If I were to tell you that 2024 has already been a hugely significant year for West African food, then where would your mind immediately turn? Might it be Chishuru? The whirling firecracker of a West End restaurant where brilliant, Nigerian-born autodidact Adejoké Bakare (recently named Chef of the Year at the National Restaurant Awards) has already won a Michelin star for her expressive, palate-jolting adaptations of traditional recipes? Would you skip towards its near-neighbour, Akoko, which was also awarded a first star in February for its elegantly crafted yet uncompromising plates of smoked goat, pepper soup and jollof rice?
Well, to take my deliberately opaque phrasing at face value, what if I was to tell you that there was a hugely important, very different West African food story, one about scarcity and strife rather than abundance and acclaim, playing out in rural areas almost 4,000 miles away?
