Bayelsa Government says local Ijaw delicacies remain veritable sources of economic boosters for the Niger Delta region.
Dr Piriye Kiyaramo, Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Tourism to Gov Douye Diri, said this on Tuesday.
He spoke on the occasion of the commemoration of 2023 World Food Day, with the theme: “History, And Everything You Need To Know” in Yenagoa.
Kiyaramo, facilitator of the South-South Tourism Roundtable Initiative, called on the Ijaws to trace and document its food culture, adding that “food tourism supports sustainable tourism as food evokes a sense of community and pleasant memories of destinations.”
Kiyaramo, who doubles as Director-General of the Ernest Ikoli Visitor Information Centre, Yenagoa, noted that food, being part of the rich Ijaw cultural heritage, was usually shared within and between communities, while adapting to changing circumstances in the local settings.
According to the tourism practitioner, the development of food culture can help a tourist destination draw new visitors as food often reflects an entire nation’s eating habits.
He explained that culinary tourism could teach visitors valuable cultural lessons.
“Food tourism can also be a way to support local economies and promote sustainable tourism.
“By patronising local restaurants and food producers, travellers can contribute to the local economy and help preserve culinary traditions,” Kiyaramo said.
He said sharing meals with others could bring people together, promote socialisation, and foster a sense of belonging.
He explained whether in a family gathering, a community feast, or a religious celebration, “food is often used as a way to mark important events, bringing people together which creates the sense of community among the people.”
According to the governor’s aide, sometimes local food may carry related culinary practices such as the use of chopsticks and among others with existing culinary traditions to form new syncretic cuisines.
“Such like that of the Tex-Mex food, a subtype of Southwestern cuisine found in the American Southwest, which evolved from a combination of Mexican and US Southwest food traditions.”
Kiyaramo further explained that although food culture was adaptable, food was tightly linked to people’s cultural identities or the ways they defined and distinguished themselves from other groups of people.
According to him, food also travels across cultures perhaps more often and with more ease than any other traditions.
The renowned tourism expert commended the President of the Ijaw National Congress (INC), Prof. Benjamin Okaba, for inaugurating a committee on Ijaw Culture, chaired by the Chief Historian and Archivist of Bayelsa State, Dr Stephen Olali, recently.
He noted that food had been part of cultural identities, explaining further that the term cuisine had been used to refer to specific cultural traditions of cooking, preparation, and consumption of food.
According to him, while the urban areas may tend to shift and adapt cuisine more frequently than rural communities, those aspects of cuisine most tightly linked to the people’s identity tend to change slowly in all settings as also applicable to the Ijaw nation.
The governor’s tourism aide said there was an urgent need for the Ijaws to make frantic efforts to sustain their food culture with a view to properly documenting and preserving it for posterity.
He made reference to the Japanese short-grain rice “which plays an important role in Japanese identity.”
Kiyaramo said a food culture where a plate of food containing white rice on one half and a stew with chunks of beef, potatoes, and carrots on the other half which originated from the cultural heritage of a particular food culture has today spread round the world.
