Ghanaian Food Pop-up Mama Akua’s Is Connecting Community Through Authentic West African Cuisine
Mama Akua’s is a mother-daughter-run food pop-up in Downtown Toronto, birthed a year ago during the pandemic as a way to give back to the Black community. After watching Netflix’s High On The Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America, I was inspired to catch up with the spearhead and daughter of the food operation, Patricia Yeboah, to discuss her journey meshing her cultural roots with her life in Toronto through the transformative nature of food.
“Growing up, I had a weird relationship with food, but my mother always taught us how to cook,” Yeboah says. Her mother, Akua Fosua, is the heart of the pop-up. “My mom connects to people through food, so I’ve taken the time to learn and be proud about it, to feed our community.”
VERACIA ANKRAH: Where did you grow up in the city? Were there other Ghanaian or African kids in your neighbourhood?
PATRICIA YEBOAH: The story is kinda weird. I grew up in Scarborough. I moved from Ghana when I was six then was sent to Virginia until I was about 13. Then I moved to Scarborough in Toronto, and I lived with my aunt until my mom came over from the states when I was about 16 or 17. I grew up in Kingston and Galloway and in and around that area. Orton Park, G-way, then around UofT Toronto. I left when I was 19. I didn’t really fit in.
There were other African kids, but I never really gravitated towards them. I think it’s because we had different interests. They always made fun of me and called me weird and stuff. So when I was 19, I dipped and wasn’t really interested. I moved to Downtown Toronto and haven’t left since.
VERACIA: What was your relationship with food growing up?
PATRICIA: I had a really weird relationship with food growing up. I guess I was the fat kid in middle and high school that people picked on, so it’s always been hard to have a connection with food, especially with Ghanaian foods that are heavy in some senses. It wasn’t unhealthy food; most are vegetarian-based, vegan and gluten-free when you take the proteins out. I think a lot of the time, what ends up happening is people tell you Ghanaian food is not good for you, and you begin to believe it.
Even though I had a weird relationship with food, my mom always taught us how to cook. I learned how to cook when I was eight, and I was always in the kitchen. My mom loves to cook and when I was younger, my mom was also a hairdresser and would always bring people to braid their hair and offer them food. When we lived in the States, Black Americans would connect to us. They would try our food and say, “this is so good.” I went to school with some of these women’s kids, and they would call us African bush monkeys, but in our house, they were becoming more open-minded and welcoming about our foods. What is really cool is how connections are made through food, eating and sharing who you are. That’s what started Mama Akua’s.
My mom connects to people through food. Even though I didn’t have the best relationship with food, and tried to stay away from Ghanaian food because of the rhetoric that was told to me, now, it’s a bit different where I’m trying to feed our community with our food. I’ve taken the time to learn about it and build my relationship with it, and it’s something to be proud of. I think a lot of the time people don’t see that; they just think, “oh, our food smells,” “it’s too oily,” “it’s not as nice to present as burgers and fries” or “it doesn’t photograph well.” But I’m chill. The same way you can get a food stylist to style those burgers and fries is the same way you can get them to style fufu or jollof or whatever.
VERACIA: You sort of got into this already, but do you recall the moment or incident that sparked your interest to create a Ghanaian pop-up shop?
PATRICIA: Our story is a bit different. It wasn’t so much that I wanted to start a pop-up shop than it was more so I was dealing with a lot. I just left a job that I put so much effort into, and they had really drained me. I had gone through a lot of microaggressions in that workplace. I was going through it and kinda shut out all my friends. Then everything started happening in the community with the racial unrest, and I started thinking of ways to bring the community together. My mom and I started thinking of things we can do to help. At first, we thought of making masks and donating them because my mother is also a seamstress––she’s a lot of things––but we figured there were already so many people making masks.
Shout out to one of my best friend’s Edi Canedo [owner of the handmade Toronto jewelry line Cuchara] because without her, Mama Akua’s probably never would have happened. She managed to finally get me out of my apartment. I really didn’t want to talk to anyone. I told her I was going to a flower shop, and she pulled up. She took me to her apartment and made me food––she’s a vegetarian. I told her my mom and I were thinking of ways to bring the community together in these times. We were talking, and I mentioned I always wanted to do a Ghanaian pop-up food thing. My excuse was always time, and now, I had a bunch of time. She agreed and mentioned we could also raise money. Her fiancé Larry owns Man Of Kent [a bar located in Ossington], and he agreed to host the shop. Now, I had no reason to not do it. I called Michael, who I work with on all the Mama Akua’s branding, to discuss the next steps. My mom said, “Let’s go, what’s the date?”
