For the Love of Fayetteville: Taste of West Africa a global space for connections downtown

Now open and serving love, happiness and Mama’s delicious home cooking ...

Her father always told her if you aren’t happy, don’t cook for anyone and don’t eat food prepared by anyone miserable — the energy goes into the food. So love and good energy are thee first two ingredients in ANY and EVERY dish served at Taste of West Africa. You can taste it and you can feel it.

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Isabella Effon herself is a master class in beautiful ingredients: A heavy measure of education, with a B.A., Masters and a Ph.D.; a self-declared lifelong learner; a heaping portion of community advocacy; art and culinary enthusiast and educator; and an overflowing cup of love and exquisite energy. The most brilliant and calming energy pours out of her soul naturally.

Born in Ghana in West Africa, she first started making trips to the U.S. in 1997; she had friends in Chicago. She would bring African art with her, including jewelry and beads, and she built a relationship with The DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center. It was such a strong relationship, they offered her a position as a docent, and her journey to Fayetteville, North Carolina began.

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The museum job was very much in line with her nature. A born educator, she thrived and loved being able to teach people about Africa. She recalls telling wide-eyed children to save all their pennies so that one day they would be able to travel to Africa and experience it for themselves: “Put all your pennies in your piggy bank, so you can see it for yourself one day.”

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Then like many of us, 9/11 changed her course. Her husband joined the Army, and they moved from Chicago to Fayetteville.

Proud Fayetteville State University Alum (Go Broncos!) she stacked up degrees like plates in her restaurant. She turned her voracious appetite for learning into educating others, sometimes unintentionally — it is just a natural state of being for her.

'Where can we get this food all the time?'

Her family always participated in the International Folk Festival, and afterward would always feed everybody. People loved it and would ask her, “Where can we get this food all the time?” She said this served as a market research study essentially. They always served what they fed their own family and friends.

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With absolutely no formal restaurant or catering experience and after a serious talk with Mama, she and her family decided to take a chance and give the people what they wanted, and in 2012, Taste of West Africa was born.

Isabella says: “I’m determined and crazy.”.

This is part of what makes her so incredibly special, her unshakeable faith in herself and courage. It’s carried her well through life. This was deeply engrained in her from her parents.

Her dad was and still is a constant source of inspiration. His influence taught her about vegetarianism and those dishes live on in through their menu. Mama rules the kitchen; she is the one who “makes it happen.”

A supportive Fayetteville community

She felt like it was a beautiful opportunity to teach people through food; it’s an art, as we eat with our eyes first.

She giggles when recounting conversations about the restaurant in the early days; people didn’t know what to expect. There is no alligator, crocodile or zebra on the menu, for example! Chicken is chicken, rice is rice, culturally the only difference is in the seasoning. It surprised her that people could not get enough of their okra soup: “The South LOVES okra soup!” she exclaims.

As the years went by and her following grew downtown, she remembers looking across the street from 107 Person St. to 116 Person St. She would say to herself: One day, that will be our building. She manifested it, and in April of 2017 it was.

She will tell you, her eyes full of warmth, how much she treasures her community. She says the community has never never let her down, and people waited patiently for Taste of West African to reopen. Some people she says would come by to touch the building and pray for her.

"What else could I ask for?" she says.

Isabella is fluent in four of the 200 dialects in Ghana, but the language she speaks most fluently is love. Love of family, love of friends, love of food, love of culture, love of community, love of educating, love of art and love of Africa.

“Africa has left its footprint in every corner of the world," she says. "In order to celebrate the world, you must celebrate Africa.”

She has created this beautiful global space for her community so we can come together and experience, embrace, and learn about each other’s cultures and connect.

So please, if you haven’t yet experienced a Taste of West Africa, go, go and introduce yourself to the heart of Person Street and Mama and enjoy every ounce of their best dish, LOVE, they serve it daily and never seem to run out.

Jennifer Radonich is the Community Development Manager for DistiNCtly Fayetteville. She can be reached at jradonich@distiNCtlyfayettevillenc.com or 910-835-5091. To find more information about all the incredible treasures we have in Cumberland County, go to www.distiNCtlyfayettevillenc.com.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: In Fayetteville, a master class of beautiful ingredients