From Ójé Ébécha to Foreign Rice: Food, Class and Memory.
As younglings, especially those of us from large families, there was a quiet formula to food in the home. It was so consistent that it became tradition without anyone needing to announce it. We would meet our mummies making rice for lunch, swallow for dinner, and leftovers (ébécha) for breakfast. That was the rhythm of life. It was a formula so keenly maintained that only once in a blue moon would we have rice for dinner or breakfast. Maybe when yam was harvested and there was enough palm oil, we would have boiled yam and oil for breakfast or lunch. That meal was truly sumptuous, especially with ité ( palm oil sludge), usually extracted from the bottom after the needed oil had been collected during processing. Sometimes we roasted the yams. Fries were usually accompanied by Akamu (pap), with or without sugar. Good old days indeed. We could also have égwa agugu (iron beans), “iron beans” because of how much heat and time it took before it softened enough to become edible. Yet when ...