I think that’s the biggest thing about my mom that my sisters and I value. She has never tried to force us to be something we don’t want to be, or say, “why are you doing that? Focus on getting a job.” She just wants us to be joyful, so at the end of the day, if we come up with an idea and she has the means to support it, she’s ready to go. After that, we decided on dates, I started to hit up my friends who had a social following, we came up with a strategy on what to post and share, and it took off.
We raised money to cover our expenses as well as money to give back to the community. We gave it to the Black Creators Fund and the Black Legal Action Centre and thought we were done, but we started getting all these emails, DMs and requests asking when we were doing it again. We started by allowing people to make small catering orders, and when that took off, we decided to put more time into it. My mom enjoys seeing and connecting with people, she’s very much an extrovert and calls the young people she meets her adopted children. After that, we did another pop-up. I opened up a container at Stackt Market and was able to raise money for my grandmother’s funeral. Ever since then, it’s been going steady, and now we are seeing where it goes.
VERACIA: There are a few Toronto Ghanaian restaurants that are geared towards our parents’ generation and have not really taken the social media route to advertise or adopted the idea of a food shop that isn’t in one location. How is the reception of Mama Akua’s in Toronto?
PATRICIA: I can’t speak for all of Toronto, but there are a lot of people Downtown who are international students or have gone to Ghana for school or a practicum. We are finding that there are so many people that connect with Ghanaian culture and share how they’ve been looking for Ghanaian cuisine and are looking for authentic meals. We’ve been told our food tastes home-cooked, not rushed and that the taste of our food is consistent. It’s a big thing for me to feel like people feel at home and are excited. We get that reception. They identify with certain spices and flavours. It’s great because it connects back to Ghana, and even if they haven’t had any interactions with Ghanaians, and we are your first interaction, it’s better to hear about our food from us. Like, sharing the reason why palm oil is used in Red Red [fried plantains with stewed black-eyed beans in palm oil] rather than regular oil and how its seeds are used for different things. History is important and people understand that. The more they try the food the more they are intrigued and opened to learning about Ghanaian culture. People say things like “I’ve had Nigerian jollof [jasmine rice cooked in tomato a spiced savoury stew] but never tried Ghanaian jollof. And through this, I’m sharing a piece of my culture with people that may have never learned about it just by tasting our food.
At every pop-up, we have a section called “cravings” that we use to introduce a new food on the menu that people haven’t tried, like kenkey [dough of grounded corn served with a peppered stew or soup] and eto [boiled pounded plantain with the desired combination of peanut butter, onions, salt fish, peanuts and palm oil] rather than always eating the more popular thing like jollof. We relate bofrot to beignets which is the easier way to connect it. Beignets are connected to New Orleans, and it’s all-important because they all come from the continent. We also have teaching classes online where we teach people how to cook our dishes, and people of all backgrounds from all different walks of life are so interested.
I’m minimal and wanted the branding to be the same way. I consciously stayed away from showing I was an African restaurant by putting kente everywhere. My mom is minimal in the way she dresses, so my sisters and I are the same way. I wanted the branding to encompass that. A lot of people tell us Mama Akua’s is like a modern take on African food, and I feel like it’s on our generation to change the way our culture is viewed. To each their own, but I hate when people have textiles everywhere to show they are African. I don’t need to shout it; I can just share it simply, and our branding speaks to that, who we are and what we are trying to do. I like our colours, with the golden tones and browns. I didn’t want to be stereotypical––here is the picture, here is the poster and let me cross something out because the prices have changed––I hate that.
VERACIA: What’s your favourite Ghanaian cuisine?
PATRICIA: I really like eto. My mom doesn’t let me eat it often, but when she makes it, I love it and it’s really easy for me to make too. I like plantain. I also love kelewele [fried plantain, chopped in small squares, seasoned with ginger, pepper and onions). My favourite memories are of growing up in Ghana and my mother buying kelewele on our way home from the child caregivers.
VERACIA: Where do you hope to see Mama Akua’s in 5 years?
PATRICIA: To be totally honest, it’s my mom’s passion, so I hope we can continue catering, and she can ideally take it to a storefront. I hope I can make that happen for her. She likes to cook; it’s her way of connecting with people. It’s how we’ve known her our whole life. She either wants to feed you or lecture you. Most of my friends call her and say, “Mommy, I’m hungry,” and she’ll literally cook for them and drop it off. It’s her thing, and I’m pretty much just here to support it, the same way she supported me with all my crazy ideas. Whether it’s a storefront or catering service in full. Hopefully, by God’s grace, we are booming, Downtown at a storefront and still offering an authentic experience.