FOOD AND CULTURE: continuity and change in the Yoruba of West

Africa and their diasporas.

Ann Allen

AbstractThe paper considers food and eating customs within

the culture of the Yorùbá, both resident in West Africaand scattered abroad. It looks specifically at theshared values and customs and how these define what iseaten and how it is eaten, and how the rules,organisation and values create a gastronomic andcultural identity. Both familial organisation andreligion are central sources of personal and culturalidentity for Yorùbá. The Yorùbá share their cuisinewith their divinities (orisas), thus reminding themselvesof the presence of orisas in their daily life. Women havetraditionally worked outside of the home and have beensolely responsible for food preparation and cookingwhich has, until recently, relied on familial oraltradition. Traditional fireside tales perform a crucialsocial and cohesive function. Food preparation time isused to teach through telling tales that identify theadverse results of, for instance, rivalry within thegroup or the dangers in greed. Communal eating itselffosters familial closeness and mutual responsibility,engenders the rules and customs of eating, and is aplace where the concepts of seniority and character areenacted for family and by guests. The Yorùbá communityin Auckland, New Zealand, demonstrates that many of thedining habits traditionally associated with the cuisineare retained while others are adapted to the newcircumstances. What is unchanged though, whereverYorùbá are found, is extreme hospitality,

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overproduction of food in case guests arrive, inclusionof the stranger, and respect for the elders. It remainsthe case that what defines food consumption for theYorùbá is the cuisine, the cultural significance of thegroup, as well as the individual’s place within (andrelationship to) the group, their religion and orisas.

Key Words: Yorùbá, food, religion, culture, dining,diaspora, proverbs

*****

1. The YorùbáThe Yorùbá people originate and are concentrated

within the Gulf of Benin in West Africa and range overthe present day countries of Nigeria, Benin and Ghana.1

They have lived in urban societies, typically organisedby the type of work that people did, since the 5th

century, and have a rich philosophical and religiouslife. Today, in Nigeria, many Yorùbá do continue theirtraditional way of life but, in the post-colonial eraas Alaba notes: ‘A continuum of the traditional andmodern aspect of Yorùbá culture provides a true picture[of the Yorùbá culture] … It is a dynamic phenomenon.’2

The Yorùbá people can also be found in many othercountries of the world. Alaba defines Yorùbá culture as‘aggregate of ways of life of the Yorùbá speakingpeoples of South-West Nigeria and kith and kinselsewhere in the world.’3 Initial diasporas occurred inthe three centuries of slavery to Cuba, the Caribbeanand the Americas. Later diasporas were led by war andeconomic necessity. To date it is estimated that 20million Yorùbá live outside of West Africa andapproximately 35 million live within that area. At a

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minimum there exists 32 formal Yorùbá associations ineleven countries and there is evidence for moreinformal associations in a number of other countries,as well as many Yorùbá in countries from the initialdiasporas where formal associations may not exist. InAuckland, New Zealand, the Yoruba community numbers 200people including single students, couples,professionals and families.

2. The food of the YorùbáT.S.Eliot said ‘that to understand a culture is to

understand a people … culture is not merely the sum ofseveral activities, but a way of life.’4 To understand therole of food and dining customs for the Yorùbá it isimportant to appreciate, in part, their way of life.What is eaten by the Yorùbá arises out of, and isintegral to, it. Civitello said that:

… meals are one course, one-pot stews, oftenthickened with peanuts. Palm oil is the standardfat. The staple is fufu made from cassava, maize,yams, plantains or rice pounded and mashed, thenboiled, steamed, baked or fried. Chicken is the mostvaluable meal, but snails are eaten more often. Gamemeat is also eaten: aardvark, eland (a largeantelope), venison, ostrich, gazelle, hippopotamus,giraffe, crocodile, a seven pound frog, rat andbat.5

Bascom,6 in 1951, noted that Bowen’s 18577 descriptionof the customary diet was equally relevant 100 yearslater, with the exception of the introduction of modernproducts from Europe.8 Today though, it is fair to saythat the overall Yorùbá diet reflects the varying

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degrees of acculturation to European modes of life with‘fast foods’ becoming more popular.

