Yemisi Aribisala

Yemisi Aribisala (born 27 April 1973) is a Nigerian essayist, writer, painter, and food memoirist. She has been described as having a 'fearless, witty, and una.
3.5 stars Yemisi Aribisala writes freshly + defiantly (not in this book: “it was not my fault if I looked like butter would not melt in my mouth, like innocence and benevolence in a food processor”). Read this after reading “Bad Woman Meat Pies”, the author's essay which is a.

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Yemisi Aribisala claims the world didn’t know about Nigerian food until chef Jamie Oliver made a version of jollof rice. Photo by Helena Krige of YeahYeah Photography. Yemisi Aribisala says she was described as rude when dining out because she ate quietly and didn’t comment on the food and meal. Yemisi Aribisala clinched the John Avery award in 2016 for her portrayal of the Nigerian culture through her examination of the relationship between food, politics, religion, and ethnicity.

Yemisi Aribisala describes being described as rude when dining out because she ate quietly and didn’t comment on the food and meal. She learned that in other cultures, people talked about food to give it an identity. She says that the world wasn’t aware of Nigerian food until celebrity chef Jamie Oliver made a version of jollof rice in 2013. Her book is “Longthroat Memoirs.”

Yemisi Aribisala writes about Nigerian food and more in her book “Longthroat Memoirs: Soups, Sex and Nigerian Taste Buds.” Photo courtesy of Cassava Republic Press

Aribisala
Born	27 April 1973 Nigeria
Nationality	Nigerian
Education	University of Wolverhampton, University of Wales
Occupation	Writer

Yemisi Aribisala (born 27 April 1973) is a Nigerian essayist, writer, painter, and food memoirist. She has been described as having a 'fearless, witty, and unapologetic voice'^[1] Her work has been featured in the The New Yorker, The British Vogue, Chimurenga Magazine, Popula, Google Arts & Culture, The Johannesburg Review of Books, Critical Muslim 26: Gastronomy, Sandwich Magazine (The African Scramble), Guardian UK, Aké Review, and Olongo Africa.

Aribisala is renowned for her work in documenting Nigerian food as an entry point to thinking and understanding the culture and society. Her first book, Longthroat Memoirs: Soups, Sex, and the Nigerian Taste Buds, won the John Avery Prize at the André Simon Book Awards 2016.^[2]^[3] Her work has also appeared in New Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Writing by Women of African Descent; In the Kitchen: Essays on Food and Life and The Best American Food Writing 2019.

She currently lives in London, United Kingdom.

Life and career[edit]

Aribisala attended the University of Wolverhampton, England, where she obtained a law degree in 1995. She subsequently earned a master's degree in Legal Aspects of Maritime Affairs and International Transport from the University of Wales, Cardiff, in 1997.^{[citation needed]}

Writing[edit]

She was the founding editor of the trailblazing Nigerian literary and culture publication Farafina Magazine.^{[citation needed]}

From 2009 to 2011, she was the food columnist at the now-defunct, groundbreaking 234Next newspaper, where she first gained public attention, writing under the name 'Yẹ́misí Ogbe'.^{[citation needed]} She regularly contributes to literary publications, including the Chimurenga Chronicle, the avant-garde culture newspaper.^{[citation needed]}

Works[edit]

Longthroat Memoirs[edit]

On 31 October 2016, Aribisala's debut book of essays was published in Nigeria. It was titled Longthroat Memoirs: Soups, Sex, and the Nigerian Taste Buds, a collection of essays exploring 'the cultural politics and erotics of Nigerian cuisine'.^[4] It has been well received.

