Jollof rice

Jollof rice /ˈdʒɒləf/, also called Benachin (Wolof: "one pot"), is a one-pot rice dish popular in many West African countries, eaten whenever desired. It is a West African version of pilaf or paella, and possibly a progenitor of the Louisianian dish jambalaya.

Geographical range and origin

Jollof rice is one of the most common dishes in Western Africa, consumed throughout the region including Senegal, Gambia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Togo, Cameroon, Mali and Ghana. There are several regional variations in name and ingredients, with non-local versions regarded as "inauthentic". The name Jollof rice derives from Wolof people of Senegal, where it is considered a "national dish", though now called theibou dienn or benachin. In French-speaking areas, it is called riz au gras. Despite the variations, the dish is "mutually intelligible" across the region, and has spread along with the diaspora to become the best known African dish outside the continent.

The points of origin of the dish are hotly debated. Based on its name its origins are also traced to the Senegambian region that was ruled by the Jolof Empire. Food and agriculture historian James C. McCann considers this claim plausible given the popularity of rice in the upper Niger valley, but considers it unlikely that the dish could have spread from Senegal to its current range since such a diffusion is not seen in "linguistic, historical or political patterns". Instead he proposes that the dish spread with the Mali empire, especially the Djula tradespeople who dispersed widely to the regional commercial and urban centers, taking with them economic arts of "blacksmithing, small-scale marketing, and rice agronomy" as well as the religion of Islam.