The pattern of meal taking can begin as early as 5amin rural areas but as late as 10am in towns. Breakfastcan be made up of mangoes, or stewed soybeans. Dodo(fried plantains) is a common dish, as well asleftovers from the night before. Lunch, anywhere from11am to 2pm is considered the most important meal ofthe day. A late dinner may be served with dishessimilar to those offered at lunch.9

3. Food in religion1 Nicole Mullen, Yoruba Art & Culture (Berkeley: Phoebe

A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology & the Regents of theUniversity of California, Occasional paper, 2004)

2 Olugboyega Alaba, Sexuality in Yoruba Culture; UnderstandingHuman Sexuality (Lagos: Seminar at African RegionSexuality Resource Centre, July 29, 2004), 1.

3 Ibid.4 T.S.Elliot ‘Notes towards a Definition of Culture’

(1948) in Santich, Looking for Flavour, 84.5 Linda Civitello, Cuisine and Culture, A History of Food and

People (New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2011), 265.6 William R. Bascom, ‘Yoruba Food’, in Africa: Journal of

the International African Institute 21 (1) (1951): 41-53.7 Thomas Jefferson Bowen, Central Africa (Charleston:

Southern Baptist Publication Society, 1857) xii-359.8 The cocoa will have originally been grown in and

then exported from West Africa before beingreimported as sweets at a much higher and veryexpensive price.

9 Food in Every Country, Nigeria, http://www.foodbycountry.com/Kazakhstan-to-South-Africa/Nigeria.html

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One central source of cultural identity for Yorùbá istheir religion. 90% of Yorùbá are officially eitherChristian or Muslim, although it is said that 20%practice traditional animistic religion.10 Traditionalreligion is said by some to have diminished,11 but newerreligions have been accommodated.12 Growing out ofslavery in Cuba, Santeria, a mix of traditional Yorùbáand elements of Catholicism, is widely practiced in thecountries of South America and the Caribbean. Barbernotes that in traditional Yorùbá thought the gods are‘maintained and kept in existence by the attention ofhumans’. 13 The Orisas, then, are not remote divinities;they are vibrant, living entities who take an activepart in daily life.

One way to attend to the gods in everyday life is byoffering foods and dishes made from foods that aredirectly associated with that orisa.14 For example, theOrisa Obatala is associated with cool water, coconuts,milk, honey, shea butter, rice, bread and cookies;snails (preferably large African snails) and kola nuts;but Obatala is never offered liquor or palm oil.15 Themark of the Yorùbá religion is the sharing of theirfood with their divinities (orisas). However making ritualdishes is not reserved just for orisas, and they are

10 ‘Countries and their Cultures: Yoruba’ Viewed 27 August 2013, http://www.everyculture.com/wc/Mauritania-to-Nigeria/Yoruba.html

11 ‘Yorupedia’ Viewed 27 August 2013,http://yorupedia.com/subjects/yoruba-religion/

12 Karin Barber, ‘How Man Makes God in West Africa:Yoruba Attitudes Towards the Orisa’, Africa: Journal of theInternational African Institute, 51, No 3 (1981): 724-745.

13 Ibid.

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eaten by all people to remind themselves of thepresence of orisas in their daily life.16

Foods may also have ceremonial associations. Forexample, in a naming ceremony, it is believed thatfoods introduced to a child at the ceremony will affecthow that child behaves in later life. Thus, in thenaming ceremony of the Ogunfiditimi’s daughter, thesymbols of life (water), oil (preferably palm oil) ‘forthe coming of calm in periods of travail’, salt andsugar to bring pleasantness to life, and meat for theprovidence of nature, were all presented to the child.17

