Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro city buzzed with excitement as it hosted its annual Acarajé food festival, an iconic Brazilian dish with West African roots, on November 25.
Acarajé is a deep-fried bean cake introduced to the Brazilian food culture by enslaved West Africans decades ago.
The delicacy is made using black eyed beans as the main ingredient. The batter is shaped using wooden and metal spoons and placed in palm oil.
Once hardened and crispy, the buns are cut in half and filled with various ingredients—black-eyed beans and melegueta pepper, which are native to Africa.
“This is the happiest day in my life,” food vendor Maura do Acarajé, told news agency Associated Press at the event.
The street food is prepared and sold by Brazil’s Baianas women, who say they want to proudly carry on their culinary tradition from their enslaved ancestors.
These slaves, mostly of Yoruba heritage from western Nigeria, were abducted from homelands and taken across stormy seas to Bahia on Brazil’s north-eastern coast.
After the abolition of slavery in the late 19th century, the sale of Acarajé grew in popularity and became the important source of income for slave descendants.
“The batter is made from black-eyed peas blended with onions. The greatest secret of a baiana is in the batter. The more you mix it and blend it, the tastier it becomes,” says Joelice, another Acarajé food vendor.
Beyond the colourful Acarajé presentation, organisers say the festival is also a celebration of Afro-Brazilian culture—Baianas, adorned in colourful attire, shared stories, songs, and dances at the event.
The festival also highlighted the spiritual significance of acarajé, as the dish is often linked to appeasing storms, thunder, and warrior spirits.
In recent years, acarajé has experienced a resurgence in popularity, thanks to a growing appreciation for Brazilian culinary traditions, which has attracted tourists from across the globe.
➤Click here to follow our WhatsApp channel for more stories.
