Gastrodiplomacy: Nigeria must capitalise on its gastrodiversity -By Téguia Bogni

For the third year in a row, Nigeria has been named the best Brand Nation in Africa according to the Nation Brands 2021 report. The report was initiated by brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance. This feat is the result of, among other things, cultural diplomacy based on music, film and fashion. But how can we understand that Nigeria does not make much use of its cuisine in the construction of this soft power? This lack of promotion of a national cuisine is far from being an isolated case. In fact, the vast majority of African countries are late, not to say that they are absent from this new niche of geopolitics and geostrategy. Yet, there is no lack of culinary potential. Rather, it appears that African governments still have difficulty in grasping the subjugation and persuasive power of cuisine. In the rest of the world, on the other hand, many nations have, over the past twenty years, come to realise that cuisine is a powerful instrument of mediation in international relations. Among the nations that have understood the strategic role of a culinary heritage in the global village, some have, for example, developed a series of culinary influence strategies, one of the best known of which is gastrodiplomacy. These include: Korea with Korean Cuisine to the World, Peru with Cocina peruana para el mundo and France with Goût de France/Good France.

Gastrodiplomacy is a political model that a state adopts in order to conquer the world with the leverage of its cuisine and its art of the table, in order to conquer hearts, stomachs and consciences. In addition to contributing to the international influence of the aforementioned State, gastrodiplomacy has the capacity to promote, on the one hand, the attractiveness of tourism and, on the other hand, to ensure foreign exchange earnings, through the marketing of food products, whether processed or not, related to agriculture, livestock or fishing.

Speaking of Nigeria’s culinary heritage calls to questioning its gastrodiversity. In other words, this refers to the plurality of food and culinary specialities specific to a given community, in a given space. From this point of view, one can assert, on the one hand, that Nigerian gastrodiversity is rich because it results from the different pedoclimatic and environmental conditions of the Nigerian territory. On the other hand, it reflects the sociological diversity of Nigeria in that there are almost as many cuisines as there are ethnic groups,. This can be seen in the gastronyms (names of food and culinary specialities) with which Nigerians refer to local dishes. The gastronyms indicate the ethnic origin of the dishes. Thus, we know that gari is Hausa, akara is Yoruba, afang is Efik, ogbono is Igbo, etc. Since language is the backbone of cultural diplomacy, it is imperative that food and culinary specialities are popularised with their local names, and this through harmonised spelling.

In 2020, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) incorporated 29 words from Nigerian English. These include the gastronyms moi-moi and akara. Though this initiative has been well received by the people, it should be noted that the number of words that could be said to be sufficiently representative was small. In other words, more words from national languages were expected. It should be remembered that the integrated words are mainly integrated on the basis of their current and constant use in the spoken and written language. With these criteria and contours in mind, the State should be able to strategically influence the English language. It should be borne in mind that gastronyms can play a vital role in the enhancement of Nigeria’s national languages through film, music and fashion. To this end, the country could establish an observatory of national languages which will, among other things, codify and guide the spelling standards of the most commonly used words in Nigerian English. This is all the more necessary as it is not good that some strategic words have several spellings (moi moi, moin moin; gari, garri, ukazi, okazi, etc.) and that it is a dictionary editor who comes to fix the right spelling, no doubt according to his working methodology. This methodology does not necessarily suit the ‘owners’ of these words.
What do ijebu gari, kilishi of Northern Nigeria, yaji, ofada rice, fura and ose nsukka have in common? These exceptional products of Nigerian cuisine were the focus of the National Conference on Creating Legal and Institutional Frameworks for Geographical Indications in Nigeria held in Abuja from 17 to 18 February 2022. Initiated by Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation in Africa (AfrIPI), the aim of the meeting was to provide a definitive and legal guarantee of quality and origin for these products. In the same vein, Nigeria would benefit from submitting culinary specialities to UNESCO for inscription on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. There is no doubt that if these food and culinary specialities were to become labels and heritages, it would greatly enhance Nigeria’s brand image in the eyes of the world.

By relying on its cultural diplomacy, Nigeria can establish itself as a major player in culinary soft power in Africa. To achieve this, the country must develop a gastrodiplomacy that will be implemented by diplomats, on the one hand, and artists and cultural actors, on the other hand.

Téguia Bogni
Senior Reseacher
Centre of National Education/Ministry of Scientific Research and Innovation of Cameroon