14 Rev. Fred Ogunfiditimi, ‘Yoruba Naming Ceremony’.Viewed 29 March 2012,http://www.folklife.si.edu/africa/foods.htm

15 Jessica B. Harris, The Africa Cookbook, Tastes of a Continent(New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 1998), 348.She notes:‘Among the Yoruba of south-western Nigeria, palm wineis reputed to be the cause of the drunkenness ofObatala, the god of creation. He was drinking palmwine while he was forming the first humans. As hiswork continued, the wine became increasingly potentand he eventually became drunk and no longer paidattention to the task. Humans were created with nofingers and no feet. Deformity entered the world.When he saw what he had done, he wept. For thisreason, adherents of the cult of Obatala do not drinkpalm wine and in many countries do not drink at all.’

16 Defence Language Institute, Yoruba Cultural Orientation.(Monterey: Curriculum Development Division, ForeignLanguage Centre, 2008): 55, 1-92.

17 Harvey Kabaker, ‘The Ogunfiditimis Name a Daughter’, The Evening Star, Washington D.C, Monday May 17,1971, 15.

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Honey was given ‘for the child to be as sweet to hercommunity’ and most importantly ‘not to be ostracisedby their people when she grows to adulthood’. A morecomplete ceremony, it was said, would have includedkola nut, standing for longevity, and ginger for goodhealth. The same is seen in the non-negotiable itemsidentified in bride-wealth obligations. Each itemserves as a motif for prayers outlining what isnecessary to make a marriage successful. A prayerexample could be:

This is salt. It preserves and sweetens. May you bepreserved in your lives so that you live long andsee your children’s children.18

Importantly for those living outside of West Africa,Yorùbá cuisine, exemplified by its use in theirreligion, can lead the way in the development of acommunity identity. Harris notes that:

‘The orisa of the Gulf of Benin have maintainedtheir culinary tastes from home, and so whereverthey have travelled, worshippers attempt toreplicate with what they have at hand the Africandishes favoured by the orisa’.19

Today, when the Yorùbá of Auckland meet forcelebrations such as birthdays or naming ceremonies,the same traditional foods and dishes are used. Thus,salt, used for prophesying, is given, ‘for life would

18 ‘Yoruba Families’ International Encyclopedia ofMarriage and Family, 2003. Viewed 27 August 2013,http://www.encyclopedia.com

19 Harris, The Africa Cookbook, 43.

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be tasteless without salt’; honey so that the childwill have sweetness; and epo-pupa, palm oil, to easethe child if there are poisons or boils. The samedishes are cooked for gatherings and within the home.Indeed those Yorùbá living in Auckland search out andshare the same or similar ingredients as they would usein West Africa to create their traditional dishes, with90% of the dishes cooked and consumed by YorùbáAssociation families being Yorùbá in origin.

4. The role of food and dining in fostering harmonyReligion therefore is a prime source of personal and

cultural identity and food, both symbolic and actual,is central to promoting and maintaining the Yorùbáidentity. Jack Goody in examining why traditionalAfrican cultures were largely lacking a differentiatedor ‘high’ cuisine in comparison to those of Europe,India and China, posited that ‘the analysis of cookinghad to be related to the distribution of power andauthority’.20 The focus can then be on growing, storing,preparing, cooking, eating; and on who performs thesetasks and the contexts within which they are carriedout.

Culturally, Yorùbá society is polygamous with,traditionally, power at the familial level followingagnatic patrilineal lines and exercised by the seniormale who heads the family. A man may have several wiveswho in turn may have multiple children. The typicaltraditional household lives within a walled compoundand each wife will have a separate room. Even in amonogamous household, there may be various members of

20 Jack Goody, Cooking, Cuisine & Class: a Study in ComparativeSociology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982)37.

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the extended family e.g. cousins, aunts, grandparentsand children. While women have been excluded from mostaspects of agriculture, there has always been atradition of wives working outside of the home amongstthe Yorùbá in West Africa.21 Women are also responsiblefor caring for the home and for elders. Importantly, itis only women who prepare and cook food.22 As Cusaknotes, ‘food … is a feminine function par excellence,tightly linked with fertility, as it is another way ofgiving life’.23 Indeed in Yorùbá West Africa it is stillconsidered shameful for a man to cook for himself,unless he is alone at the farm.

