There is a colour that immediately announces itself in the Nigerian kitchen. This colour is the deep orange-red glow of palm oil sizzling in virtually every Nigerian pot of soup, coating steaming plates of yam, colouring soft pulpy beans, giving ofada rice that distinctive character and transforming ordinary ingredients into food that carries the unmistakable aroma of home.
Nigerian palm oil has travelled far more than any cooking oil. It has been food, farming, commerce, household wealth, indigenous knowledge and culinary identity. From the palm groves of the South-East and South-South to kitchens across Nigeria, the African oil palm has quietly shaped the country’s food culture.
Today, however, an important question deserves to be asked and this is simple, can the traditional knowledge and culinary practices surrounding Nigerian red palm oil become part of the country’s case for UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage recognition?
The answer is potentially yes, but the proposal must be about the living cultural practices surrounding palm oil, rather than simply asking UNESCO to list “palm oil” as a product.
The African oil palm, Elaeis guineensis, is indigenous to West Africa. The Food and Agriculture Organization notes that oil palm processing for edible oil has been practised in Africa for thousands of years and that the naturally highly coloured and flavoured oil became an essential ingredient in traditional West African cuisine and Nigeria sits at the heart of this history. The palm tree has long been woven into the economic and social life of communities in the humid southern parts of the country.
