Nigeria’s Yemisi Aribisala wins prestigious John Avery Award
Nigerian author, Yemisi Aribisala has won the prestigious John Avery Award at the A the André Simon Food and Drink Book Awards announced in London last week, following in the footsteps of famous British Chef, Jamie Oliver, who won the award last year for his book, Super Food.
Airbisala won for her innovative collection of essays, Longthroat Memoirs: Soups, Sex and Nigerian Taste Buds and becomes the first black African to win the award in its 39 years’ history.
Commenting on her win, Aribisala said in a note read by her publisher, Bibi Bakare Yusuf, “There was nothing I wanted to do more with this book than bring it to a dinner conversation with like-minded, passionate and engaged people. This book tells the truth about every single Nigerian. This is our food. These are our stories. This is just a slice of our humanity. These are many of the good things we have to offer the rest of the world. I take a lot of pride in being Nigerian. I wrote this book for us but how wonderful it is to share it with you.”
The judges were excited by Aribisala’s mouth-watering account of Nigerian culture revealed through her lyrical examination of the relationship between food, politics, religion, ethnicity and sex.
Her win comes as a big boost to her publishers, Cassava Republic Press, the Nigerian start-up that recently set up shop in London to promote works by African writers to an international audience.
Gushing over the award, Bakare-Yusuf, a director of CRP said, “Longthroat Memoirs puts Nigerian food culture on the global map. It tells the story of how food reflects the intimate side of a culture and offers the context for reading all Nigerian recipe books. Whether you are Nigerian or not,
book is a beautiful read, introducing a terrifically talented writer onto the global stage. This book is our first food title and was a real labour of love. Cassava Republic Press is proud and delighted to have won this prize, especially against such strong competition.”
Food writer and historian Bee Wilson, this year’s food assessor, said: “Longthroat Memoirs by Yemisi Aribisala is a breathtakingly original and fresh piece of food writing, which I found myself not just reading but compulsively re-reading. In her wit and truth telling, Aribisala’s voice reminded me of the writing of M.F.K. Fisher. Whether she is writing about the mucilaginous properties of okra soup or the sensuous appeal of eggs, Aribisala is that rare writer who makes you laugh while also informing you about Nigerian food, which, as she points out, is something that has been ‘misunderstood, atrociously photographed, not yet given its due’. Thanks to this book, this should now change.”
The highly regarded André Simon Food & Drink Book Awards were founded in 1978 and are the most prestigious and only awards in the UK to exclusively recognise the achievements of food and drink writers. It is the longest running awards of its kind.
Yemisi Aribisala has written about Nigerian food for over seven years; for 234Next and the
Chimurenga Chronic. She has also written essays on various topics including Nigerian Christianity and identity.
Longthroat Memoirs by Yemisi Aribisala is a breathtakingly original and fresh piece of food writing, which I found myself not just reading but compulsively rereading