And it is here that the social and cohesive functionsof food preparation time are seen. Cusack reminds usthat most Africans have ‘not learnt to cook fromwritten recipes, but from oral learning from mothersand grandmothers’.24 It has been said that rivalrybetween co-wives and between siblings is useful for themaintenance of patrilineal ideology.25 Food preparationtime is, then, as well as a time for teaching how toprepare favourite foods, a time for teaching the skillsof living as a group through, for instance, Yorùbáfireside tales. While the evening meal is beingprepared, children might hear the tale of the jealous

21 Often these businesses are market based foodproduction and if a husband buys food from his wife’sstall then he must pay for it.

22 Although an informant did mention that her fatherprepared food, this was exceptional (Personalcommunication, Yoruba Association, Auckland29.8.2012).

23 Igor Cusack. ‘Pots, pens and ‘eating out of thebody’: cuisine and the gendering of African nations’,in Nations and Nationalism, 9 (2) (2003): 289.

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co-wife who inadvertently kills her own children whiletrying to hurt the children of her co-wife; or havelessons on how to be part of the group; or be toldtales that identify the adverse results of rivalrywithin the group.

The Yorùbá consider that the fostering of closenessand mutual responsibility is helped by communal livingand eating. In general, though, men eat separately fromthe women and children. Traditionally, men eat alone ifthe family is polygamous and/or the husband is of highstatus. However, men may also eat with their malefriends and, if the family is monogamous, eat withtheir family. Educational level does not seem to be afactor in the pattern of male dining, although livingoutside of Nigeria may be responsible for a change indining rules and habits.26 Communal eating is, however,common for the rest of the family and extended family.As Babatunde notes:

having co-wives and all children eat from the samebig bowl of food is both a way to prevent internaldivisions within the family and to lesson those thatalready exist.27

24 Ibid. Cookery books assume a literate population,though radio and television cookery programmes, arealso important to the illiterate. Nevertheless, therecent emergence of African cookery books may affectthis oral tradition.

25 E.D. Babatunde. ‘Kinship Behaviour and PatrilinealIdeology: a case study of the Ketu, Yorùbá’. TheJournal of Business and Social Studies (6) (1983), 51–65.

26 Personal communication, Yoruba Association,Auckland, 29 August 2012.

27 Babatunde, ‘Kinship Behaviour’, 53.

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The Yorùbá follow a certain set of customs wheneating and while these are widely practiced, they arenot mandatory. Thus in the informal traditional familysetting,28 and almost always in the rural context, a matwill be laid on the floor on which the food bowl willbe placed. Family and visitors will seat themselves onthe mat. The ‘more the merrier’, said an Aucklandinformant: ‘It brings and fosters closeness which is acentral tenet of Yorùbá social cohesion’.29 First, awater bowl will be brought to the table so that handscan be washed both before and after eating. Then,depending on the family, the elder wife may serveeveryone or people may serve themselves. All will waittill the most senior begins to eat, even if told to dootherwise. The rules of the mat include not walkingover someone’s legs or over their food, nor are youallowed to pick food from another’s plate or to eatwith an open mouth. Conversation will not take place atthe table apart from elders who will stop those morejunior talking. Drinking will normally take place atthe end of the meal and, in the absence of utensils(which will be spoons, since forks are rare), eatingwill be done with the right hand, even if the dish is asoup.

