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In Philadelphia, A Liberian Refugee Recreates the Taste of HomeAARON KASE

November 26, 2 014 / 2:00 pm

Light glitters from reflective st rands hanging in the restaurant window, sparkling off an enormous plate of grilled chicken and achieke ,

a couscous-like dish made from ground cassava. Next to the chicken is a bowl of peanut soup, piled with meats and accompanied by a

sticky ball of mashed cassava known as fufu .

Seventy percent of my ingredients come from Africa, says Fanta Fofana, the owner of Le Mandingue restaurant in Philadelphia. She

is youthful-looking in her early 40s, with arched eyebrows penciled on her forehead. She walks with an almost imperceptible limp.

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Fofana ships in cassava, peanut butter, palm oil, plantains, greens, specialty spices, and more from across the Atlantic. The meat comes

from local farms. Six days a week, her restaurant serves heaping piles of rice, cassava leaves, fish, and other delicacies to a mostly

African clientele.

Fofana is one of an estimated 15,000 Liberians living in the Philadelphia area, most of whom fled their native country during 14 years

of brutal civil war that raged from 1989 until 2003. T he bulk of the population is concentrated in far Southwest Philadelphia in a

neighborhood sometimes called Little Monrovia, with a commercial corridor on Woodland Avenue dotted with storefront churches

and African grocery stores. Many of the buildings on the street are run-down or vacant, but Le Mandingue stands out with colorful

neon lighting beckoning visitors in the night.

Customers come and go throughout the evening, picking up takeout or eating in. A group of men lingers by the cash register, discussing

in accented English the spread of Ebola in West Africa. Al Jazeera plays on televisions mounted around the dining room, reporting on

Obamas immigration address.

The restaurant serv es as a comforting beacon for people who have left their home behind, sometimes for good. African food is very

special, Fofana says. We miss our food. Her journey is one of the most ex traordinary of all.

Fanta Fofana, owner of Le Mandigue.

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Following 12 hours in the operating room, her left leg was amputated. My entire body was swollen, Fofana says. I kept feeling pain in

my left leg, then I reached down and, Oh my God, my leg is gone .

Her friends told her it was time to give up and go back to Africa, but she refused. When things happen, when its a bad situation, make

the best of it, she says. If you sit there and get sorry for yourself you will only get more and more depressed.

She was fitted for a prosthetic, and then learned to walk and drive a car again. With her sav ings plus disability money from the

accident, she decided to open a restaurant to showcase the Liberian meals she had learned to make as a child. After securing a former

dollar store and renovating the inside, her plans were scuttled by some politically powerful neighbors who didnt want a restaurant in

the building. Every penny that I had, I spent, she says.

Nearly broke, she and her husband found another empty store with cheaper rent, and she took a loan from her brother to meet the

startup costs. In 2005, Le Mandingue served its first meal. The first day I open, everybody ate free, she says. The next day, Im in

business.

Cassava leaf soup.

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After three weeks, she had so many customers that she couldnt handle all the cooking, so she started hiring more Liberians to work in

the kitchen. Shes hired many more West African immigrants in the past decade, providing a crucial leg-up for people try ing to make a

new start. Some people dont even have family members to help them, she say s, lamenting that those with no source of income could

resort to thievery or prostitution.

Now Le Mandingue is a resource for immigrants looking for familiar food in a strange land. The food is like home-made food, Fofana

says. She points out that to buy all the ingredients separately to make true Liberian-style food in America would cost at least $50; each

dish has small amounts of many different meats and spices, so its not practical to make for a single meal at home. Instead, people can

come out to the restaurant, meet with the community and spend $10 for a taste of their native land.

Today she and her husband own the restaurant building, their own house and have five children. I may not be able to jump high up in

the air, she says, but I make sure nothing slows me down.

Chicken and achieke.

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TOPICS: achieke , africa , African food , cassava , Fanta Fofana , fufu , Le Mandingue , Liberia , Philadelphia , plantains

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