Calabar Festival Hosts African Cuisines

The first African Food Festival was on Saturday concluded in Calabar, the Cross River State capital.

The food event, which was part of the newly-introduced additional features to the Calabar Festival, was the brainchild of a former presidential special adviser, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa.

Participants at the event included international chefs from the Republic of Benin and Ghana, while Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba chefs as well as market women from Cross River State also displayed their rich cuisines.

Declaring the one-day carnival open, Ita-Giwa said the festival was aimed at uniting all tribes in Africa through their respective cuisines.

She said, “In Calabar, we have our cuisine, you go to Igbo land, they have their cuisine, you go to Yoruba land they have their cuisine, in Hausa land, they have their cuisine. The idea of having all of these under one roof was sold to Governor Ben Ayade who is open to ideas and he bought it and fused it into the Calabar festival calendar.”

While lauding the participants, Ita-Giwa promised that the event would get better in the coming years.

Also speaking, the wife of the state governor, Mrs. Linda Ayade, said Africa was rich in tasty cuisines.

She lauded the sponsors of the event and urged all present to savour the taste of the cuisines available.

Earlier, 1,000 attendees at the event, held at the African Club, congratulated the governor’s wife whose birthday was coincidentally on Saturday.