Ugali, also known as posho, nsima, papa, pap, mogobe, sadza, isitshwala, akume, amawe, ewokple, akple, and other names, is a type of corn meal made from maize or corn or mahindi flour in several African countries: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Botswana and South Africa, and in West Africa by the Ewes of Togo, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria and Ivory Coast. It is cooked in boiling water or milk until it reaches a stiff or firm dough-like consistency. In 2017, the dish was added to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, one of a few foods on the list.

This dish is eaten widely across Africa, where it has different local names:

The word ugali is an African term derived from Swahili; it is also widely known as nsima in Malawian languages such as Chichewa and Chitumbuka. In parts of Kenya, the dish also goes by the informal name of sembe or ugali. In Zimbabwe it is known as sadza in Chishona or isitshwala in Ndebele The Afrikaans name (mielie) pap comes from Dutch, in which the term means "(corn) porridge".

Ugali was introduced in Africa shortly after the Portuguese had introduced maize. Maize was introduced to Africa from the Americas between the 16th and 17th centuries. Before this, sorghum and millet were the staple cereals in most of Sub-Saharan Africa. African farmers readily accepted maize as its cultivation was very similar to that of sorghum but with significantly higher yields. Eventually, maize displaced sorghum as the primary cereal in all but the drier regions. The full replacement of these crops with maize took place in the latter half of the twentieth century. In Malawi, they have a saying "chimanga ndi moyo" which translates to "maize is life". Nshima/nsima is still sometimes made from sorghum flour though it is quite uncommon to find this. Cassava, which was also introduced from the Americas, can also be used to make nshima/nsima, either exclusively or mixed with maize flour. In Malawi nsima made from cassava (chinangwa) is localized to the lakeshore areas; however, when maize harvests are poor, cassava nsima can be found all over the country.

Ugali (when it is cooked as porridge, it is called uji) is served with sweet potatoes, ripe bananas, Irish potatoes and even bread. Solid ugali is usually served with traditional vegetables, stew or sukuma wiki (also known as collard greens). It is the most common staple starch featured in the local cuisines of the African Great Lakes region and Southern Africa. When ugali is made from another starch, it is usually given a specific regional name.

The traditional method of eating ugali (and the most common in rural areas) is to roll a lump into a ball with the right hand and then dip it into a sauce or stew of vegetables or meat. Making a depression with the thumb allows the ugali to scoop, and wrap around pieces of meat to pick them up in the same way that flatbread is used in other cultures. Leftover ugali can also be eaten with tea the following morning.

Ugali is relatively inexpensive and thus easily accessible to the poor, who usually combine it with a meat or vegetable stew (for example, sukuma wiki in Kenya) to make a filling meal. Ugali is easy to make, and the flour can last for a considerable time in average conditions.

Sagtulga (Dagbani: saɣituliga, Hausa:tuo zaafi), or diehuo, is a popular main dish for the people of Ghana. Sagtulga is a main meal eaten with soupy accompaniments such as okro soup. It is most common in the country's northern regions: Northern, Upper East, and Upper West. The dish is usually eaten for dinner, yet some people (for example, farmers and manual workers) have it for breakfast or lunch. It is usually eaten with blended Corchorus olitorius leaves (Dagbani: salinvogu, Hausa: ayoyo, molokai) and okro (Abelmoschus esculentus)^{[citation needed]} with stew on the side.