Yams are much loved in Nigeria for their versatility, adapting well to a wide range of recipes and cooking methods. This can be best observed at the regional New Yam Festivals that celebrate the annual yam harvest. For the Yoruba people, the festival is known as Odun Isu—a joyful coming together of drumming, dancing, and yam-based dishes, such as Asaro, a yam porridge.
The year was 2013 – I remember because my elder sister had just left home – and my mother had started including me in minor kitchen tasks. The task this particular time was to peel tubers of yam and dice them for yam porridge. Yam (or Isu in Yoruba, the language spoken by the Yoruba people, one of Nigeria’s largest ethnic groups) contributes a substantial deal to the average Yoruba palate and is the focus of the annual yam harvest festival, Odun Isu. It was my second (or third) time peeling yam; I remember how my mother scolded me the previous time about my inconsistent dicing. This day, however, I made sure to measure the thickness with the tip of my thumb before slicing through with a sharp knife. Overlooking the window in the kitchen, a fresh breeze came through, alongside the bleating of the goats in our yard. They were to eat the peels of the yam when I was done. As a Yoruba and Muslim – two groups with doctrines that emphasize frugality – there is little in the house that goes to waste.
My carefulness was rewarded when my mother came into the kitchen, dipped her hands in the bowl of water containing the yam chunks and complimented my “expertise”. In the typical fashion of the reward for hard work being more work, my mother told me to make the porridge myself. Carefully setting the yam in salty water and bringing it to the boil was the least of my troubles – the real test of my skill would be the next steps in the recipe. When the yams were a little soft, I proceeded to mash them into a lumpy pulp with a wooden stick. But when it was time to add the rest of the ingredients, I went to call my mother, as I could not bear the thought of ruining
