Nigerian Immigrant Lives the American Dream
Nigerian Immigrant Turned Brooklyn Restaurateur Tells His Story
Lookman Afolayan Mashood moved to the UnitedStates from Nigeria in 1996. For several years, heworked in a restaurant as a dish washer and cook.Later, he directed day-to-day operations at the eatery.
Lookman Afolayan Mashood moved to the UnitedStates from Nigeria in 1996. For several years, heworked in a restaurant as a dish washer and cook.Later, he directed day-to-day operations at the eatery.
About five years ago, he and his girlfriend, NatalieGoldberg, opened their own restaurant in Brooklyn --one of New York City’s five boroughs. The restaurantsells Nigerian food. It is called “Buka.” That is a word in the Hausa language for a simple eating place on theside of a road that sells good food.
Mr. Mashood thinks his business, called Buka NewYork, is the most popular African restaurant in the city.
“There's no food compared to Nigerian food. Anybodycan cook goat, anybody can cook beef. But when aNigerian man cook(s) beef for you, you will see thedifference. We always bring the flavor out of anythingwe cook, whether its fish, whether its beef, whether itschicken, whatever we cook -- it's very distinctive -- that colonialism has not been able to change! So, I’mvery proud to say I present Nigerian food as it should be, in New York.”
Mr. Mashood says it was not easy to operate a restaurant.
“Nobody give you money to start a restaurant -- there’s no angel fund forrestaurants, so you have to struggle very extra hard, you will never haveenough money. So if you want to have a restaurant, you need a heart -- I thinkheart is the most important thing, the conviction I’m going to have arestaurant.”
People eating at the restaurant like the choice of foods.
“So, it has okra, smoked fish, goat meat, and you eat it with pounded yam.”
“When I dine here, it’s like I’m home. And that’s the truth.”
Mr. Mashood says that when he lived in Nigeria, he was just one of manypeople around the world who wanted to live in the US.
“You cannot stop immigration -- the best of America is immigration, because it is only the bright mind(s), in all the corners of the globe that want to come toUSA. It’s only the people that want to advance, those are the people whoapply for (a) visa, and want to come here. The dream is still very available,still alive, and especially for Nigerians, because if you want to come toAmerica and work very hard, you will survive. You will gain the reward of whatyou’ve done.”
I’m Bob Doughty.
VOA’s Carolyn Weaver reported on this story from New York. ChristopherJones-Cruise adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.
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