‘I Make Pap To Avoid Idleness'
By Suleiman Ugbokhe
What Glory at a young age saw an elder doing has now defined her choice of vocation – the art of making pap, also commonly called akamu in the southern part of Nigeria. In the north of the country, it is called kwókwó.
The housewife, Glory Steve Ogbaa, in a chat with agricriches.agbelonews.com, says “There was one woman in our compound doing akamu and I observed how she was doing it. That was where the experience came from.”
You only need to be where this lady is doing her work of processing akamu singing along to know the degree of passion she brings into it.
As early as 5 o'clock in the morning, Mrs Ogbaa is up and about to ensure that akamu is ready for the numerous customers who come mostly in the morning to patronise her.
She meets the demand of both small and large quantity buyers, the smallest unit being a fifty Naira (N50.00) mould, while a five-litre plastic container costs two thousand naira (N2,000.00) and above depending on the brand.
Here, Mrs Glory Steve Ogbaa tells her akamu story:
When I was small, during holidays, I used to do small akamu and use it to do agidi in our place. There was one woman in our compound doing akamu and I observed how she was doing it. That was where the experience came from.
I started in 2008. When I was looking for something to do when my family relocated to Lagos, one of our Church members asked me I knew how to do akamu. I said yes, that it wasn’t difficult.
But when I told my husband he was against it because of the odour which he said he did not like. He advised me to go and rent a shop. But I wanted to do something that would give me enough time to look after my children.
So, when my husband travelled, I used the food money he left for us to start the akamu business, because I didn’t want to stay idle.
I started with two (5 litre) paint-rubber containers of corn. From there, the quantity started increasing gradually.
When I started, one bag of corn was three thousand naira (N3,000.00), but now, it is very expensive.
The ingredients for making akamu are many depending on what different consumers want.
Some people want ginger in their akamu.
Millet Akamu: I do put ginger, kanafri, uziza seed, pepper. After all these added ingredients, you can make a by-product called kunu from the akamu. The kunu is in a watery state, to which you can add milk and keep in the fridge to cool before drinking.
White Corn Akamu: I don’t do much of white corn akamu because many people don’t like.
I don’t know why people don’t like it, but some people say they easily loose interest in it, unlike the yellow akamu, which they said they prefer.
Yellow Corn Akamu: Some people will demand that you should mix the yellow corn and millet and soya beans and ginger all ground together.
You can make akamu with corn alone. It all depends on individual requests.
Costing: The yellow corn akamu without addition of any other ingredient costs two thousand Naira (N2,000.00) per 5-litre plastic container and two thousand, five hundred Naira (N2,500.00) for same quantity with ginger.
The millet pap of the same quantity costs three thousand Naira (N3,000.00).
I cannot do just one container of pap on request. I produce the different varieties in large quantities. Then, people will buy the number of 5-litre containers they want.
It is not only in containers I sell. I also cut the pap into small units of fifty Naira (N50.00) and one hundred Naira (N100.00) for those who just want the quantity they will prepare and drink at once.
The Complete Process Of Making Pap: First of all, I go to market to buy the different raw materials (corn, millet and guinea-corn, ginger, soya beans, pepper, uziza seeds) from the different parts of the market where they are sold.
I will wash the corn first to remove impurities like sand and then soak the corn for two days to soften it.
I will wash the corn again to eliminate the odour before taking it for grinding.
There is akamu called three-in-one – millet, Guinea-corn and soya beans – that is for children. But adults can take it too. Some people will tell you to add little ginger in order to enhance the flavour but not enough to make it peppering.
After grinding, the next stage is to filter the paste with a fine net to remove the chaff.
The different varieties have different containers and nets for filtering them so that the scent of one does not permeate the flavour of another variety.
The filtered product in the big basin is then loaded into clean sacks and kept in containers to allow the water drain from the sacks. You have to empty the drained water from the basin from time to time until the water is completely drained from the sack.
There is another system of draining the water by which the sack containing the filtered pap is placed on a clean flat surface and a big stone placed atop the sack to press out the water.
Even if you want it in a powdered form like the one I did for a lady who travelled to London yesterday, it can be done.
The processed pap can stay for a very long time without going bad if you follow the proper process of preserving it. You can put in the fridge.
But where there is no fridge or power supply, just pour enough clean water to cover the entire pap in a container. As long as you change the water morning and night, the pap will remain fresh.
The water you drain from white and yellow corn pap without ginger and other spices is used by people to prepare native medication called agbo for the treatment of malaria and other ailments. I sell the water to the agbo makers.
On the average, I spend twenty-five thousand Naira (N25,000.00) weekly on the materials for making pap.
I make roughly ten thousand Naira (N10,000.00) profit per week.
My next plan is to buy the grinding machine so that I don’t have to take the ingredients to another place to grind.
The major challenge is that the work is very stressful. It is not a work for the lazy.
My typical day of work starts by 5am when I wake up to wash the ingredients and take to grinding machine for grinding around 6am. This is the most stressful aspect of it.
Taking it to engine and back. That is the aspect I don’t like. The filtering is not that difficult. I can filter up to 25 containers in a day.
I would not encourage my children to go into the business because of the stress involved.
 |
| Mrs Glory Ogbaa filtering pap |
What Glory at a young age saw an elder doing has now defined her choice of vocation – the art of making pap, also commonly called akamu in the southern part of Nigeria. In the north of the country, it is called kwókwó.
