LISTEN TO
Rice: Dietary staple, daily greeting, and nutritional villain?
SBS Audio
11/10/202324:07
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has addressed assassinations, political controversies and polarising topics – but 'who makes the ?' is a topic he knows is too dangerous to touch.
On show in , Trudeau was asked whether he preferred the Nigerian, Ghanaian or Senegalese version of the flavoured with spiced and tomato-stewed grains. Different places will add their own twist, whether it's the broken jasmine rice in Senegal or the smokiness of .
"Now, from my backpacking around Africa when I was a kid, I learnt that jollof is actually , right?" Trudeau told Hagos, the show's presenter.
It's true: the name comes from the region's . He also expertly dodged the question of which country did jollof rice best – citing the poutine wars in Quebec (over who invented the ) as the reason why.
"And the intensity of that battle, which is mostly friendly – but has come to blows every now and then in certain families – means it's something that I've learned to stay away from and I am not getting in the mix between Ghanaians and Nigerians on the jollof," he told the show.
Jollof rice with fish. Credit: Alan Benson
While the Canadian Prime Minister diplomatically backed away from this contentious topic, there are plenty of people who will happily battle over the staple that's been called .
As I explained in the of my for SBS: "In recent years, the hot topic of who makes better jollof rice (#jollofwars) has involved entire countries (and their political figures), inspired a and even became a key plot point in shows like Atlanta and Ted Lasso."
Although the dish is cooked across West Africa, the Nigerian-Ghanaian rivalry over who makes better jollof rice is particularly intense – called it "the most heated food debate amongst any diaspora."
While filming Ted Lasso, actor Sam Richardson (who has Ghanaian heritage) said the battle even spilled onto the set.
"All the extras were Ghanaian and Nigerian, so we’d be arguing about jollof, and then when they would call 'cut!', we'd still be arguing about it," he told . "The extras would also be chiming in in the background, bringing old wars to a head."
Adetokunboh Adeniyi who runs in Sydney and in Brisbane is well aware of this ongoing fight – when diners with Ghanaian backgrounds come to his Sydney restaurant, they ask specifically for Ghanaian jollof rice, even though the venue is clearly named after the largest city in Nigeria.
Adetokunboh Adeniyi.
"We would point at the Nigerian flag that hangs by the window," he says and laughs. "Do you see a Ghanaian flag hanging by that window?" his staff would say in a good-humoured manner.
The Ghanaian diners would always pretend they didn't enjoy the Nigerian jollof rice on offer, even if their plates were empty afterwards.
I'm so confident that the Nigerian jollof is the best that I'm dying to take on the competition with anyone.
Nigerian food writer Ugboma the Ghana vs Nigeria conflict over this dish is "similar to the dynamic of siblings teasing each other".
Adeniyi definitely invokes this spirit by gently trash-talking Ghanaian jollof rice on Instagram. "I rated it as a five out of 10. Ghanaians were not having it, they were not having it," he says with a laugh.
"There is a very, very funny video online where I think they got Nigerian aunties and mums to eat Ghanaian jollof and filmed their reaction," he adds. "Some of them were just utterly upset by the whole idea of it."
As fun as it is to joke and add to the #jollofwars, he says it's important to credit the Senegalese for creating the dish. But that doesn't mean the country is number one at preparing this West African staple.
"I wouldn't give Senegal the title at all. I would give Senegal third place," he says. "I say to my Senegalese friends, it's not who did it first, it's who did it best."
"I'm so confident that the Nigerian jollof is the best that I'm dying to take on the competition with anyone," Adeniyi adds.
Jollof rice Credit: China Squirrel
As for second place?
"I think it's actually a tie between Ghana and Gambia," he says. Later, he relents and awards Ghanaian jollof rice the runner-up spot. "I would say it was quite nice – not as nice as a Nigerian one, not even close. But yes, it was okay. I don't like the Senegalese version at all."
He believes the Nigerian version uses a level of spice that's friendly to all palates – whether you're seven or 70. "You would see kids – literally babies – able to eat our jollof rice as opposed to the Ghanaian one."
Their choice of rice is better and it's cooked in a vegan-friendly stock. "Nigerian jollof is the best because we actually support the dietary requirements of everyone."
The importance of the dish in Nigerian culture is captured in this saying: "a party without jollof is just a meeting."
He adds it's such a special thing that you enjoy at Eid, Christmas or any other celebratory occasion.
"This is what we eat when we're happy … when mum is really having a good, good week, we're having jollof on Sunday," he says.
And while there's disagreement over which country does it better, there have been times when various communities have come together on the topic (Jamie Oliver's was a unifying moment).
The reason for everyone's passion? "I think jollof rice is a sacred dish," says Adeniyi. "When something is, you know, a national treasure, then it becomes something that needs to be protected." It's led to fans pretending that jollof rice causes lots of , to keep it from being gentrified or misappropriated.
Even though he's adamant Nigeria's version is number one, he thinks jollof rice has a unifying power across a large part of Africa."If I went to Senegal, that's the one dish that I would immediately recognise. And that's the one dish that I would say, 'yes, you know, I'm gonna have some of this or Ghana or Mali, Guinea'." The dish makes a star out of rice – a fact that has drawn diners of Asian descent.
"I think once they see jollof rice, it's just another type of rice for them," he tells SBS Food. It's why they want to immediately try it.
"It's almost like, ‘if they eat rice. They must be like us. We must be friends."
