- [Announcer] Support for "Table for All" provided by Garden State Wine Growers Association.

Visit us online or download our app and passport program to learn more about New Jersey wineries and events at newjerseywines.com.

Edible Jersey, celebrating the local food of the Garden State for 16 years.

Learn more at ediblejersey.com.

- [Buki] Today on "Table for All," it's an African homecoming for the ages as we sample the beauty, the spirit, food, and the culture of Nigeria.

[upbeat music] [upbeat music] Nigeria can be described with one word, rich.

Rich in gold, diamonds, and minerals.

So rich in oil that it's the largest oil producer for the entire African continent.

And rich in history.

The first known people to inhabit Nigeria were the Noks in 500 BC.

It became a center for the slave trade by Europeans in the 15th century and then came under British rule in the late 1800s.

It wasn't until 1960 that Nigeria gained its independence.

Now Nigeria is home to over 200 ethnic groups, the most popular being Yoruba and Igbo, that speak over 500 languages, making Nigeria one of the most diverse countries in Africa.

A first generation Nigerian-American woman making her homeland proud is fitness phenom Tunde Oyeneyin, who is using her special brand of hustle and authenticity to give a voice to millions across the world.

So I made my way down to Brooklyn, New York to pay Tunde a visit.

Like most Nigerian households, food is an important part of our hospitality.

And Tunde's home was no different.

She brought us Nigerian staples from Buka, a local spot in the area, and we shared experiences growing up Nigerian-American.

- Now had I known that you loved fried rice, I would've done fried rice.

But jollof, you can't go wrong.

- Oh my God, but I can't order fried rice outside.

- It's been a long time since I loved you.

- Okay Buka, pretty darn good.

- Mm, mm, okay Buka, a little spice.

- Yeah- - A little bit of kick to it, okay.

- I mean I could go a little mm.

[both vocalizing] - But you know, they wanted to make it accessible for everybody, for all.

- [Buki] That's right.

- Let's get into this chicken.

- Okay.

- You know I'm just, we're doing the- - I was gonna say.

- We're doing the utensils we're on camera, but we eat with our hands.

- I always eat with my hands, so I'm just gonna go in.

- Nigerians, Africans, we eat with our hands.

This red lipstick doesn't stand a chance.

[Buki giggling] Mm-hmm.

- Did you just not want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich growing up?

I know, my ain't, listen.

- No, let's talk about it.

[Buki laughing] It was like when you went to, what is it called?

Lunch?

They called it lunch.

- Yeah, - I call it recess.

Lunch, and you'd have to open your lunchbox.

[Buki laughing] And that smell.

To you it smelled like heaven.

- Yep.

- And to your friends like, "What's that smell?"

- Oh yeah.

- The substitutes would get to my name and they'd be like, 'cause it was always like, there was like five or six people with the last name Patel before mine.

And so they'd like something, something Patel.

Something something Patel.

Something, something Patel.

And they'd breathe, and exhale, and they'd be like, "I'm not even gonna attempt this next one," but thank you.

Present, today.

I'm like, "These are my friends and I want to still have friends.

Please don't asking me about my name.

Next!"

- [Buki] Ah, memories.

Tunde grew up in a close-knit Nigerian household in Texas with her parents and three brothers.

She struggled with her weight, but caught the fitness bug early.

She made her dreams come true.

First as an educator for a major beauty brand.

And now as a superstar fitness coach, Nike athlete and New York Times bestselling author of her debut memoir, "Speak: Find Your Voice, Trust Your Gut and Get From Where You Are To Where You Want To Be."

After our meal, we sat down for a fireside chat.

Tell me you're Nigerian without telling me you're Nigerian - Ah-ah.

[Buki laughing] Oh, wait, wait.

- No, no.

- Don't forget the.

- The answer to anything is no.

- Don't forget the, we wish you, many happy returns.

- We wish you, many happy returns, good life, long health, and prosperity.

- And prosperity.

- Hip, hip, hooray.

- Hooray.

Every single time.

Tell me about growing up in Houston, Texas as a Nigerian.

- You know this as a first generation child, like your parents, like you might have gone to school with kids.

Like I grew up in a predominantly white neighborhood, so I went to school with all the white kids and then I came home and we were in little Africa.

In terms of the food, the culture, the religion, and just kind of this like enclosed like, but beautifully enclosed in home life and shelter and love.

- Let's talk about "Speak," and the first thing that I did when I picked it up, when did you become that girl?

When did you become that girl?

- She's always been in the making, like she's always been in the making, and that girl is still being formulated, handcrafted, figuring it out, taking it day by day, trusting the process.

- It's not just speak, it's an acronym for surrender, power.

- Empathy.

- Authenticity.

