28th Oct 2014 Internationally acclaimed British chef and media personality, Jamie Oliver recently incurred acid comments from African Diaspora when he posted his version of the popular West African delicacy, Jollof rice on his blog. This quickly gave rise to objections, with many Africans calling him out in the comments section of the blog post for ‘bastardizing’ a beloved delicacy which has united many cultures and spanned many, many decades. Many of the aggrieved, particularly from Ghana and Nigeria who took to social media to vent their thoughts mostly described Mister Oliver’s Jollof recipe, as a blasphemy. A few even complained about the leanness of the chicken that accompanied the defaulting Jollof rice while some felt genuinely offended, like the first comment from the response section from a woman who said “What the hell is this? I am a West African woman and I find this extremely offensive. You have taken years of my West African culture and ‘slaughter’ it with your makeshift recipe. Bye”.
The next person to comment seconded her, saying they were also thinking the same thing. This was followed by more comments, criticizing Jamie’s Jollof, with a general consensus that Jamie committed unforgivable blunders when he omitted vital and foundational ingredients of West African Jollof, particularly Ghanaian Jollof, and replaced them with condiments like lemon and coriander. Yes, Lemon. As evidenced by social media responses on his blog, this did not go down well with many. Literally.
Jamie Oliver’s team has explained that the post was in no way trying to discredit the original traditional methods of Jollof rice, but was merely adding his own twist, to the delicacy. This in no way appeased the angry Jollof mob.
Poor Jamie.
But what do you think guys? Did Jamie have any business touching Jollof rice, or should we just free the poor guy and accept that this is his own twist. Share your thoughts, using the hashtag #SayIt