Nana serves up Ghanaian treats at Mama Ashanti

Mama Ashanti director Nana Boateng at the restaurant's Muthangari Gardens premises on December 30, 2015. PHOTO | DIANA NGILA 

By Jackson Biko

In Summary

• Kenyans love it; business is bigger than it is in Uganda and they have since opened a little lounge and bar.

After over 20 years in the UK, Nana (he’s known as Kwame), quit his job at Ford Motors, packed his bags and family and relocated to Uganda to run Mama Ashanti in Nakasero. Mama Ashanti specialises in authentic Ghanian cuisine.

Business was good. Then one day he looked East and said, “Maybe Kenyans might love our food as well.” So he came here less than a year ago and opened Mama Ashanti at Muthangari Gardens in Lavington.

Kenyans love it; business is bigger than it is in Uganda, and they have since opened a little lounge and bar. The garden remains a popular meeting point of homesick and appreciative West Africans and Kenyans who come together for the love of Ghanaian food, which Kwame often prepares himself, and African music.

We met for lunch at Mama Ashanti. I had a delectable fish and traditional vegetables. Kwame oozed something revived and untainted. An authentic sincerity.
----------------------------------

Things are looking up, eh?

They are. We are hoping to open another branch in Westlands. The journey has been incredible. We started 10 years ago at a small place on Bombo Road in Kampala. Now we are looking at spreading all across. Cooking is something I’ve always had a passion for, so I’m not too surprised I’m doing this. (Chuckle).

It’s funny because we are four girls and four boys – I’m the eldest of the boys. I was very close to my late mom; she used to run a school and had about 1,000 students – teaching sewing, cooking, baking and all that.

I used to go to see her around lunch... so naturally I got a passion of cooking. It’s not like I went to train as a chef or something.

I remember going for holiday to Kampala with my family. I was working in London for Honda that time. I was in Kampala for six weeks and I looked around and said, I think we should put something West African here, because the West African community was big. I met a few expatriates who were living in Ghana, Nigeria and who were craving West African food. So I decided to put up something.

You just walked out of a career in London to run a restaurant?

When I founded Ashanti, I had one of my cousins run it in Uganda. Business was growing but he was a chef and didn’t have what it takes to manage the place. So I decided to quit Honda and come down and give him managerial support. But cooking is my first love; I can spend 10 hours a day in the kitchen. In London, I did all my cooking.

How have Kenyans responded to Ghanaian food?

Brilliantly. I’m impressed. Kenyans eat six times what is eaten in Kampala. They are adapting to West African food very fast. I don’t know if it’s got something to do with the West African movies.

Why Mama Ashanti anyway?

It’s a tribe in Ghana, the Ashanti Kingdom. I come from a place called Mampong; that’s my hometown. The thing with Ashantis is that most of them always go to their mothers to eat; it’s a traditional thing. Even when we get married, the women complain that we always compare our mom’s food to theirs

How difficult is it to run a business like this in Kenya?

There’s a bit of a challenge, especially when it comes to spices, because we import all our spices from Ghana. I remember when we started, the first consignment we got from Ghana – pumpkin seed – is worth about $200 (Sh20,500). But when it reached here – since they were not familiar with it – we had to pay a tax of $1,140 (Sh117,000).

It was too exorbitant. I mean take fufu, for instance, which is basically ugali. Imagine you bring 100 kilos of [maize flour] and you are asked to pay over $1,000 (Sh102,000) for it. It was quite challenging, but maybe the Customs people don’t know its value. I was always ready to explain it to them.

It’s something that needs to be looked at for the sake of investments. We have 43 employees here and we pay so much in dues to the government. I think they have to find a way of making things flexible in order for us to maintain businesses. But this isn’t unique to Kenya only, but everywhere else in Africa. We need to promote Africans coming into other African countries to do business.

What’s your fastest moving food?

The fish – egusi. Pepper soup is also a real favourite for many – it’s a soup made with small goat (it has a lot of chilli) and it’s very good for hangovers. On weekends we can do about 40 pepe soups, and plantain. We have two types of plantains: one is kelewele and the other is the ordinary one. Kelewele is spiced, the other one is not.

What is your dream for this place?

For us to achieve our Ashanti dream; to make the business grow bigger; to get more people involved and to open more restaurants. I have three girls, maybe one day they can take this to another level. My little girl, named after my late mom, she’s the one who really has a passion for cooking. She’ll be 18 next year.

Do you miss the corporate life?

The corporate life was kind of different, and I realised that it just made me lazy. I did it because I had to do it, but deep inside I always knew I wanted to do something for myself. The restaurant was something I had been thinking about even when I went to the UK.

How do you unwind?

I run a lot. In the evenings... I go to Jefferies and run. I’m not too much of an outings person.

What has surprised you the most about Kenya?

When we had just opened here, five days, a man came in to eat – a well-dressed and educated man; well spoken and affluent. He called me and said he didn’t want any waiter from a certain tribe to serve him. I was surprised. I thought I heard him wrong. I mean, I was new in the country and so was my staff. How did I even know or care who was from which tribe? I couldn’t ask my staff which tribe they were from, so I served him myself. It was a big disappointment to me, really, because I don’t think it matters.

I have lived abroad for about 20 years. I was a black man coming back home to Africa; I didn’t want to see that. I was shocked.

Apart from that, I’m impressed with the women here... simply because they are really hardworking people. In many other parts of Africa, women sit down looking for guys to pay their bills. But here it’s amazing; during Ladies’ Night girls come here, and they talk and they pay their bills. I’m very impressed with them.

How did you end up in the UK anyway?

My uncle – mom’s only brother – used to be a president in Ghana – Brigadier Akwasi Afrifa. He was killed when Jerry Rawlings came into power. Our family was dispossessed and we had to seek asylum in the UK.

In retrospect, was that a good thing? Is the UK experience something that built you?
Of course the UK had it’s merits; they took us in when we needed help and I learnt a lot while there. But I don’t think leaving Ghana was a good thing for the family. There were so many losses. I mean deaths and the trouble that came with those tumultuous times. Being relocated to a land that isn’t yours can’t be a good thing; it involves a lot of depression, stress.... I mean you don’t even know who you are and you have to struggle to join a system. The good thing is that most of the family members have come back to Africa because we have to build Africa, don’t we? This is home, anyway you look at it.

What should a newcomer at Ashanti have?
That would be Mama Ashanti fish, what you are having. The starter would be the Pepe Soup, most definitely.