This New Documentary Sheds Light On the History of a Beloved Nigerian Staple—Agege Bread

This new documentary following Nigeria's own Agege Bread contributes to the need of preserving and documenting food culture on the continent.

In Fresh Agege Bread, directed and produced by filmmaker Chika Okoli of FABA (For Africans By Africans), we follow food researcher Ozoz Sokoh as she traces the history and popularity of Agege Bread featuring its pioneering bakers, community figureheads and locals. The documentary touches on the rise of the booming product as well as addresses some of the controversies around the health and safety measures applied in the production of this staple.

For Okoli, the inability to find such insights about this significant food in Nigerian culture is what inspired her to develop this documentary.

"Agege Bread is so popular in Lagos but shockingly, there is very little information about it online and the same can be said about other cultural elements that are significant to our way of life," she shares with us.

Photo still courtesy of Chika Okoli.

"There is a huge knowledge gap in our society and now more than ever, a need for us as Africans to evolve from orally passing down our culture to digitally archiving them. It all boils down to the reason FABA exists––to visually document our way of life and give free access to the stories we produce online. We document these stories for cultural preservation, to promote cross cultural exchange between Africans and to accurately highlight the diverse African experience as a reference for present and future generations."

Watch Fresh Agege Bread below.

Fresh Agege Bread: A Special Bread From Lagos, Nigeriayoutu.be

Credits

Producer/Director:Chika Okoli

Director of Photography:Dafe Oboro

Host/Researcher:Ozoz Sokoh