The Nigerian Food Mafia

Nigerians are the absolute worst when it comes to their food. True. Take a Nigerian to London, Toronto, or Sydney, and the first thing they look for is the nearest African (read Nigerian) restaurant or African/Asian food store. The other day, I heard about how one foreign institution hosted a group of visiting lecturers from Nigeria and decided to treat them to light lunch – sandwiches, tea and coffee. They needn’t have bothered as their visitors did not as much as touch, talk less of taste the food.

Imagine organising a Nigerian wedding at the North Pole and forgetting to serve Jollof rice.

Or imagine visiting a Nigerian who has lived in the UK for fifty years and being offered mashed potatoes and gravy! That person obviously does not like you and is using style to tell you that your company is not wanted.

And it’s not just about eating their own food, Nigerians are ready to go to war with you if you as much as suggest that the Nigerian food or style of cooking a particular food is not the best. Nigerians are very protective about their food. Ask the Ghanaians. We had just about agreed to put our football rivalry aside and try to be friends, when the Ghanaians (unwisely) stated that their Jollof rice is better than our Jollof rice. They might as well have declared war.

Nigerians would go to war for their food.

And it is also very unwise to change a Nigerian recipe or style of cooking or presenting a Nigerian dish. Ask Jamie Oliver and Nigerian food bloggers; they have all been dragged by the Nigerian food mafia, a group almost as deadly as the Beyhive, over minor and major alterations to various aspects of Nigerian food. They are so many arguments for and against ‘altering’ our food, but this post is not about that and I am not advocating for any side.

The question is why are Nigerians so partial to, protective of and resistant to change when it comes to Nigerian food?

It’s not that we eat a lot of our food. True we have a lot of different types of food, but do we eat them? No. And even if we eat them, our food rarely cross ethnic and geographical barriers (how many Hausas cook starch and banga at home, and how many Yorubas know what Miyan Kuka is?). Thank God for the food bloggers and ‘So you think you can cook’, and the dishes that have successfully crossed barriers and gained acceptance all over Nigeria (Suya, Amala, and Edikaikong y’all are the MVP).

I think one of the consequences of our ‘stiffness’ is that we don’t try new things even when they are available within our country and so our diet is not as varied or diverse as it should be.

What does it matter?

Well the more diverse a person’s diet is, the more his/her likelihood of getting adequate nutrients and we all know how important it is to be well nourished (health benefits, thinking capacity, productivity, likelihood of getting bae, etc).

However, many studies have shown that Nigerians generally  need to focus on not just eating a balanced diet made of the same types of food but on increasing the types of food they eat.

The lady in the mirror just gave me the look.

So have you tried any new dishes recently? Would you be willing to?