Of her work the following has been said: 'It is difficult to translate senses through words, but Aribisala manages to communicate the tastes, tickles and aromas of various African spices and ingredients wonderfully.'^[5] The book has been described as 'part straight cookbook, part cultural history, part travelogue, part intimate confessional, it's as complex and mysterious as one of the Nigerian soups Aribisala describes so evocatively in its pages'^[6] and a work 'that carries the weight of so much cultural and literary burden, and manages to discharge it with grace and style.'^[7] '[S]he joins thinkers like Chinua Achebe in rejecting the stereotype of the African writer as a mere storyteller, not a thinker.'^[8]

She has been compared to writers such as Aminatta Forna and Binyavanga Wainaina who 'play with the ontology of the 21st century African memoir, and oscillate between the deeply personal and the distinctly political'; a book that is a 'mouth-watering appraisal of the cultural politics and erotics of Nigerian cuisine'.^[9] The pages [of her book] sing with her clever, beautiful prose and sharp eye.^[10] It is a work 'redolent with spice, rippling with humour and sexual innuendo, her memoirs conjure up fantasies that can only be satisfied by reading another chapter.'^[11]

The cover image was designed by UK-based artist Lynn Hatzius, who said that her intention with the cover artwork was 'to show how food culture is an ingrained part of us... I wanted the cover image to convey the joy of this and to invite the reader into Yemisi Aribisala's own celebration of food.'^[12]

Prizes and honours[edit]

'The pestle and mortar, tools of subjugation? Not by any stretch of the cultural imagination.'^[13]

In January 2017, Aribisala's debut book Longthroat Memoirs won the John Avery Prize at the André Simon Book Awards 2016.^[2]^[3]

In March 2017, Aribisala was listed as one of the 100 inspiring women in Nigeria in 2017.^[14]

On 13 February 2018, Longthroat Memoirs: Soups Sex & Nigerian Taste Buds was shortlisted for the 2018 Art of Eating Prize. https://artofeating.com/prize/short-list/

In the May 2018 Gourmands World Cookbook Awards, Longthroat Memoirs: Soups Sex & Nigerian Taste Buds won second place in the category of Best in the World in African Cuisine https://www.jamesmurua.com/gourmand-world-cookbook-awards-2018-winners-announced/^{[citation needed]}.

Selected writings[edit]

Boy in a Gèlè (February 2021)^[15] in OlongoAfrica
The Beauty and Burden of Being a Nigerian Bride (September, 2019)^[16] in The New Yorker
'The Girls Who Fainted at the Sight of an Egg' (January 2018)^[17] in The New Yorker
'Sister Outsider' (April 2016)^[18] at The Chimurenga Chronic
'Nigeria's New Feminism – Say-You-Are-One-Of-Us-Or-Else' (October 2016)^[19] at KTravula
'Mother Hunger' (November 2015)^[20] on Medium
'Fish Soup as Love Potions'^[21] at The Chimurenga Chronic
'Nollywood Kiss'^[22] (2011) at The Chimurenga Chronic
'Giving It All Away in English' (March 2015)^[23] at The Chimurenga Chronic
'High Heeled Fork' (December 2015)^[24] on Medium
'Birthing The American' (December 2013)^[25] at The Chimurenga Chronic
'Nigeria's Superstar Men of God' (April 2013)^[26] at The Chimurenga Chronic
'Nigeria and a Culture of Disrespect' (August 2012)^[27] at Ikhide Ikheloa's blog
'That Guy No Be Ordinary' (April 2016)^[28] at Chimurenga Chronic

Notable interviews/excerpts/reviews[edit]

'My repression is as legitimate as your freedom': A Conversation with Yẹ́misí Aríbisálà on AfricanWriter.com^[29]
'People try to squeeze Nigerian food into an all-encompassing African label' | Book Excerpt in The Guardian, UK^[30]
Q&A with TheGannet^[31]
'Words Move More Deliberately Than Visual Images.' | Interview in Short Story Day Africa.^[32]
Calabar Witch by Akin Adesokan, in Chimurenga Chronic^[33]
A Book for the Tasting by Kola Tubosun, on Village Factor^[34]
'On Not Fitting In': An Interview with Yemisi Aribisala by Sanya Noel. http://enkare.org/yemisi-aribisala-interview/
Books: Yemisi Aribisala's Longthroat Memoirs. New Again by Edward Behr. https://artofeating.com/books-yemisi-aribisalas-longthroat-memoirs/