In Yoruba cuisine from Nigeria, there is no separation of starter, main course, and dessert. The meal revolves around a duo: a soft starchy paste called "swallow" (iyan, pounded yam; or eba, cassava semolina) rolled into balls with the fingers, and a pot of rich soup or sauce (egusi, ewedu, tomato-pepper sauce) for dipping. Around it revolve street grills, hibiscus drinks, and medicinal bitters. It is a sharing table where everyone dips into the communal dish.

Two pillars of West African cuisine: red palm oil (epo pupa), fatty, fruity, and sunset-colored, which perfumes and colors almost everything; and egusi, ground melon seed that thickens soups and gives them a slightly bitter-umami protein base. Fela, a convinced pan-Africanist, ate these foods as an act of identity: Yoruba on the plate.