talk about some famous Ugandans, or at least folks with some Ugandan heritage. There's Irshad Manji, who was born in Uganda, to parents of Indian and Egyptian heritage. Canadian by citizenship, she's an author and educator primarily focused on a reformist view of Islam. Next up is David Kato, who was born and lived in Uganda, and was a LGBT civil rights activist, who sadly was murdered in 2011. In the world of film, there's Phill Lewis, who was born in Uganda to American parents. He's arguably best known for roles in films such as "Heathers" (1988), "How I Got into College" (1989), "City Slickers" (1991), "Bowfinger" (1999), "Wish I Was Here" (2014), and on television programs like "Scrubs" (2005-09), where he played Hooch, who may have really been crazy. Moving to athletics, three Ugandans have played in the NFL. Twin brothers Kato and Wasswa Serwanga were both cornerbacks. Kato played for the New England Patriots, Washington (then Redskins) and New York Giants from 1999-2003, starting 3 of 58 total games. He accumulated 3 interceptions, 4 recovered fumbles, and 3 sacks, for a career AV of 9. His brother Wasswa played for the San Francisco 49ers and Minnesota Vikings from 1999-2001. Wasswa's totals were 23 games, 2 starts, and a career AV of 1. The most accomplished Ugandan NFL player was Mathias Kiwanuka. He played linebacker/defensive end for the New York Giants from 2006-14. He started 82 of 120 total games, and intercepted 3 passes, recovered 3 fumbles, achieved 38.5 sacks, and a lifetime AV of 43. He also played for the Giant's Super Bowl winning team of 2007. Switching to the Olympics, 4 Ugandans have won gold medals, all in Summer Game events. John Akii-Bua won in the 1972 Games, in the men's 400 meter hurdles. In 2012 Stephan Kiprotich took gold in the men's marathon event. Peruth Chemutai won gold in the 2020 Games in the women's 3000 meter steeplechase. She also won a silver medal in the same event in 2024. Joshua Cheptegei won gold in the men's 5000 meter in 2020, and then in 2024 in the men's 10,000 meter. (Along with winning silver in the men's 10,000 meters in 2020. More impressively, he holds the world's record time for both of his gold medal winning runs.) Finally, in the sport of boxing, there's John "The Beast" Mugabi. He first won silver in the 1980 Games, as a welterweight boxer. After he went pro, he totaled a record of 42-7-1, with 39 knockouts. He was also the WBC super welterweight champion from 1989-90.
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