Yemisi Aribisala
| Yemisi Aribisala | |
|---|---|
Aribisala
|
|
| Born |
Yẹ́misí Aríbisálà 27 April 1973 Nigeria |
| Nationality | Nigerian |
| Other names | Yemisi Ogbe |
| Alma mater | University of Wolverhampton, University of Wales |
| Occupation | Writer |
Yemisi Aribisala (born 27 April 1973), formerly Yẹ́misí Ogbe, is a Nigerian essayist, writer and food memoirist. She has been described as having a "fearless, witty, and unapologetic voice", named one of seven bold and new international voices.
She is renowned for her work in documenting Nigerian food as an entry point to thinking and understanding the culture and society. Her first book, Longthroat Memoirs: Soups, Sex, and the Nigerian Taste Buds, won the John Avery Prize at the André Simon Book Awards 2016.
She currently lives in Cape Town, South Africa, with her children.
Aribisala attended the University of Wolverhampton, England, where she obtained a law degree in 1995. She subsequently earned a master's in Legal Aspects of Maritime Affairs and International Transport from the University of Wales, Cardiff, in 1997.
She was the founding editor of the trailblazing Nigerian literary and culture magazine Farafina Magazine.
From 2009 to 2011, she was the food columnist at the now-defunct, groundbreaking 234Next newspaper, where she first gained public attention, writing under the name "Yẹ́misí Ogbe".
She regularly contributes to literary publications, including the Chimurenga Chronicle, the avant-garde culture newspaper.
On 31 October 2016, Aribisala's debut book of essays was published by Cassava Republic Press in Nigeria. It was titled Longthroat Memoirs: Soups, Sex, and the Nigerian Taste Buds, a collection of essays exploring “the cultural politics and erotics of Nigerian cuisine”. It has been well received.
Of her work the following has been said: "It is difficult to translate senses through words, but Aribisala manages to communicate the tastes, tickles and aromas of various African spices and ingredients wonderfully." The book has been described as "part straight cookbook, part cultural history, part travelogue, part intimate confessional, it's as complex and mysterious as one of the Nigerian soups Aribisala describes so evocatively in its pages" and a work "that carries the weight of so much cultural and literary burden, and manages to discharge it with grace and style." "[S]he joins thinkers like Chinua Achebe in rejecting the stereotype of the African writer as a mere storyteller, not a thinker."
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