In West Africa, the regional body ECOWAS is proposing the introduction of a single currency across the sub-region. There remains a lot of hard work to be done to make a success of these grand initiatives but the idea is clear: at a time when much of the Western world is tearing itself apart, Africa is taking a serious stab at coming closer than ever before.
With all of this happening in the background, Jollof Road is gamely chugging along. What is Jollof Road, you ask? Is it a road where only jollof is sold? We wish. In the unlikely event you have been living under a rock for the past few months, Jollof Road is a Zikoko™ project. For 80 days, three Zikoko staffers – Fu’ad, Toke and Kayode – with their handler/French guru Tosin and bus captain Taiwo, will be on the road exploring the entirety of West Africa. The sights, sounds, food and culture of all 14 mainland west African countries are under the spotlight here.
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Living it up in Ghana -
Meeting with strangers who invited the team over in Accra
Jollof rice in Ghana; learning the subtle but important difference between voodoo and witchcraft in Togo and buying food when your understanding of French is severely limited. Border crossings and palm greasing. And finding out that what you knew about Togo and Benin, and their similarities aren’t exactly the reality on the ground. These are some of the experiences the Jollof Road team have had since the show began 23 days ago in Lagos, Nigeria.
So, the west may be getting more insular and unreceptive to new people and ideas but here, we’re for co-operation. Only five people are on this monumental Jollof Road journey but in truth, we are all on this journey, learning and living through them wherever we are across the globe.
You can follow the journey on jollofroad.com, see updates on Twitter and Instagram and catch behind-the-scenes gist in the Telegram channel.
