02/23/2025
Next up for Saucy Sunday…
Some folks call it Jollof, my folks are from the Carolinas and we call it Red Rice. The conversation I want to have is this: Tomatoes are indigenous to the Americas, not Africa.
That means the beloved tomato based rice dishes across West Africa, the Caribbean, and the Southern U.S. are all branches of the same culinary tree rooted in trade, migration, and cultural exchange.
Before tomatoes touched African soil, they came from the Americas, brought through colonial trade routes. Before that, our ancestors were cooking with palm oil, peppers, grains, and native vegetables. No tomato base, no Jollof as you know it today.
And let’s talk about the rice. African rice (Oryza glaberrima) has existed for thousands of years, but the long grain rice most people use for Jollof , Oryza sativa is an import from Asia. Africans cultivated rice, yes but the technique of parboiling, stewing, and cooking in tomato sauce? That’s a fusion of African, European, and American influences.
So for me, the debate is over. The sauce didn’t start with Y O U it traveled.
So who really “owns” Jollof? Nobody.
The accepted original, Thieboudienne from was slow cooked, packed with seafood and vegetables, and didn’t even start with tomatoes.
The Jollof versions we argue about today evolved with shifting trade, new ingredients, and local techniques.
So the next time someone tells you Jollof is “ours,” remind them: food doesn’t belong to borders it belongs to the people who keep cooking it.
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