Fortune and fantasy on Africa's oil frontier
La Saveur, Yaounde, Cameroon. Photo by Christiane Badgley
Turns out that one of my most popular blog posts ever is a piece called “La Saveur” that I wrote back in November 2009.
La Saveur, the name of an inexpensive and delicious dining spot in Yaounde, was a post about Cameroonian food in general and ndole in particular.
As I said at the time, writing about pipelines and oil can get depressing. Writing about food, on the other hand, is a pleasure. Like eating a big plate of ndole with a nicely grilled fish and few pieces of miondo, writing about good food is a welcome respite from stories of greed, corruption and environmental degradation.
It’s hardly surprising that people want to read about food and cooking. They’re hardly controversial. Sure, you can get in a heated argument with an Italian about whether drinking milk in coffee after 10 a.m. is sacrilege, but I doubt that will lead to anything worse than a cancelled cafe date. Look at the most read and emailed articles in papers like The New York Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post and Le Monde and you’ll see that there are usually several food-related pieces in the top ten.
I’m making a note to myself to post more often about food.
Up next: Looking for Ndole in Guangzhou
Christiane Badgley has been producing and editing documentary films for the past twenty years, with much of her work focused on the U.S. criminal justice system and post-colonial African politics and history.
