On June 2, 2017, the food conversation in Africa hit a new height as Brand Television Network, Btv, a lifestyle and entertainment television network presented the African Jollof Rice Challenge.

African Jollof Rice Challenge is a continental lifestyle and entertainment taste tour and cooking contest that seeks to discover the country that has the best Jollof Rice in Africa in a contest where representatives of different African countries will slug it out for the $5000 Grand Prize money.

Felix King, an Executive Producer at Btv, said the argument on Jollof Rice had inspired social network and street conversations across Africa, especially among West African Countries, where Jollof Rice is most popular.

King said, “There is no official position yet on which country has the best Jollof rice in Africa, hence, the Btv desire to unravel the mystery through this contest.”

“None of the perspectives has proved convincing, despite Nigeria’s strong claims to the African cuisine.

“The different viewpoints on the streets have only generated more controversies and continuous placement of different points to back up individual claims”.

Ororo Pattaya Otono, also an Executive Producer at Btv, explained that the challenge would start with an online recipe contest, where the best contestants will be selected for the live screening and then the Grand Finale.

He said the programme would come to a flourishing end at the Reward Night that will be used to mark the World Jollof Rice Day on Tuesday, August 22.

Ororo added that “In recent times, Nigeria and Ghana has laid major claims to the origin and ownership of Jollof, but some historians traced its origin to Senegambia, which was ruled by the Jollof Empire.

“Just as we try to get used to the Jollof Rice story as it is, the controversy has come to stay because no one country in Africa will ever agree that its Jollof Rice is second to any”.

To the organizers, African Jollof Rice Challenge is more of an entertainment platform than a contest. It’s the positive and healthy exploration of the beauty of African entertainment that makes us one big continent.