Nice to meet you Cyril! What does a typical day's vegan eating look like in Nigeria? One of my favourite meals is something that goes by the name of "West African Peanut Stew". A stew of sweet potatoes, peppers and tomatoes with shredded greens (cabbage, kale, spinach), peanut butter, garlic, ginger and chilli. I don't suppose it's an authentic recipe but it is very delicious!
Vegan from Africa
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Hi friend,
You wouldn't want to know what my day as a vegan looks like in Nigeria, it's a war.
And lol, what a recipe... Never had anything like it, but it definitely should be good. Like you said, it's definitely not a Nigerian authentic recipe, but I sure would love to try it someday since it doesn't contain any animal products, because all our soups and stews are built around animal products.
I guess it's another West Africa delicacy, for there are other countries in Western Africa. I do have some stew recipes I would love to prepare using only plant-based ingredients. Never thought about it all this while, you just gave me an idea.
Thanks friend, nice to meet you too.
Cyril
Jamie in Chile
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Welcome, Cyril!
Sadly, I know little about African cooking. My meals often have beans of some sort, along with grains such as rice, wheat, oats, corn, or rye. I think garlic or onions, as well as dark green leafy vegetables, taste good with these- but quite a few people don't like those. I think variety is important in someone's diet to prevent both boredom and malnutrition.
Sadly, I know little about African cooking. My meals often have beans of some sort, along with grains such as rice, wheat, oats, corn, or rye. I think garlic or onions, as well as dark green leafy vegetables, taste good with these- but quite a few people don't like those. I think variety is important in someone's diet to prevent both boredom and malnutrition.
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OP
OP
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Thank you sir, you are so right.
Variety is the answer to boredom and malnutrition. The only challenge for me at present is, I haven't began to explore the various plant based meals I can try.
I would try to start on that as soon as possible, I reflect back on what you said, variety is the key to prevent boredom and malnutrition. Very correct!
Peace & Love
Cyril
variety and spices.....
If you put the same spices on/in your plant based meal as you did on your carnivore meals then you will feel that you ate the same food... try it, you'll like it.
Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com
OP
OP
You right with the spices, now is the time I really taste the spices in my meals. My taste buds have been activated, so also my nostrils.variety and spices.....
If you put the same spices on/in your plant based meal as you did on your carnivore meals then you will feel that you ate the same food... try it, you'll like it.
Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com
The only challenge is, those around me tempt me a lot, but I believe I am rock solid.
Jamie in Chile
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Yes, I do fine as well.
I was quite interested in Nigeria and its different tribes and history. If you ever want to talk about Nigeria, that could be interesting.
I also have a blog. This blog about vegan nutrition could be helpful for you as a good summary, if you are quite new to this, although you might already know more than me, who knows: Vegan Nutrition
Let us know if there's anything else you want to talk about instead.
OP
OP
Oh my, thanks for the offer, I would love to talk about Nigeria; everything about Nigeria!
Let's talk better about the opportunities to educate your audience about Nigeria and it's understanding of vegans.
I feel honored, and pumped to foster a dialogue about Nigerian tribes, culture and history. Presently, we are going to have a presidential election come February, and it's going to be dirty.
When do we start?
Cyril
vesper818
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Hi Cyril
I found a few links that might help you find recipes using your local plant foods. You can always modify recipes to taste..
Some of them sound really good!
Carol
I found a few links that might help you find recipes using your local plant foods. You can always modify recipes to taste..
Some of them sound really good!
Carol
Jamie in Chile
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Would be interested your thoughts on:
1 - Do Nigerians identify themselves first by tribe and only secondly as Nigerians? And only introduce themselves as Nigerians internationally because they know this will be more easily understood (but actually don't see that as their real identify)? Or does the current young generation now consider themselves as Nigerian first?
2 - What tribe are you from? Are most people in Lagos from Yoruba tribe, or is it a huge mix?
3 - When people in Nigeria meet another Nigerian for the first time, can they make a good guess as to which tribe they are from by how they talk or walk or dress? Or can you not really tell until you ask them? Is the average Nigerian curious to know what tribe a person is from when they meet them? Is this something people want to know when considering a business or personal relationship with them? or do people not really care any more?
4 - Do you think most of the troubles in Nigeria were caused by British colonials drawing lines on a map to create a nation that should not have been, and that it would have been better if African nations had grown up more along tribal lines, with Nigeria perhaps being three nations centred around Yoruba, Igbo, and Arabic/Hausi/Fulani people of the north?
5 - In the modern day, would the Igbo still chose their own nation if they were allowed to do so, just like in the days of the Biafran war?
6 - How do you compare veganism in Nigeria with other countries?
OP
OP
Hi Carol,
This is so kind of you, wow, I can feel the love on this platform.
