Jollof rice

• 1. A Party Without Jollof

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  In West Africa, people say that "A party without jollof is just a meeting," and jollof rice is the dish that saying defends. It is rice cooked in a sauce of tomatoes, chilies and onions, usually all in a single pot. Its ingredients and methods change from one region to the next.

  This documentary follows the dish from its disputed birthplace to a feud between neighbouring nations. Who first cooked it, and why do historians disagree? How can one recipe carry so many names? And why do cooks in different countries argue so fiercely over whose pot is best?

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• 2. Thieboudienne First

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  The Jolof Empire, also spelled Wolof, ruled parts of West Africa from around the 12th century. Its territory lay across what are now Senegal, Mali, The Gambia and Mauritania. It was a confederacy of states and was later known as the Jolof Kingdom.

  African food historian Fran Osseo-Asare traces jollof rice back to that region, where rice was grown. In her account, the original dish was called thieboudienne, or thiebou djeun. It combined rice, fish, shellfish and vegetables. When cooks made it with meat instead, it became ceebu yapp.

  The fishing communities of Saint-Louis are considered the birthplace of thieboudienne. The Senegalese version now holds a rare distinction, because UNESCO has recognized it as an intangible cultural heritage dish. Not every historian accepts that the dish simply drifted outward from there.

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• 3. Rival Origin Stories

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  Food and agriculture historian James C. McCann doubted that the dish could have spread naturally from Senegal to its present range. A comparable spread, he argued, does not appear in "linguistic, historical or political patterns". He pointed instead to the Mali empire and the Djula tradespeople, who dispersed to regional commercial and urban centers. They took "blacksmithing, small-scale marketing, and rice agronomy" with them, along with the religion of Islam.

  Marc Dufumier, an emeritus professor of agronomy, proposes a much younger origin. He links the dish to colonial promotion of intensive peanut farming in central Senegal, which fed the French oil industry. Less land was left for the traditional millet and sorghum. Imported broken rice from Southeast Asia filled the gap, and local cooks had to work with a grain they did not know.

  The 19th century forms a floor for the current dish, because its ingredients come from across the world. They include New World tomatoes, tomato paste, capsicum peppers, Indian curry powder, Mediterranean thyme and Asian rice varieties. There is no evidence that any of them was grown or imported locally before then.

  Senegalese oral history names a specific cook, Penda Mbaye, who worked at the residence of one of the colonial rulers in Saint-Louis. As the story goes, she ran out of barley and used rice in its place. Whichever account is right, the dish travelled far enough to gather a whole family of names.

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• 4. A Dish With Many Names

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  Speakers of Bamanankan in Mali call the dish zaamè, one of several regional names for what is recognizably the same pot. The name jollof itself comes from the Wolof people. In Wolof, cooks in Senegal, Mauritania and The Gambia say ceebu jën or benachin.

  Across French-speaking West Africa, the dish is riz au gras, or riz gras. The name translates as "fat rice" and refers to the short-grain rice usually used. The variant appears in Beninese, Burkinabé, Guinean, Ivorian, Nigerien and Togolese cooking, and also in Guinea-Bissau. Riz gras typically adds vegetables such as eggplant, carrots or cabbage.

  Even with so many names, the dish is described as "mutually intelligible" across the regions. It has become the best known African dish outside the continent. It turns up wherever West African immigrant communities have settled. What actually goes into the pot is where cooks begin to disagree.

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• 5. Inside the Pot

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  A traditional pot of jollof starts with rice, cooking oil, tomato puree, onion, salt and chilies. Many cooks add tomato paste, bell pepper, garlic, ginger, thyme, curry powder, bay leaves, grains of selim, and bouillon cubes or stock. Recipes shift from country to country and from cook to cook.

  Chicken, turkey, beef, lamb or fish are often cooked with the rice or served beside it. In some countries, cabbage, green peas or carrots go into the pot as well.

  Four kinds of rice turn up in recipes: long grain, short grain, broken and parboiled. Cooks typically sauté tomato puree, tomato paste, onions, salt and chillies in oil. They simmer that mixture into a sauce and then cook the rice in it. In Nigeria, the choice of grain receives particular attention.

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• 6. Country by Country

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  Ghanaian jollof is made with vegetable oil, onion, ginger, pressed garlic, chillies, tomato paste, black pepper and often jasmine rice. The protein is beef, goat or chicken. Cooks steam the meat in a puree of ginger, onions and garlic, then fry it. Onions, pepper, tomato paste, tomatoes and spices are fried in that order before the rice goes in. Ghanaian jollof typically has no green leafy vegetables. At parties and ceremonies, it often arrives with shito, a pepper sauce that originates in Ghana, and a salad.

  Nigerian jollof depends on parboiled rice, including Golden Sella basmati, which has grown steadily more popular in the U.K. since 2006. Parboiled grain resists turning mushy in a one-pot dish. The base is a rich meat stock with a fried tomato and pepper puree, and the rice cooks in the liquid. Scotch bonnet or habanero peppers are common. Beef, turkey, chicken or croaker fish are typical partners, with fried plantains, moi-moi, which is a bean pudding, or coleslaw. Coconut-jollof rice is a variation eaten especially by riverine and some Igbo Nigerians.

  Cameroon's version is sometimes called fried rice, and it often includes red peppers, carrots, green beans and smoked paprika. Smoked snails are a traditional ingredient in both Gambian and Senegalese cooking, and the Senegalese thieboudienne typically uses broken rice. Liberian jollof seldom includes seafood. In Sierra Leone, the dish may use tomato paste rather than red palm oil.

  Party jollof, or party rice, is traditionally cooked outdoors over a wood fire. That gives it a smoky flavor and a crusty "bottom pot" similar to tahdig or socarrat. Native rice, also called concoction rice, uses red palm oil and smoked, dried fish. It is seasoned with locust beans, uziza seeds or scent leaf. Ghana and Nigeria each defend their own pot, and the quarrel has a name.

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• 7. The Jollof Wars

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  In the mid-2010s, competition over the best jollof grew into what people call the "Jollof wars". Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Cameroon are particularly competitive. The rivalry between Nigeria and Ghana is the sharpest, and it has produced cooking competitions and social media campaigns. Supporters say it fosters cultural pride.

  In 2016, Sister Deborah released the song "Ghana Jollof". It put down the Nigerian version and Nigerians for being proud of it. Soon afterward, a physical fight over scarce jollof at a Ghanaian political rally drew delighted mockery from Nigerians.

  Non-traditional ingredients are the most sensitive subject among jollof-making communities, and each country defines them differently. In 2014, Jamie Oliver released a recipe with cherry tomatoes, coriander, lemon and parsley. None of those appears in any traditional recipe. Outrage followed, the hashtag #jollofgate trended on social media, and his team had to issue a statement. The attention soon travelled far beyond West Africa.

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• 8. Going Global

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  According to Nigerian food historian Ozoz Sokoh, the phrase "see jollof" in Nigeria means "see how much fun is being had". The dish and the good time are practically the same word.

  Since the 2010s, interest in West African foods has grown in the western world. Jollof food festivals have been held in Washington, DC, and Toronto.

  "World Jollof Day" has been celebrated since 2015, on the 22nd of August. It gained traction on social media and helped raise the dish's global recognition. On the 3rd of November 2022, jollof rice was honoured with a Google Doodle. The 22nd of August comes round every year, so the question of whose pot is best never has to rest for long.

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