Stockfish which is a type well dried fish that mostly comes from the Scandinavian countries especially Norway
It dried nature means that stockfish can last for years – and that made it perfect to be used as food for the West African people enslaved and sent on long sea voyages to the Americas during the slave era , says Norwegian historian Frank Jensen.
They said history of stock fish can be traced the Biafran civil war in Nigeria 50 years ago that really set the scene for stockfish to become a must-have ingredient in Nigerian cuisine.
During the course of three bloody years, it was estimated that more than a million people died – mostly from hunger. It was a humanitarian crisis on an unprecedented scale, and churches and relief agencies from all over the world joined together to fly in emergency supplies. Norway’s contribution was stockfish.
It doesn’t need refrigeration and it is full of protein and vitamins . it was a perfect combination to combat kwashiorkor, the malnutrition that characterised the Biafran war.
Now, finally, it has become a household name due to the flavour it brings to many Nigeria dishes especially egusi or melon seed soup.
Fifty years on, stockfish has turned from an emergency, life-saving ration into a staple food – and a key part of Nigerian culinary identity
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