It was reported, however, that most Yorùbá,particularly those who have social aspirations andthose who live abroad, now adopt the western lifestylewith the use of cutlery more common.30 In the modernnuclear family setting, if the children are servedseparately, they may sit at a table but still eat

28 For a more formal meal the host will seat everyone.29 Personal communication, Yoruba Association,

Auckland, 29.8.2012

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together from the same communal bowl or plate, dippingin their spoons.31

Finally, all will be taken away and the mat re-rolled, although one proverb does say that, ‘Spreading-the-mat-without-rolling-it-back-up is the mark of thewealthy’.32

5. Teaching moderation in food consumptionUnderlying and supporting Yorùbán daily life is a

rich and complex religion and philosophy with an oraltradition that includes all cultural concepts,histories, tales, praise poems, tongue twisters,hundreds of prose narratives and riddles, and thousandsof proverbs. Living, historically and currently, in anoften harsh environment where group survival requiresloyalty, Yorùbá parents teach children, usingstorytelling, proverbs and poems of the need to shareand to fight against greediness. For instance, Akinyemitells us that:

30 One informant told of a recent Nigerian Presidentwho, on a televised state banquet, shocked watchersby eating in the traditional form by scooping hisfood with his right hand. He was emphasizing histraditional roots, but others felt he should beadopting a more western style. Personalcommunication, Yoruba Association, Auckland,29.8.2012.

31 Ibid32 The Good Person: Excerpts from the Yoruba Proverbs

Treasury, Viewed 27 August 2013http://yoruba.unl.edu/yoruba.php-text=0&view=2&uni=0&l=0.htm

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The campaign against greediness occupies the centralposition of Yorùbá traditional children education.Children are trained that greediness should not bepractised in both private and public lives.Appropriate Yorùbá stories are told to the child,motivating her/him through her/his sub-consciousmind onto the results and problems of greediness.33

The story of the tortoise that became bald headed asa result of greediness is one story that is used.Proverbs are many and varied in relation to controllingappetite and eating moderately:

Proverb: Feeding-without-leaving kills the Tullberg’s rat;(Lack of moderation leads to death.)

Proverb: Eating-until-vomiting is the trait of the bat.(An observation on a being with no self-restraint.).34

Another method of teaching children obligatorysharing consists of withholding portions of meat, eggsand other animal foods.35 It is believed that whenchildren acquire tastes in these expensive and scarcecommodities, the desire to satisfy them will make the

33 Akintunde Akinyemi, ‘Yorùbá Oral Literature: ASource of Indigenous Education for Children’, Journal ofAfrican Cultural Studies 16(2) (2003): 161-179

34 ‘The Good Person: Excerpts from the Yoruba ProverbsTreasury’. Viewed 9 September 2013, http://yoruba.unl.edu/

35 Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, ‘Some Socio-economicconditions predisposing to malnutrition in Lagos’,Nigerian Medical Journal 2(1972): 111-118.

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children steal. It was suspected that this withholdingled to negative nutritional outcomes for children andwas confirmed in a 1990’s study.36 This showed that theavailable meat was given to fathers, then mothers, atthe expense of the children. While the total amount ofmeat increases with modernisation, the ratio of meatrelative to the total remains the same and the adultstill gets more of their nutritional needs met whilechildren get a lesser amount but possibly enough tomeet their nutritional requirements.

However, adults too are warned to be generous towardschildren, as is expressed in the following verse:

The dove eats and leaves a remnant for the pigeon. The green wild pigeon eats and leaves a remnant forthe mocking bird.I will leave a remnant for my children when I eat. 37

6. Food, hospitality and generosityCommunal eating also allows other rules and aspects

of familial and group responsibility to be enacted.Social interactions amongst the Yorùbá are alwaysovershadowed by concepts of seniority and character(iwa).38 Thus, the elderly are commonly respected and‘encouraged to share their wealth and knowledge withfamily and friends’.39 Further, iwa is seen in actions of

36 Kelebogile Setiloane, ‘Beliefs and PracticesRegarding Meat Distribution and the NutritionalStatus of Children in Lagos State, Nigeria’ (PhDdiss., Boston, Tufts University, 1995).

37 United Nations University (old website). Viewed 27August 2013,http://archive.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu13se/uu13seOf.htm

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hospitality, generosity and understanding and in thepassing on of a person’s iwa to their children’.40 Indeedan ungenerous or inhospitable person will be seen asuntrustworthy and this negative iwa will pass with theperson’s spirit into their life after death.

