Why I write about food – Yemisi Aribisala

Yemisi Aribisala is a Nigerian writer, essayist and food memoirist based in London. Her first published book is ‘Longthroat Memoirs; soups, sex and Nigerian tastebuds.’ The book won the John Avery award in the Andre Simon Food & Drink Books Award, 2016. It also won a Gourmand World Cookbook Award (best in the World in […]

Yemisi Aribisala is a Nigerian writer, essayist and food memoirist based in London. Her first published book is ‘Longthroat Memoirs; soups, sex and Nigerian tastebuds.’ The book won the John Avery award in the Andre Simon Food & Drink Books Award, 2016. It also won a Gourmand World Cookbook Award (best in the World in African Cuisine) in May 2018. She tells Weekend Magazine why she chose to write on books and about her plans for her next work.

 

Weekend Magazine: When and why did you decide to start writing books on food?

Yemisi Aribisala: I didn’t start off writing books at all. I was offered a blog at the newspaper 234Next, to do restaurant reviews. I found the offer intriguing but knew I couldn’t find the time nor did I have the inclination or interest in doing reviews of restaurants in Lagos. So I offered Jeremy Bovenga Weate and Ebun Feludu who called me…articles on food and culture in the place of reviews. From writing many of these articles and having them published every Thursday, I landed in the ‘possibility’ of a book. I had no initial intention of writing one but when I had the pile of written articles in my hard-drive, after two years and some months, I sent them off to Bibi Bakare-Yusuf the publisher at Cassava Republic Press, asking her if she would be interested in a book on Food and Culture. Those are the circumstances that brought about Longthroat Memoirs, the book.

 

WM: Is it due to your passion for food or because you have a message to pass?

Aribisala: I do have a passion for the stories that surround food and I am eternally curious on all the details of how eating interacts with the fabric of daily life. However, there is also the simple premise that I just like to eat.  I love good food. I enjoy shopping for food. When you say “Message to pass on,”  I wouldn’t put it like that because you will find that many of the articles in the book are like taking a walk on a lovely evening with someone you really like. You just converse freely rather than going through bullet points of conversations. I like to think of ‘Longthroat Memoirs Soups Sex and Nigerian tastebuds’ more as a conversation with a good Nigerian friend who understands all the nuances and knows all the food we are conversing intimately about; a conversation full of nostalgia and delicious recipes…rather than think of passing on a message.

WM: How many books have you written, the names and when was it published?

Aribisala: ‘Longthroat Memoirs’ is my first published book. I have published a number of articles in Farafina magazine, Cape Town’s ‘Chimurenga Chronic,’  London’s ‘Skin Deep Magazine,’ The Gastronomy issue of ‘Critical Muslim Quarterly’…on other online platforms. My second book is in the process of being published by ‘Chimurenga Chronic’ and is a compilation of published and unpublished articles on Nigerian life, politics, feminism, power, Christianity, migration, soft-bellies, black hair, on being called an “agaracha” for whistling in my kitchen, etc. It will be in the market in 2019.

WM: Do you write only on food or do you write on other things?

Aribisala: The common theme for my writing is Nigeria. So, yes I write on other things, any access point for thinking and writing on Nigeria, on its undercurrents and rhythms and traumas. I’ve also tried my hand at fiction and children’s stories.

WM: Asides writing, what else do you do?

Aribisala: I collect old and new fabric and run a small business that uses the fabric to create home furnishings and art. I own a new quilting machine and draw portraits with it. I also draw and paint. 

WM: What prompted the title ‘Longthroat Memoirs: Soups, Sex and Nigerian Taste Buds?’

Aribisala: ‘Longthroat Memoirs’ is a title from one of the articles in the book. It is about someone who stands on a balcony in Oke-Ado, Ibadan and takes in, ruminates on the movement, aroma, sounds of cooking; the passage of food vendors, how the combination of these things give a sense of community to a street. How the rhythm of life and food flowing in and out of doors and individual homes is representative, replicated in similar and different ways all over Nigeria. ‘Soups Sex and Nigerian Tastebuds’ was my publisher’s addition to the title to firstly help disambiguate the word “Longthroat” which is a word that only Nigerians and maybe Cameroonians seem to instantly understand. Secondly, the addition helps the reader quickly understand what the book contains. 

WM: What is the book about?

Aribisala: Nigerian food and culture. The rationale behind what we eat. Our relationship with what goes into our mouths and what we think and feel about our food. It contains a few recipes, many tweaks of recipes and maybe for the first time, a vivid sketch on how the Nigerian responds on first meet with a foreign cuisine.

WM: How challenging was it to write the book?

Aribisala: Very challenging.

WM: You live abroad, yet you write on Nigeria. How were you able to achieve this?

Aribisala: I have lived at least 37 years in Nigeria. That equates to most of my life. I am Nigerian, so it is more natural for me to write about Nigeria than anywhere else.

WM: Have you ever been discouraged from pursuing your career in writing?

Aribisala: Yes, I have. Writing as a profession in Nigeria isn’t particularly esteemed or regarded as viable. Or shall I say that writing until very recently was regarded as unrealistic as a choice of profession. Yes, I was discouraged on many fronts from many well-meaning people from doing something that would lead no-where and earn very little money or would most probably flat line because I was unable to pull it off.  Needless to say I am thankful that ‘Longthroat Memoirs’ broke the mould of low Nigerian expectations.  

WM: What do you do when you are not writing?

Aribisala: I live life. I create things. I take care of my children. I read. I do lots of housework and laundry. I cook every day.