What's New  

YouTube marks World Jollof Day, celebrates African delicacies

By Eniola Daniel

25 August 2022   |   6:17 am

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on WhatsApp Share on Telegram

YouTube has unveiled a series of initiatives to mark this year’s World Jollof Day.

YouTube<br />PHOTO: REUTERS/Toby Melville

YouTube has unveiled a series of initiatives to mark this year’s World Jollof Day.

Since 2015, the day has been observed on August 22 to spotlight Jollof rice, a popular cuisine among west Africans also offered in other regions of the world.

Cook-offs between top creators in Nigeria will be organised and premiered on YouTube. Popular food vloggers, comedians and lifestyle creators will be paired to compete with one another for bragging rights on which team can prepare the best jollof rice. Creators on the line-up for the cook-off are Sisi Yemmie and Broda Shaggi as Team Pepper dem; Ify Kitchen and MC Lively as Team Buga; Zeelicious and Josh2Funny as Jollof Pros; Diary of a Kitchen Lover and Akah as The Winning Team; and finally, Food and Spice and Taaooma as Team Jollof la hot.

YouTube Creator Marketing Manager, EMEA, Adetutu Laditan, said: “Food incorporates the ethnicity and cultural heritage of a people. The celebration of World Jollof Day is exciting for us because it gives us an opportunity to foster cross-cultural understanding and this sums up part of our passion at YouTube,” says,

YouTube has also partnered with Afrochella Festival in the #Jolloflove challenge. The #Jolloflove challenge urges people to share videos that reveal their love for Jollof rice on YouTube Shorts. Lucky winners will be rewarded with an all-expenses paid trip to the 2022 Afrochella festival in Ghana for the week-long event.

A Jollof rice playlist and a Jollof music playlist have also been launched. These playlists share interesting videos that show how to prepare jollof rice and music from Africa’s music superstars that fit with the celebration of World Jollof Day. YouTube is also partnering with the popular YouTube series, Men’s Club, to celebrate through a special YouTube show in which the cast cooks Jollof Rice.

“Jollof rice is arguably the most popular cuisine in west Africa and around the globe. We are excited to be working with creators to commemorate this culinary heritage,” adds Laditan.