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Coldcuisinenigerian
Coldcuisinenigerian
By Hannah Dreesbach
I met Ochuwa Imokhai in October of 2020. A prospective new roommate, she walked into the
house armed with a ready (albeit watchful) smile. After I failed several times to pronounce her
Nigerian name, she introduced herself by her given English name: Precious.
Unlike some MSU students, Precious didn’t come to Montana for the mountains. “Honestly, I
didn’t know anything about Montana until I got a spam email that had an ad about Montana State
University, and then I looked into the school’s location and everything. It seemed peaceful and
Montana certainly didn’t disappoint. When she and her family stepped off the plane in 2018,
they were greeted by snow and freezing temperatures. “The weather [here] is freaking cold and
dry! I grew up in Lagos, like [the] Lagos Island area in Nigeria. And the area I grew up [in] was
Climate isn’t the only aspect that sets Nigeria’s largest population center apart from
Bozeman. With over 15.3 million people in the city limits alone, Lagos is a mixing pot of
different tribes known across much of Africa for its lively music, fashion, and Nollywood film
“Cuisine?” she repeats with a laugh when asked about the food here in Montana. “What
cuisine?” She means no offense to our infinite selection of burgers, fries, and barbeque wings,
but it’s certainly not the food she grew up with. “Home food is wonderful! Spicy, tasteful,
savory. Name it, Naija [slang for Nigeria], we gorrit. ‘Gorrit’ is how Nigerians say we got it. It’s
broken English—pidgin.”
When she doesn’t have time to cook, Precious misses that food (especially the street food),
but it’s certainly not the only absence that reminds her of home. “I also miss how I wasn’t
always conscious of certain things, because there were just so many like me. That peace was
rewarding.”
In Montana, it’s not easy being a foreigner, let alone a foreigner of color. “I thought it would
be like heaven,” Precious admits, thinking back on her preconceptions of the United States. She
would be attending school in the home of the free, the land of the brave… But the country she
encountered wasn’t quite so straightforward. “It’s definitely not the heaven I imagined. There are
a lot of problems.”
From the start, she struggled to make friends. Many of them seemed to want the bragging
“When I needed help, I didn’t really have help. I was always getting stared at; always feeling
like someone was watching me … Sometimes I would have teachers single me out.”
And it wasn’t much easier in the small Black community on campus. “You have the Black
people who have been in America their whole lives and you have us African people who lived
different lives… It’s interesting, but unfortunately we are divided, and don’t really view each
It’s a sad thing that Precious muses. “Sometimes I am viewed for myself, and other times for
The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that Montana is approximately 88.9% white. Just 0.6% of
our population identifies as Black or African American, and five-year estimates put the
proportion of individuals born in a foreign country at around 2.2%. Unless we travel, much of
what anyone knows about other ethnicities (let alone other countries) is what we see on
“To some people, you have to explain that Africa is not a country, it is a continent.” This
specific continent is three times the size of the United States and home to over 1.2 billion people.
It should come as little surprise that each of its 54 countries is a distinct blend of cultures,
“You have some very close-minded people [here],” Precious asserts. “They will be arguing
with you about your own country.” Still, she also admits to being just as guilty of close-
“I was very conservative with my beliefs and opinions: I based them off [of] religion. I was
using religion as a way to get away with judging people.” Especially so, she notes, with the
LGBTQ+ community. “Because you know, in Nigeria, you’re condemned for that… But I met
some exceptional people.” Sometimes, meeting an exceptional person is all it takes to flip a
misconception on its head. Of all the lessons Precious has taught me in a year and a half of
I ask if Precious has any advice to give Montana. She only has to think for a moment: “It
would be to have an open mind, and to not be judgmental. And,” she adds, “stop staring at
After graduating, she plans to attend medical school and continue into the healthcare field.