The Art of Wolof/Jollof by Folakunle Oshun: Part 1

An unique exhibition named "Wolof Jollof" by Nigerian sculptor Folakunle Oshun opened at the National museum Onikan, Lagos on Sunday, 6th December. The solo exhibition curated by Ines Valle, was an outdoor food & art (or food as art perhaps?) installation which explored the origin and migratory narrative of Jollof from its birth place in the Jollof Empire (of the Wolof People), Senegambia to its multi, numerous adaptations in different West-African countries.

National Museum Onikan, Lagos

Introductory text by Ines Valle

According to the curator, the blue coloured cooking pots represent the "united nations of Jollof". I looked forward to my second visit in which I further explored the installation in detail.

Intellectual curiosity aside, I was particularly interested in tasting different Jollof cuisines from the various West-African countries as a friend had informed me that live cooking and tastings would be done as part of the installation. As expected, my reaction was:

Imagine everyone's surprise when we discovered that the jollof tasting would be the following Sunday 13, December 2015.

Thankfully, the ticket was valid throughout the duration of the exhibition. On a bright note, we were informed that the cooking would be done by popular food blogger/chef Ozoz of Kitchen Butterfly so I expected some stellar cooking.

Colonisation, migration, self-discovery, youth, cultural and personal identity were themes I discovered during my first visit to the exhibition. I looked forward to more explorations (and delicious tastings) for my next visit which would be discussed in the second part of this series. (P.S. I shared some of the amazing moments at the tasting on my snapchat: tfortope)

The exhibition ends 31, December 2015. Tickets to the exhibition can be purchased either at the venue or online at eventbrite.

I wonder; what themes will you discover?

Correction: December 21, 2015
An earlier version of this post misstated the description of the blue pots as representing the fifteen west African ECOWAS states with a barrier created with sacks of rice illustrating how this unique dish, created as a result of colonisation, has become a unifying theme around the region. The correction description is "The united nations of Jollof".

Cafe Neo: Feeding and Fueling the Lagos creative scene

 Cafe Neo is a coffee shop that sells that traditional coffee fare along with pastries, sandwiches (try the spicy chicken whopper, its delicious; i don't find it particularly spicy though), juices and lemonades. They also have bubble teas which aren't quite popular in Lagos yet. And they have free WiFi (Yay!).

Spicy Chicken Whopper and Lemonade

Strawberry Bubble Tea

A lot of articles describe Cafe Neo as the Starbucks of Lagos. For one, they're both coffee shop brands; they both have a menu that consists of predominately coffee and coffee based beverages such as lattes, cappuccinos and the like. However, apart from coffee based beverages, Cafe Neo's menu has a LOT of cold drinks such as bubble teas, freshly squeezed juices(FRESH!), lemonades and smoothies. They definitely tailored their drinks menu with Nigeria's hot climate in mind. Its also important to note that they are a Nigerian owned business that sources their coffee from Rwanda; talk about Africa supporting its own. Besides, I'm sure most of us have heard horror stories about restaurants in Lagos using expired products to prepare their meals. I'm just saying; let's support local businesses that use fresh products.

When I was much younger (3 years ago), I read about Paris's cafe culture and how coffee shops went from being sites for physical sustenance to meeting points of the brightest creative minds in Paris. It was in cafes such as Les Deux Margots, Cafe de Flore, Le Procope that cultural figures such as Voltaire, Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso,  had, over centuries, come to relax, reflect, and very often, engage in meaningful intellectual discourse with like minded individuals.
Cafe Neo is slowly becoming such a place. It also frequently hosts music and art events. Last month, the cafe organised a jazz session with jazz guitarist Femi Leye. This month, it will be hosting a photo exhibition in collaboration with Bialere, a digital project founded by Yagazie Emezi. BTW, I'll be going to check out the exhibition on Tuesday, you should follow me on instagram to check pics from my visit (lazy me; its always easier to post photos on IG than to blog!).

Image source: bialere.com