At the Nigerian table, meals are not organized into starter-main-dessert but around an inseparable duo: a "staple" of firm, neutral starch (pounded yam, eba, rice) shaped into balls with the fingers, and a rich, spicy, colorful "soup" for dipping. Surrounding these are street snacks eaten standing at the market, and fermented drinks that seal reunions. This is a cuisine of sharing, where everyone dips into the same dish.

Extracted from the fruit of the oil palm, this deep red, dense, lightly smoked oil is the colorful, fragrant soul of Niger Delta cuisine. It tints stews a blazing orange and carries a taste of earth and sun that no other fat can replace. In Okri's work, the palm tree—its oil, its wine—is everywhere: it connects the world of the living to that of the spirits.