When we entered 37-year-old Binta Wade's apartment in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt, we noticed a homemade altar in the corner of the living room. Behind a heap of bouquets, candles and incense sticks stands the large portrait of a lady with a piercing, menacing look. This is our host's mother, Aminata Abdoul Niang, of Senegalese origin. "She passed away in March 2024, and her death triggered in me the desire to rediscover her cooking," said Wade. "When I was a kid, I was a bit bored of African cuisine; all I dreamed of was sauerkraut and gratins! Now, I want to preserve my mother's memory through taste, to keep sharing these flavors with the people I love, especially my children, Marius and Abel."

Her mother didn't leave her any written recipes and she didn't use scales. Instead, she prepared, measured and adjusted everything using her eye and palate, through tasting it. "If I learned anything, it's because I was always in her way when she was cooking," said Wade. "By watching her, I ended up taking it in." By mimicry, Wade can now intuitively prepare thieb, or thiéboudiène (a Senegalese specialty made with rice, tomato and fish), thiéré yapp (a kind of couscous with mutton) and mafé.

It was this last dish – various versions of which exist across West Africa, such as in Mali, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, etc., but which is always made from peanut paste – that she was preparing to make by using her mother's recipe. The Wade family – nine children – settled in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges in northeastern France, where almost an entire Fula community from Futa (a region in northern Senegal bordering Mauritania) migrated in the 1970s to satisfy the need for labor.

You have 74.76% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.