You really took the time to look up these articles and websites for me, I am blessed to be here.
Thank you Carol, the effort means a lot to me, I will take my time to go through it all, and would be giving it all a good trial.
It's time to indulge my taste buds, all thanks to y'all.
Vegan Forum is the bomb!
Cyril
OP
OP
Hi friend,
I would try to answer your questions as best and honest as I can.
1. Within the country of Nigeria, we identify as a tribe, if I bumped into someone for the first time, I try as much as possible to ascertain what tribal group such person belongs to. Though there are more than 50 tribal groups in Nigeria, but there are 3 main tribes, namely; Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa. When outside Nigeria, we identify more as a Nigerian because it's a unified country, identifying as a tribal group could be convulsing, only if we are addressing a fellow Nigerian, do we now try to distinguish ourselves by tribe. So the current young generation would still identify more both as a tribe and as a Nigerian, it all depends on the geographical location.
2. I am a Yoruba tribal man, from the state of Osun. I was born and brought up in Lagos Nigeria. Now, Lagos is a Yoruba state because it belongs to the Southwest region. Nigerian is divided by tribes, so also by region. As the Hausa tribe is located in the Northwest, Northeast and North Central. But Lagos is unique, in the sense that it can be seen as a no man's land, due to the presence of diverse tribe living and working in Lagos. Lagos is so due to the unlimited opportunities it offers economically to anyone. Lagos is quite different from other states, because it was once the capital of Nigeria, but had to be moved to Abuja due to the geographic location. Remember it is the southwest, that's why it was moved to Northcentral, a neutral ground for all tribes at the center of the country. Now Igbo is more located in Southeast, and part of South-South. Now it's a bit tricky because some people in South-South do not identify as Igbo, that is why I said that there are numerous tribes in Nigeria.
3. Now when a Nigerian meets another Nigerian in the diaspora, they can easily figure out the other identity via certain means listed below:
i. By name, every tribe has its own unique language, and through that local language comes a local name. As I am a Yoruba man, my local name is Oluwamuyiwa, which means; the Lord has redeemed me.
ii. By the way they dress, every tribe has its unique dress code, as Yoruba, we have a dress code called Agbada for men, and Iro and buba for women. If I was putting on a Agbada, you should automatically be able to figure out that I am a Yoruba man.
iii. Their local traditional cuisine, every tribe has its own unique meal. Yoruba tribe has Amala and ewedu, Igbo has ofensala, Hausa has fura.
iv. I would group the other means together because they can be biased; the way they talk, the way they look and they interact with others.
Please I would go into more details later on, and I would answer the remaining questions later too, gotta to get to work at the moment.
thanks.
Thank you for the great info and thank you @Jamie in Chile for asking the questions.
Back in the 80's I worked for a "flight attendant lease company" and flew the Hajj from Nigeria to Jeddah for 2 months. We departed London and landed in Lagos at night and the culture shock was huge. We stayed overnight and then went to Kano and stayed over before our first working flight to Jeddah. I will never forget that experience and the amazing people that I met.
Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com
Back in the 80's I worked for a "flight attendant lease company" and flew the Hajj from Nigeria to Jeddah for 2 months. We departed London and landed in Lagos at night and the culture shock was huge. We stayed overnight and then went to Kano and stayed over before our first working flight to Jeddah. I will never forget that experience and the amazing people that I met.
Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com
OP
OP
You are always welcome, never knew you had visited Nigeria. I am impressed, and glad you did enjoy the experience.
Nigeria is a great place to visit and live, it's culture is diverse, and it's diversity is phenomenal.
I acknowledge the inquisitive question of @Jamie in Chile, and I thank him for it. I will answer the remaining questions shortly.
Kind regards
OP
OP
I am back, pardon my late follow up.
I will begin by reinforcing my answer to question 3; now, tribe has a play in relationships, but love might be stronger. Let me explain better, an Hausa man might be inclined to marry his fellow Hausa woman if he is living in the north. Though in rare cases do inter-marriage exist between tribes as a result of love which is influenced by living far from home.
Family also has a huge influence, most parents don't like for their children to inter-marry, because of certain reasons: language barrier, culture difference, and even religious barrier. Religion mustn't be overlooked but it's influence is minimal due to the spread rate of religion. Most Northern population are Muslims, half of Southwest is Muslim, other half is Christian, with a minority who still practice the ancient traditional religion.
In terms of doing business, I can say from experience that Hausa tribe are more transparent. What I love about them is, when you wish to transact a business with them, and they sense you are an Hausa, they would subsidize the price drastically. It doesn't only applies to their fellow tribe, if you are even from another tribe but seem to speak and understand the Hausa language, you are loved among them and they treat you like their own. Honestly, the same cannot be said about other tribes, but this is only my experience and it can be subjective. Also, humans are different, there are loyal, honest and transparent people in all tribes. In general, we care about our tribe and culture in our way of life.
