A taste of Africa

By Melissa Garber Bulletin Contributing Writer

Published on February 08, 2008

The walk from the fast-food chain Subway down to Pat Ononibaku's Nigerian restaurant, Baku's, on North Pleasant Street in Amherst, is roughly five minutes. But the distance between cultures is thousands of miles apart.

Walking into Baku's is like entering a world unknown to most. One wall sports a bright and cheery mural depicting Ononibaku's homeland, the music is traditional Nigerian, the delicious aromas from a menu full of spices and slow-cooked meals permeate the air. Even the tables are oufitted with ceramic pineapple toothpick holders.

The first thing that greets customers is the smell of joloff rice, Ononibaku's signature dish. The rice is slow cooked with tomato paste, dried herbs and spices.Then they are introduced to Ononibaku (Oh-Non-ee-bah-ku) herself, wearing traditional Nigerian clothing and big bright scarves around her braided hair.

Ononibaku's Nigerian accent is obvious, and she speaks loud and fast. She talks to every customer, asking them if they had been here before, if they like the food, how their day was. "I'm like an open book," she said, "and I like to talk, so just stop me."

Ononibaku's food is specific to West Africa, and because ovens are rare in homes in Nigeria, all the food is slow cooked over the stove and loaded with seasoning, onions and tomatoes.

"In Nigeria we don't use recipes, we just cook," she said, "you cook and taste and feel."

Behind the counter, she tosses cumin and her own special curry-powder blend into her dishes, dishes like pounded yam, curried goat and mango beef.

The menu at Baku's is gluten- and dairy-free. "Bread is considered a colonizers' food," Ononibaku explained, "and Northern Nigeria has cheese and dairy, but I am from the south and I never had cheese until I came to America."

Ononibaku said that when she was opening the restaurant some people were skeptical that there was enough of an African community in the area to support it.

"There are positives and there are challenges," she said. "Most food vendors do not have any experience providing food items for African restaurants, so I have to physically travel to get my stuff."

For her plantains, Ononibaku goes to the supermarket, but for her spices she relies on her sister-in-law who lives in Alabama but travels every other month to Nigeria to see her husband, Ononibaku's brother.

It isn't only the food vendors who give Ononibaku problems. When she wanted a mural painted on the wall, she also encountered difficulties. Artists were reluctant to paint a tropical scene for Baku's. They thought Africa was just safaris and wild animals and tried to force that idea into the mural. But Ononibaku couldn't accept that one-sided view of Africa. Her home environment in Lagos, Nigeria was tropical, and that was what she wanted depicted on the walls of her restaurant.

"Every Sunday after church my family and I went to the beach," she said, "That's the side of Africa I wanted to show."

Amherst artist Nancy Haver took on the project. Using bright blues, oranges and greens, she painted a beautiful scene - strong African women, with smiles on their faces, carrying mangos in baskets on their heads, set against a palm tree and ocean backdrop.

"When you turn on the TV, you hear a negative impression of Africa," Ononibaku said. "I provide a positive impression of Africa."

Growing up in Nigeria

Ononibaku grew up in the Ibo tribe and spoke Ibo and English at home with her parents and six siblings, who are all still in Nigeria. "It was the best time of my life," she said. "I had wonderful supportive parents. My mom was a feminist and she really strongly believed that her children could be anything.

"In Nigeria, some families put more emphasis on male education," she explained, "but in my family, my mom made sure everyone got an education."

Ononibaku's mom is a successful business woman, who owns a high-end fashion boutique, a transportation business, and co-owns a restaurant, despite having no education past the fourth grade.

Ononibaku is a first-generation college graduate. She received her bachelor's degree in nutrition from Alvan Ikoku College in Lagos and was a teacher until she moved to Amherst 23 years ago at the age of 24 to continue her education at the University of Massachusetts.

Her husband, Charles, had moved to Amherst three years before her to study industrial engineering at the university. At UMass Ononibaku received her master's degree in consumer studies with a concentration in nutrition.

Shortly after she began studying at the university, she attended an international food fair there she said. "And I did not see any representation of African food."

The next year she showed up with Nigerian food, crafts and clothing. The food was free and she hadn't intended to sell the crafts, but people insisted on leaving money for the food and buying her crafts and clothes.

The food was so popular that people were asking for Ononibaku's phone number so that she could cater their events. Eventually her customers encouraged her to start a restaurant. She opened Baku's in October of 2005.

"I wanted to start small," she said, "So I took over the lease for Amherst Crepes when the owner moved to Boston."

Baku's is a tight space, and Ononibaku barely has enough room to maneuver around her tiny kitchen. Large silver-colored pots cover her stove tops, dishes are stacked high at the sink in the back, and all of the customers have a front seat to her every move.

Customers order their food at the counter, and the mainly young staffers - occasionally one of Ononibaku's five children - bring the food to the table when it's ready. Sky blue cloth napkins cover utensils, and the food on the plate looks like it was dished up at home. There's a main dish, a vegetable, joloff rice and one of three variations of plantains - boiled, fried or roasted.

Most of her customers are Americans - professors, local professionals and families. She said that in Nigeria people don't normally go out for dinner. "I wanted people to come in here and experience what we eat in a traditional Nigerian home," she said.

Baku's has also become a resource on Africa for the community. Students and teachers alike have contacted Ononibaku for information for school projects and general information on Nigeria.

"It's been very humbling for me," she said. "This restaurant has come out to be larger than I thought it would be."

Baku's at 197 N. Pleasant St. is open Monday and Thursday, noon to 8 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, noon to 9p.m. 253-7202.