The housewife, Glory Steve Ogbaa, in a chat with agricriches.agbelonews.com, says “There was one woman in our compound doing akamu and I observed how she was doing it. That was where the experience came from.”
You only need to be where this lady is doing her work of processing akamu singing along to know the degree of passion she brings into it.
As early as 5 o'clock in the morning, Mrs Ogbaa is up and about to ensure that akamu is ready for the numerous customers who come mostly in the morning to patronise her.
She meets the demand of both small and large quantity buyers, the smallest unit being a fifty Naira (N50.00) mould, while a five-litre plastic container costs two thousand naira (N2,000.00) and above depending on the brand.
Here, Mrs Glory Steve Ogbaa tells her akamu story:
When I was small, during holidays, I used to do small akamu and use it to do agidi in our place. There was one woman in our compound doing akamu and I observed how she was doing it. That was where the experience came from.
I started in 2008. When I was looking for something to do when my family relocated to Lagos, one of our Church members asked me I knew how to do akamu. I said yes, that it wasn’t difficult.
But when I told my husband he was against it because of the odour which he said he did not like. He advised me to go and rent a shop. But I wanted to do something that would give me enough time to look after my children.
So, when my husband travelled, I used the food money he left for us to start the akamu business, because I didn’t want to stay idle.
I started with two (5 litre) paint-rubber containers of corn. From there, the quantity started increasing gradually.
When I started, one bag of corn was three thousand naira (N3,000.00), but now, it is very expensive.
The ingredients for making akamu are many depending on what different consumers want.
Some people want ginger in their akamu.
Millet Akamu: I do put ginger, kanafri, uziza seed, pepper. After all these added ingredients, you can make a by-product called kunu from the akamu. The kunu is in a watery state, to which you can add milk and keep in the fridge to cool before drinking.
 |
| Ginger |
 |
| Pepper |
 |
| Uziza seeds |
 |
| Kanafri |
White Corn Akamu: I don’t do much of white corn akamu because many people don’t like.
 |
| Processed white pap |
I don’t know why people don’t like it, but some people say they easily loose interest in it, unlike the yellow akamu, which they said they prefer.
Yellow Corn Akamu: Some people will demand that you should mix the yellow corn and millet and soya beans and ginger all ground together.
 |
| Yellow corn pap |
You can make akamu with corn alone. It all depends on individual requests.
Costing: The yellow corn akamu without addition of any other ingredient costs two thousand Naira (N2,000.00) per 5-litre plastic container and two thousand, five hundred Naira (N2,500.00) for same quantity with ginger.
The millet pap of the same quantity costs three thousand Naira (N3,000.00).
I cannot do just one container of pap on request. I produce the different varieties in large quantities. Then, people will buy the number of 5-litre containers they want.
 |
| Millet pap |
It is not only in containers I sell. I also cut the pap into small units of fifty Naira (N50.00) and one hundred Naira (N100.00) for those who just want the quantity they will prepare and drink at once.
 |
| Guinea corn pap |
The Complete Process Of Making Pap: First of all, I go to market to buy the different raw materials (corn, millet and guinea-corn, ginger, soya beans, pepper, uziza seeds) from the different parts of the market where they are sold.
I will wash the corn first to remove impurities like sand and then soak the corn for two days to soften it.
I will wash the corn again to eliminate the odour before taking it for grinding.
There is akamu called three-in-one – millet, Guinea-corn and soya beans – that is for children. But adults can take it too. Some people will tell you to add little ginger in order to enhance the flavour but not enough to make it peppering.
 |
| The three-in-one pap |
After grinding, the next stage is to filter the paste with a fine net to remove the chaff.
The different varieties have different containers and nets for filtering them so that the scent of one does not permeate the flavour of another variety.
 |
| Varieties of pap |
The filtered product in the big basin is then loaded into clean sacks and kept in containers to allow the water drain from the sacks. You have to empty the drained water from the basin from time to time until the water is completely drained from the sack.
There is another system of draining the water by which the sack containing the filtered pap is placed on a clean flat surface and a big stone placed atop the sack to press out the water.
Even if you want it in a powdered form like the one I did for a lady who travelled to London yesterday, it can be done.
The processed pap can stay for a very long time without going bad if you follow the proper process of preserving it. You can put in the fridge.
But where there is no fridge or power supply, just pour enough clean water to cover the entire pap in a container. As long as you change the water morning and night, the pap will remain fresh.
The water you drain from white and yellow corn pap without ginger and other spices is used by people to prepare native medication called agbo for the treatment of malaria and other ailments. I sell the water to the agbo makers.
On the average, I spend twenty-five thousand Naira (N25,000.00) weekly on the materials for making pap.
 |
| The main ingredients for making pap: Clockwise from top right: White corn, millet, guinea corn and yellow corn |
I make roughly ten thousand Naira (N10,000.00) profit per week.
My next plan is to buy the grinding machine so that I don’t have to take the ingredients to another place to grind.
 |
| The different varieties of pap cut into retail sizes for sale |
The major challenge is that the work is very stressful. It is not a work for the lazy.
My typical day of work starts by 5am when I wake up to wash the ingredients and take to grinding machine for grinding around 6am. This is the most stressful aspect of it.
Taking it to engine and back. That is the aspect I don’t like. The filtering is not that difficult. I can filter up to 25 containers in a day.
I would not encourage my children to go into the business because of the stress involved.
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