A man from the small African nation of Ivory Coast has made a big impact on his housing complex at Uniworld City in New Town. At the inauguration of Uniworld Premier League, a fortnight-long cricket tournament held there recently, Mathieu Ndoli Koua was called upon to demonstrate some electric moves as also train some youngsters of the locality for a show that evening.
“I taught them what I call Afrodance 54. It’s a reference to the 54 countries there are in the African continent and the culture we represent,” said Mathieu, who is known in the complex for dance and football.
The second is no surprise. “Football is why Ivory Coast is famous. We have played in three World Cups (2006, 2010, 2014),” he said, naming Didier Drogba and Yaya Toure as his favourite players. The 33-year-old had seen them play back home against Cameroon. “Samuel Eto’o was captaining Cameroon. We lost the match narrowly.”
At Uniworld, Mathieu can be spotted playing football with neighbours every weekend. On weekdays, he is hard at work at DLF 2 close by, working as a French editor in a multinational telecommunications company.
He is the first in his family to venture out of Ivory Coast. “I always wanted to see the world. Ghana was the first country I went to, in 2010. It was just across the border.” For five years, the French-speaking Mathieu taught his mother tongue to the English speakers there. “It also gave me a chance to brush up my English.”
Then he felt confident to apply to his college for an India posting as an intern. “It was a 12-month internship that I got, through AIESEC, with Tata Consultancy Services.” Thus he landed up at Uniworld, joining other interns from Brazil, Morocco and Tunisia.
India was a far bigger challenge than Ghana. “In Ghana, the culture was the same as ours. Only, the language spoken is English. Here everything is different.”
Initially, people around him could not understand his African accent. Nor could he make sense of Indian English. After three and half years, his ears have got attuned.
The bigger challenge was food. “It was difficult to get used to the flavour and taste of Indian food. Africans like spicy dishes, but not me.” In Ivory Coast, the staple food is rice as well as foufou, which is accompanied by a soup. “Foufou is a mix of cassava and green plantain or yam.” Another popular food is attieke, made of grated cassava pulp. “It is powdery, like couscous, and served with stew.”
Mathieu cooks at home but has now become used to Indian food as well. “My favourite is Lachcha Paratha and Chicken Chaap.”
Every Sunday, he goes to church. “I used to go to St. John's earlier in Sealdah but transport was a problem.” Now an AC 12 takes him directly to St. Paul’s Cathedral. “Christmas is the only time I miss being in Abidjan.” He has heard of a couple of footballers from Ivory Coast playing for smaller club in the city but feels no inclination to seek them out. “I have been accepted as a brother at Uniworld. It’s not as if I feel friendless.”
He loves New Town. “The atmosphere is peaceful. I meet nice people everywhere, I can go out at anytime. There is no fear of robbery,” he smiles. He has seen violence on the streets, having lived through a political crisis back home in 2010 in the aftermath of the Presidential election there.
He has gone to see a couple of matches at Salt lake stadium. “The first time it was a Mohun Bagan match. My Brazilian friends wanted to see the player from Brazil (Barreto). The second time we went to cheer for Brazil in the Under-17 World Cup.”
He remains uninitiated into cricket but has picked up three names — M.S. Dhoni (“I saw his movie”), Virat Kohli (“He is everywhere”) and Hardik Pandya (“How can someone be called that!”). He rolls the name over on his lips a couple of times and guffaws uncontrollably.
This August will complete four years of his stay in Calcutta. “I landed here on August 7, which is our independence day. A week later, on August 15, I saw our flag’s colours hung everywhere. I was so happy.” He figured out the difference later — that the Indian flag has orange, white and green as horizontal stripes, not vertical. “Still it is a connection that makes me feel at home here.”
Ivory Coast on your plate
Chicken Yassa
Feeds: 4 people
Ingredients:
1 kg chicken
1 kg onion
200 g mustard sauce
235 g green olive
170 ml vinegar or lime juice
200 g garlic paste
2 Maggi magic cubes
7 chillies
Dry ginger
Salt to taste
Method:
Chop the onions, capsicums and chillis. Then add the mustard sauce, the vinegar or lime juice plus the garlic paste, the magic cubes and one tea spoon of salt and dry ginger.
Marinate the mixture and let it rest for one hour.
Marinate the chicken separately with mustard, salt, dry ginger and let it rest for 30 minutes before frying it.
After an hour, put the marinated mix of onions and other ingredients on slow fire, add half a glass of water and boil it slowly for 30 minutes. Keep turning the ingredients every five to eight minutes else it will stick to the pot.
After 30 minutes, add the olive and fried chicken along with the oil used to fry the chicken and mix the whole thing. Let it stay on the fire for 15 minutes.
Your Chicken Yassa is ready. Bon appétit!
Recipe by Mathieu Ndoli Koua
