[2] Matoke bananas are a staple food crop in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania[3] and other Great Lakes countries.

Cooking bananas have long been and still are a common staple crop around the Lake Victoria area of Kenya and Uganda, and in the West and Kilimanjaro regions of Tanzania.

[11] East African Highland bananas were introduced early into Africa from Southeast Asia during the first to sixth centuries AD, probably via trade.

[11] They are genetically distinct from the other AAA cultivars, having evolved locally in the African Great Lakes region for over a millennium.

They are found nowhere else in the world, and the African Great Lakes has been called the secondary center of banana diversity because of this (with Southeast Asia being the first).

[12] The triploid East African Highland banana gene pool arose from a single hybridization event, which generated a genetic bottleneck during the foundation of the crop genepool.

Per capita annual consumption of bananas in Uganda is the highest in the world at 0.70 kg (1.5 lb) daily per person.

Also, a portion of the East African Highland bananas locally known as mbidde is used to produce juice and beer.

[16][17] Matoke are peeled using a knife, wrapped in the plant's leaves (or plastic bags), and set in a cooking pot (Swahili: sufuria) atop the banana stalks.

It is typically eaten with a sauce made of vegetables, ground peanut, or some type of meat (goat or beef).