Films
HOW TO MAKE AFANG SOUP
SYNOPSIS
A Nigerian immigrant mother passes on life lessons by teaching her daughter how to make afang soup, a traditional Ibibio dish composed of meat, palm oil, spices, and vegetables.
STARRING
MAVIS MARTIN AND ZAINAB JAH
CREW
WRITER/DIRECTOR: IQUO B. ESSIEN
ABOUT THE FILM
How to Make Afang Soup is an adaptation of Girl, a short story by Jamaica Kincaid. In the story, a mother instructs her daughter on the proper behavior, dress, and bearing of a young woman, placing a heavy emphasis on cooking, grooming, and upkeep of the house.
“Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline to dry; don’t walk barehead in the hot sun; cook pumpkin fritters in very hot sweet oil; don’t sing benna in Sunday school; you mustn’t speak to wharf-rat boys, not even to give directions.”
— Excerpt from Girl, by Jamaica Kincaid
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
How to Make Afang Soup is an adaptation of “Girl,” a short story by Jamaica Kincaid in which a mother instructs her daughter on the proper bearing of a young woman. She writes, “This is how to make a bread pudding; this is how to make doukona; this is how to make pepper pot.” Reading Kincaid’s story brought back childhood memories of standing next to my mom in the kitchen as she taught me how to cook.
Growing up in Albany, New York, food was one of the major signifiers of my cultural differences from my peers. What I knew of my parents’ native Nigeria I learned in brief spurts as a child, visiting relatives and attending school back home. But the more important lessons—about who I was—were learned in the kitchen by my mother’s side as she rubbed ground peas between her fingers, removing the black-eyed skins for akara, deep-frying tablespoons of the mush in oil till they puffed out into fritters.