‘Jollof Wars’ highlight how the West African dish brings the diaspora together

On a Saturday afternoon in August, people flooded the Promontory, an event venue in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, to celebrate the Jollof Festival ahead of upcoming stops in cities such as Charlotte, North Carolina, Boston and Houston. Started by Ishmael Osekre, the festival uses Jollof, a popular West African dish, as a community bonding device while educating people from other cultures about the significance and joys of jollof.

Jollof is a one-pot dish of long-grained rice cooked in a spiced tomato sauce, with variations according to personal preference and region. Osekre said he was inspired to start the festival because “I thought simply talking about who has the best jollof rice instead of experiencing it wasn’t the best way, so I took the opportunity to create a festival actually to taste and judge who has the best jollof.”

Regional differences are at the heart of playful “jollof wars,” where people debate which country makes the best version. At the Jollof Festival, participants are given different colored bowls of jollof and vote online for their favorites. Other tasters aren’t supposed to tell you which one they think is Nigerian, Ghanaian or Senegalese based on color or flavor.?

“I would take a jollof war over an actual war any day,” chef Pierre Thiam said with a laugh. “It is a fun war. The great thing about it is that it will never see a winner. Nigerians will always fight for jollof because it has a special level of heat. The Ghanaians have a smokiness that you don’t find in others. And in my country, [Senegal], you have that fermented flavor and the acidity that balances from the tamarind.”

The playfully fierce desire to win is integral to the culture of jollof and its siblings such as Charleston red rice, a dish from the Gullah Geechee, which chef Amethyst Ganaway grew up loving. “People have a very strong fondness for jollof, similar to red rice. There’s always a game of who makes it better, whether that’s Charleston or Savannah, Ghana or Nigeria, your grandma or my auntie. It’s about cultural pride, familial pride, and communal pride,” Ganaway said.

Baidawi Bhagi, a Trinidadian cook and writer, said that jollof’s cousin pelau will feel familiar to those who love jollof, Charleston red rice, or jambalaya. “We had a whole war on Facebook years ago,” he said, laughing. “For days, arguing about the right way to make pelau. It was a funny time.”

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