4. I would blame the British colonial masters partly, and I blame the Nigerian government partly too. Uniting so many diverse tribes into a nation was a gamble, it must have offered the British a great incentive for enforcing such rule. We all know from the history books that has been tampered with that exploitation was the main goal of such act. I would not want to divert the discourse here, maybe another time. The reason I blame the Nigerian government is, why still continue to follow your former masters rule when you claim you have attained independence? It shows that a few group of individuals are still benefiting greatly from such biased rule.
But to be candid, the diversity has its benefits because every tribal region has something that's unique to the county's export commodity. Like petroleum is from the South-South, most agriculture products is from the Southwest and North, all animal products is from the North. I might not know how the split into regions might affect the livelihood of the regions, but I sure believe that they would survive. Let's look at U.S.S.R, after the split, each country is flourishing under their own unified culture. There's currently an agitation that's been in force even before I was born. It's the Biafra war, it's a fight for sovereignty and independence as the Igbo's are not happy with the monopoly of sovereignty between the Yoruba's and Hausa's. They are right with their desire to rule themselves, because no Igbo president has emerged since independence of 1960. That is quite unfair and tribalistic, but there are reasons for such deprivation. The country is currently in a state of disruption, and it is waiting for only a spark to explode into chaos.
5. Your question is still an ongoing situation in the country, many lives has been lost and many will still be lost. The Igbo's stand still remain, they want to be a nation of their own. Their supposed leader has been in incarceration for a while now for flimsy charges, the Igbo land is in a complete anarchy, I mean the Southeast and South-South. It's a sad time for Nigeria, and the what's more sad is that it's only going to get worse if a Yoruba tribal man or Hausa tribal man becomes the president in the forthcoming election.
6. Being a Vegan in Nigeria is like one living in prison, you get to eat what's available by depriving yourself of many of the local dishes which are built around the flesh pot. I am left with the choice to cook my own meals because we don't have vegan restaurants. There's a stigma that occurs when you go into a restaurant and order a meal without animal products, you are tagged a poor man by choosing to eat a meal without meat, fish or egg. It's lonely down here, for in every 1 million citizens, there's just 1 vegan in Nigeria.
I do hope I was able to answer the questions put forward, please send in more questions, and I am open to write articles for any blogs or even newsletters.
Peace & Love
Cyril
Before I retired, one of my co-workers was Nigerian. We were in a workshop about speaking in public, and all of us gave several presentations about whatever topic we chose; one of hers was about her home country. It amazed me when she told us how many different languages are spoken in Nigeria!
OP
OP
Hi,
I am sure it was an experience for you. It's really amazing that a country has more than 30 different languages, if there was no unified official language, I am sure Nigeria would not exist but fractions of tribes as nations instead.
How would you rate your experience working with a Nigerian on a scale of 1 - ?10?
Cyril
Jamie in Chile
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Some of your responses suggest it isn’t normal (e.g. trying to “ascertain”) to ask someone what tribe they belong to. It seems that although many times it is easy to tell, it isn´t always instantly obvious. Is it considered rude to directly ask this question about tribe? What about foreigners – would Nigerians appreciate being asked about their tribe by someone from another country such as UK or USA, or prefer not to be asked?
If the Igbos (and others living in that South-East region) had a vote to be a independent nation, would they definitely vote for it? Are there any opinion polls on this sort of question? Would it make sense for other groups in that area like Ijaw and Ibibio to join with the Igbos to form a new nation? Do these other groups support this or are they more concerned about being dominated by the Igbos?
I am sorry it is so difficult to be a vegan there. Here in Chile things are improving in terms of product availability, used to be only vegan products in the most expensive supermarket a few years ago, now there were many vegan products like burgers and so on at 3-4 different places in the supermarket. The products that taste like meat are becoming more common here. I expect it will be hard for such international products to compete on price in Nigeria but in the Americas the prices are getting closer.
If the Igbos (and others living in that South-East region) had a vote to be a independent nation, would they definitely vote for it? Are there any opinion polls on this sort of question? Would it make sense for other groups in that area like Ijaw and Ibibio to join with the Igbos to form a new nation? Do these other groups support this or are they more concerned about being dominated by the Igbos?
I am sorry it is so difficult to be a vegan there. Here in Chile things are improving in terms of product availability, used to be only vegan products in the most expensive supermarket a few years ago, now there were many vegan products like burgers and so on at 3-4 different places in the supermarket. The products that taste like meat are becoming more common here. I expect it will be hard for such international products to compete on price in Nigeria but in the Americas the prices are getting closer.