This notion of iwa extends to the role of the guest,who is expected to behave in particular ways. Forinstance, the Defence Language Institute in their YorùbáCultural Orientation give a summary of rules for a guest toobserve and these were confirmed by the Auckland YorùbáAssociation members as also customary outside of WestAfrica:

If invited to dine at a Yorùbá home then it is usualto bring a gift of food or material. Gifts must bewrapped and will not be unwrapped till the guest hasdeparted. Yorùbáns feel that unwrapping a giftimmediately will be seen as greedy. The wrappingmust not be red (seen as denoting violence) or black(associated with death and mourning). The gift canbe sweets, fruits or nuts (or salt, yam or palm oil)and it is not acceptable to bring alcohol. 41

38 Segun Gbadegesin, ‘Yoruba Philosophy:Individuality, Community, and the Moral Order’. InAfrican Philosophy: An Anthropology, edited by E.C.Eze, 121-139, Oxford, Blackwell Publishing 1998.

39 Josef Gugler and William, S Flanagan, Urbanization andSocial Change in West Africa. New York: Cambridge UniversityPress, 1978. They note that, with modernisation,individual achievement and merit have somewhatreplaced the privileges of ascription and seniority.

40 Gbadegesin, ‘Yoruba Philosophy’.41 Defence Language Institute, Yoruba Cultural Orientation,

25.

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In addition, in Nigeria, a Yorùbá family of meanswill always have extra food available and cooked incase guests arrive. It would be a matter of shame tohave to send out to the market for food to feed aguest. The same seems to be true of those Yorùbá livingoutside of West Africa. One Auckland informant, whenasked how one estimated how many to cook for (for aforthcoming birthday party) said she would cook forfour times as many as had been invited.

Notions of obligation and hospitality also extend toeating events outside of the home. In Lagos, and to a

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lesser extent Ibadan, dining, usually entertaining andbusiness dining, often takes place outside the home attraditional Nigerian, European or Asian restaurants, orin hotel dining rooms. Whenever you are eating in frontof someone who is not, whether at home or external tothe home, it is customary to invite that person to joinyou. The person without food could be a completestranger, but you will still ask them to eat and theymay eat immediately from your food or they may decline.

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As Santich notes, ‘Cuisine can … lead the way indeveloping a community identity’, 42 and we have seenthat in expatriate communities food, cuisine and diningcan perform this function. And so, at the meetings ofthe Yorùbá of Auckland, festive foods will be servedafter a religious ceremony, some of which will haveritual significance or use culturally significantingredients, while other dishes will be served simplyfor individual preference. Again, outside of WestAfrica, some of the dining habits may be retained42 Santich, Looking for Flavour, 85.

Bibliography

Akinyemi, Akintunde. ‘Yorùbá Oral Literature: A Source of Indigenous Education for Children’. Journal of African Cultural Studies 16(2), (2003): 161-179Alaba, Olugboyega. ‘Sexuality in Yoruba Culture; Understanding Human Sexuality’. Lagos: Seminar at African Region Sexuality Resource Centre, July 29, 2004.Babatunde, E.D. ‘Kinship Behaviour and PatrilinealIdeology: a case study of the Ketu, Yorùbá’. The Journal ofBusiness and Social Studies (6) (1983): 51–65.Barber, Karin. ‘How Man Makes God in West Africa:Yoruba Attitudes Towards the Orisa’, Africa: Journal of theInternational African Institute 51, No 3 (1981): 724-745.Bascom, William R. (1951). ‘Yoruba Food’. Africa: Journal ofthe International African Institute 21 (1) (1951): 41-53.Bowen, Thomas Jefferson. Central Africa. Charleston: Southern Baptist Publication Society, 1857.Civitello, Linda. Cuisine and Culture, A History of Food and People. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2011.

