I had the amazing opportunity to sit down in Nott Hall with a former Honors College professor of mine, Dr. David Ngong. When I was a sophomore, I took a class of his that focused on globalization and varying African cultures. He teaches at UA and Stillman College, and I am so grateful for his leadership in my educational experience. He was funny and so welcoming, and I couldn’t have picked a better interviewee.

 

What region of Cameroon are you originally from? Do you have any favorite childhood food memories that you’d like to share?

I’m from a grass field region of Cameroon, otherwise known as the Northwestern region. It is the English-speaking part of Cameroon, and there’s a variety of foodstuffs, really. Well, I should say that when it comes to food, one of the things we liked a lot (which was a rarity) was rice. It was a special meal that we often ate on Christmas or other holidays. Rice and chicken. We didn’t eat chicken every day. Just twice or three times a year, so we looked forward to Christmas.

And a kind of soup, we call it egusi soup. We ate it with rice. These were rarities for us. The common food was cornmeal. My mom would make cornmeal and vegetables often. I don’t know the English name for these, but we called them village herbs. She’d use them to season the cornmeal and vegetables, and we’d eat these things with fish. Smoked fish, because we didn’t have a refrigerator. My city was very close to the Atlantic Ocean, though. My high school was built on land reclaimed from the ocean. Every day that we went to school, we went right by the ocean. There were many fishermen there who would catch the fish, bring them to the market, and sell them.

 

When did you move to the States? Did you experience a sort of cuisine culture shock, or were your meals relatively similar to what you’d cooked before you left?

 

Well, I came to the United States in December of 1999, so this is my 18th year here. I came to Kansas City. I came to school, I came as a student here. One of the things that I experienced was that I did not recognize many of the foods.
But the Dean of my school had been a missionary in Ghana, and when he saw me he asked if I had seen any of the food we ate, and I said no, so he took me to the store. He took me to the store that sold cornmeal and some of our vegetables that I didn’t know were here. We still cook that here.

 

Do your kids eat the food you cook, or do they like American food better? I know you have several children.

 

My older daughter likes chips a lot. She doesn’t like to eat the food that we make. (He laughs.) But that is what we make at home, so there is nothing else. She goes to school and they provide food there, so she eats a lot of American food there.
But the little one is three, so she is beginning to eat more of our food now. Things like cereal she ate before, but she eats okra now. We make that at home. We have a kind of food called yellow soup, and we also eat that now. It is made of limestone, which you put in water and boil. You mix it with fish, and whatever things you have. We eat that together, and we pound cocoyams.

 

Can you find cocoyams here in the States?

 

They are in a processed form here, but people from African countries aren’t used to this kind. They sell them in some stores in Birmingham here, though. I have a friend whose son goes to Birmingham to find the cocoyams. I hear there’s a store there.

But they sell them in Atlanta also. We have a Liberian friend who has a small store in Tuscaloosa, though, on Hargrove and McFarland. They go to Atlanta to buy their supplies, and sometimes we give them money to get things for us.

 

Do you think Westerners have any misconceptions about what African or Cameroonian food really is? Where are the discrepancies?

 

Well, in terms of misconceptions, I think that means you know something but you don’t understand it. That’s how I think about it. I don’t think it’s misconceptions as much as really just not knowing. But many of the foods that we eat, we eat them with our fingers. When I was a student in Kansas City, I had a friend who came home with me, and I made some cornmeal and he was asking for silverware. “Where is a fork?” he said. And I told him we don’t use forks. But I gave him a fork. It was a strange sight to behold.

 

Could the average Joe find Cameroonian food in Alabama (restaurants, grocery stores, etc)?

 

Well, in Alabama, no. In Atlanta, yes. Unless you’re cooking it yourself. Which, I’ve thought about it. Opening my own place. I know many people in Birmingham, though. I go often.
What we do, though, is we meet once a month, Cameroonians in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham. Our last meeting was last week. What we do is cook food together and everyone brings food . We celebrate our being here, and we come together to share food. We are a nonprofit group but we come first to socialize.

 

Do you ever travel back to your hometown, and if so, what do you (or what would you) eat there?

 

Well, the last time I was home was in 2004. It is expensive to go. When I go back, I eat the same food I ate when I was young. I eat cocoyam, I eat cornmeal, I eat plantain.

 

Do you agree with the idea of “authentic” Cameroonian cuisine? As we discussed in our class several semesters ago, globalization is radically challenging our ways of thinking about distinct, separated cultures. Has this fusion spread to Cameroon, or do you think older traditions still prevail?

 

In terms of food, I think for the most part, as far as I know, the food has remained pretty much constant, you know. I don’t know if you remember what we discussed in our class, but some of the things that I thought were indigenous and we developed, actually came from elsewhere. But the traditional foods, people still eat. Cocoyam, cornmeal, cassava. People eat cassava in different ways.

Since the last time I was there, I don’t know that there has been a significant shift in food imagination, in food thinking. It has remained mostly the same.

 

In your opinion, what is Cameroon’s most iconic dish? Do you ever cook it at home?

 

I think this would depend on the person. The achu (yellow soup) that I talked about, I think is very iconic. Also there is ndole. It is classic, but achu is the most iconic. Other foods you can find in other places, but you hardly see achu or ndole in other places. There is another food made from cassava called miondo, they wrap it in long leaves and they tie the leaves and boil it for a long time. It is fermented cassava. I think also that is really iconic. It is really really good.
There is also another kind of food made of cassava. You can find it in Cameroon or Nigeria, and it is called gari. It is fermented as well, and made in different ways. I don’t know that I can say that it is iconic Cameroonian food, but it is the food that many students eat because it is cheap, and they don’t have the means. Like chips. One little kid here called it African cereal. (He laughs.)

 

What makes Cameroonian cuisine delicious or special? What do you love most about it?

 

I don’t know that it is so much special as it is what I grew up with. That is what I know best.

 

Is there still a kind of comfort in that familiarity for you, then?

 

I think it makes me keep a kind of familiarity in a strange land. It makes me feel like I did not fall off the Earth or something. So it is the roots, you know, it gives me roots. Makes me have some continuity in my sense of self. I think I like the food that we make, though. I prefer it to hamburgers. I don’t do hamburgers, you know. (He laughs.)