Saying
that Ewa Agoyin, a meal of mashed beans, topped with specially prepared
palm-oil stew, was one popular meal in which captured virtually every
Lagosian’s heart, would not be an exaggeration.
Coined
from Ewa, a Yoruba word meaning beans and Agoyin, a name that was used by
Nigerians to describe people from Ghana, Togo and Benin Republic, Ewa Agoyin is
simply a word used to describe how people from these regions make their beans
meal. It is, however, more peculiar to the Togolese and Cotonou people.
Ewa
Agoyin was introduced into the Nigerians’ diet by the migrating Agoyin people,
who came to Nigeria as early as far back as the sixties. It became more popular
in the 80s’, until its fame and craving for it began to dissipate in the
mid-nineties.
One
of the special things about Ewa Agoin was the way it cut across all the social
strata or economic classes in the Lagos metropolis. It is a meal, arguably
loved by all, the poor, the middle class and the rich, cheap, but definitely
unique; a perfect escape for the boring Nigerian method of preparing beans.
According to its lovers, even people, who did not ordinarily like beans
professed love for Ewa Agoyin. Some people preferred to combine with yam, others
preferred garri sprinkled on it, some others chose dodo (fried plantain),
ranging on personal preference.
The
most popular combination was, however, with the equally famous Agege bread
especially when freshly baked, soft and slightly stretchy (Ewa Agoyin was
probably the reason behind the Agege bread’s fame too).
Recounting
her love for Ewa Agoyin, United States of America (USA) based Adebisi Shodare
said, “the first time I ate Ewa Agoyin was at a cousin’s place at Bariga. I was
about six years old then and it always made me want to go to their place every
holiday I had. And then, when I was old enough, I would drive all the way down
from Ikoyi to Bariga just to buy Ewa Agoyin. Having relocated from Nigeria for
a while now, I miss it so much.”
Preferring
her Ewa Agoyin with fried plantain, Adebisi added that, “whenever I visit
Nigeria, I search everywhere for it and make sure I eat a lot of it before
leaving the country again.”
However,
the food had, over the years, surprisingly suffered a huge decline not only in
popularity but in the savouring taste it offered back then. Mrs Janet Samuel, a
Nigeria-based Togolese, who sells Ewa Agoyin at Ebute-Metta, said it was more
popular back then because it was usually hawked and the hawkers could easily
access the nooks and crannies.
“At
some point,” she added, “we began to get arrested for hawking and we had to
stop. We still hawk it very early in the mornings or late in the evenings, to
avoid getting arrested. It is our major source of survival here in Nigeria, so
we take the risk,” she said.
Asked
on the recipe for the meal, particularly the sauce, which is the basic
uniqueness of Ewa Agoyin, Janet, after a little reluctance shared, “we make the
stew with seedlings from red pepper only, it is usually grinded together with
ginger. This is then poured into hot boiling palm oil, salt is added, you allow
it to fry for a while, when its almost done, already sliced onions are poured
into it to for flavour and aroma, stir the stew till well fried and that’s it,”
she said.
For
the preparation of the beans which is much easier, brown beans is cooked till
it gets really soft and then mashed with a pestle, according to Janet. Speaking
with Dede, who is from Cotonu, she said that she does not mash the whole beans
together in the pot but mashes a portion that is about to be served/sold.
The
sauce preparation recipe was, however, same.
Asked
if it was peculiar to any part of Togo, she said it was a general meal in her
country, just the way rice is eaten here.
Asiata,
another Togolese who is based in Nigeria and sells Ewa Agoyin, said that the
change or decline in the taste of the food was not because the original makers
of the meal were no longer up to the task but that there were a lot of
Nigerians who now also make it for sale and were incapable of preparing it as
well as the Agoyins will, try as they might.
“A lot
of people, especially Yorubas in Nigeria, have also delved into the Ewa Agoyin
business and they are not getting it right. We were born into it, they are only
trying to imitate but really cannot get it as perfectly as a Togolese would
prepare it,” Asiata proudly said.
According
to Mrs Titilola Osho, the decline in the popularity of Ewa Agoyin was because
of the arrival of more varieties of food over the years, “back then, meals like
rice was sort of like a special meal, taken on Sundays or during parties or
special occasions,” but now, she added it had become the everyday meal of the
average Nigerian on a daily basis.
She
added that the popularity it used to enjoy was because it was one of the
fastest meals you could get around but that the arrival of the two-minute
noodles and several other fast meals also contended with Ewa Agoyin in that
regards, generally weakening its hold on the diet of Lagosians.
Seun,
a medical doctor’s opinion on the decline of Ewa Agoyin and Agege bread’s
popularity could also be attached to the awareness given Nigerians on the
dangerous chemical, bromate, put in the bread by bakers to make it puffed,
which, according to research could cause blindness.
“Whenever
I bought Agege bread back then, the next thing that came to my mind was getting
Ewa Agoyin to back it up, but since the bromate awareness in Agege Bread, I
stopped buying it, so Ewa Agoyin gradually faded from my mind. But I have to
admit that I still miss that combination very much”, he said.
In
a lot of ways, this is quite true and there are certainly many people out there
who, having diverted from taking the Agege bread, had Ewa Agoyin gradually
faded from their minds.
In
Babatunde’s opinion, just like almost every other thing being produced in
Nigeria which is fast losing value, so has the Ewa Agoyin delicacy, as it is no
longer as popular as it used to be back then
It is
worthy of note that the deteriorating Nigerian economy may also be responsible
for the gradual fading of the Ewa Agoyin and Agege bread, because, as mentioned
earlier, it was a meal for the poor. The Agege bread is now bought at the rate
of N40 against what used to sold back then for 20 naira. Those times you could
still buy N5 Ewa Agoyin but that is no more, because the least you can get is
N20 which is about the same quantity as what used to be sold for N5 or even
less.
Ewa
Agoyin may no longer be ubiquitous as it used to be and getting it may be more
difficult now, but it is one meal that will always remain in the hearts of
Lagosians. If you never had the opputunity (or luck) to eat EwaAgoyin and Agege
bread, hopefully, Lagosians claim that it won’t go into full extinction and you
may be lucky enough to taste it someday. Copied from Tribune.com
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