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(silence while eating, food cooked and served by women,sharing from a communal bowl) while others are adaptedto the new circumstances. This can be seen in thebuffet system (including all family and communitymembers, guests, and unexpected strangers) beingadopted for festive gatherings rather than thesegregated, mat based system seen historically in West

‘Countries and their Cultures: Yoruba’ Viewed 27 August2013, http://www.everyculture.com/wc/Mauritania-to-Nigeria/Yoruba.htmlCusack, Igor. ‘Pots, pens and ‘eating out of the body’:cuisine and the gendering of African nations’. Nations and Nationalism, 9 (2) (2003): 277-296.Defence Language Institute. Yoruba Cultural Orientation.Monterey: Curriculum Development Division, ForeignLanguage Centre, 2008.http://famdliflc.lingnet.org/productList.aspx?v=coFood in Every Country, Nigeria, viewed 27,August2013http://www.foodbycountry.com/Kazakhstan-to-South-Africa/Nigeria.htmlGbadegesin, Segun. ‘Yoruba Philosophy: Individuality,Community, and the Moral Order’. African Philosophy: AnAnthropology, ed. E.C.Eze, Oxford, Blackwell Publishing1998. Goody, Jack. Cooking, Cuisine & Class: a Study in ComparativeSociology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982.Gugler, Josef and Flanagan, William, S. Urbanization andSocial Change in West Africa. New York: Cambridge UniversityPress, 1978.Harris, Jessica B. The Africa Cookbook, Tastes of a Continent. NewYork: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 1998.

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Africa. What is similar though is the extremehospitality of the Yorùbá, the overproduction of foodin case guests arrive, the inclusion of the strangerand the respect for elders.

In conclusion it can be seen that for the Yorùbá itis not simply food, cuisine, table manners, the use ofutensils, etc., which underlie and define their dining

Kabaker, Harvey. ‘The Ogunfiditimis Name a Daughter’,The Evening Star, Washington D.C, Monday May 17, 1971, 15.Mullen, Nicole. ‘Yoruba Art & Culture’. Berkeley:Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology & the Regentsof the University of California, Occasional paper,2004.Ogunfiditimis, Rev. Fred. ‘Yoruba Naming Ceremony’,Accessed 29 March 2012,http://www.folklife.si.edu/africa/foods.htmRansome-Kuti, Olikoye. ‘Some Socio-economic conditionspredisposing to malnutrition in Lagos’. Nigerian MedicalJournal 2: (1972), 111-118.Santich, Barbara. Looking for Flavour. Kent Town: WakefieldPress, 1996.Setiloane, Kelebogile. ‘Beliefs and Practices RegardingMeat Distribution and the Nutritional Status ofChildren in Lagos State, Nigeria’. PhD diss., Boston,Tufts University, 1995.The Good Person: Excerpts from the Yoruba Proverbs Treasury, Viewed 27 August 2013. http://yoruba.unl.edu/yoruba.php-text=0&view=2&uni=0&l=0.htmUnited Nations University (old website), viewed 27August 2013,

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culture. Rather it is the cultural significance of thegroup, the individual’s relationship to the group, andtheir relationship to their religion and to theirorisas. Feelings of shared values and customs amongstthe Yorùbá, whether they are resident in West Africa orscattered abroad, define what is eaten, and how it iseaten. The food, dishes and cuisine of the Yorùbáinform and reflect the rules, organisation and valueswhich create their identity.

Notes

http://archive.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu13se/uu13seOf.htm ‘Yoruba Families’ International Encyclopaedia ofMarriage and Family, 2003. Viewed 27 August 2013,http://www.encyclopedia.com‘Yorupedia’. Viewed 27 August 2013, http://yorupedia.com/subjects/yoruba-religion/

Ann Allen began her academic career as a socialpsychologist /anthropologist/ medical sociologist andcounsellor, tutoring for the Open University andUniversities in and around London for many years. Sheran the Student Office at the University of Greenwich,before decamping to New Zealand where she intendspursuing post graduate studies in gastronomy atAuckland University of Technology.

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