- Authenticity.

- Knowledge.

- Knowledge.

- Yes.

What do those words mean to you every single day as you get up living your life?

How do you achieve that?

- When I sat down to write this book, it was 2020, like right in the thick of COVID.

And I started to look at those five words as elements and how they showed up in my life.

Surrender, power, empathy, authenticity, and knowledge.

- [Buki] Tunde leads every day with what she calls her inner drumbeat.

The Peloton star didn't get the job the first time around, but she trusted the drumbeat.

Less than a year later she auditioned at Peloton again and made the cut.

Now everyone is trying to get those Tunde arms and it was that drumbeat that caused Tunde to take her first spin class that she says changed her life's trajectory.

- What was going on in that class that after you just said, this is it.

- It sounds like this crazy thing, and I could have easily said it was a hallucination.

I was dehydrated.

I'd been on a plane for seven hours, I'm seeing things.

But in that moment I felt this wave of energy move from my fingers to my toes.

And after my very first cycling class, I knew that I'd be cycling for the rest of my life.

I knew that I would be teaching it.

And without even knowing what Peloton was at that time, I knew that cycling would afford me the opportunity of being able to connect with millions of people.

If you are lucky enough to have been given the gift of clearly saying what it is you know you're supposed to do, dare to have the audacity to go after it.

- And now you are speaking to the millions of people that you saw for yourself, but what I think is so interesting is that just, back in the day you said that you didn't wanna be noticed.

And I remember part in the book after the boy said that, "Oh, the guy likes you, but you're too dark for him."

You filled up the bathtub, hot water and bleach.

Luckily you didn't get in.

- [Tunde] Right.

- Thank God.

But how have you been able to own your blackness, the color of your skin?

- I am not beautiful despite my dark skin.

I am beautiful because of my dark skin.

- Yes.

- My deeply melanated skin is why I am beautiful.

It took me so many years to realize that.

- Tunde knows firsthand how to transform grief and setbacks into growth.

In the span of six years, she lost three of the most important people in her life.

Her youngest brother, her father, and her mother.

Tunde says instead of dwelling on the loss, she finds ways to honor them everyday.

One of the most powerful parts in this book that I found was that you actually did your mother's makeup for her funeral.

How did you get the strength to do it?

- It would've required more strength for me to go up there and see her not looking like herself if somebody else had done her makeup.

- Looking like a hot mess.

[Tunde vocalizing] - Oh, she would've never forgiven me for that, and I did her makeup.

And she would always beg me to put eyelashes on her and I would always tell her she didn't need them.

And I put her eyelashes on for her.

She looked like herself and I knew that that was gonna be the last image that people would have of her.

That's how I wanted her to look like herself.

I knew that it might be painful for me, but I was more concerned with the thought of the last way that I could honor her than the pain.

- Is that also the reason why you do work so darn hard?

Because everybody in this room knows that, I'm a little bit of a workaholic myself.

They're like, "What did you eat for break for breakfast?"

"Work ethic."

That's why I ate for breakfast.

- Hustle.

- Hustle.

- Right.

- Do you work so hard because you're trying to live the life that your parents never got to live?

- There's a spirit embodied in being Nigerian, the resiliency.

- The work ethic.

- The work ethic.

- Mm.

- I saw my parents struggle.

My parents came to this country to create opportunities for their children, opportunities that they did not have.

They did not know that they came to this country for them to allow their children to watch them suffer.

I watched my parents suffer.

My dad always had two to three jobs.

My mom always had two to three jobs.

- Day shift, night shift, double shift.

- My mom would get home, yes, day shift, night shift, double shift.

My mom would come home to cook food to send us off to school and then to go back into work.

They did all of that so that they could give me this opportunity.

And with the opportunity that they gave to me, the ethics they instilled in me, this is the product.

- There are 12 chapters in this book.

What does the 13th chapter look like for you?

- Ooh, the 13th chapter is self-discovery on a higher level and space for the unknown.

- Tunde, thank you so much.

First of all, if I had a, if I had a Buki's Book Club, first pick.

- Buki's Book Club.

I love.

- First pick.

- Can we talk about the fact that I'm wearing this?

I didn't plan to look like the cover, baby.

- I mean.

- When you got it, you got it.

- If it works, it works.

If it works, keep doing it.

- That's it.

That's it.

[upbeat music] - For all its riches.

Nigeria is not without its challenges from political corruption to civil unrest and even terrorism, but from the ashes, shine the light of the arts.

Nigeria's movie production industry named Nollywood is the second largest in the world after India's Bollywood.

One man taking up that arts tradition and is working on his own Nollywood film is visual artist Anthony Akinbola.

This Missouri born wonder kin shot to fame with his signature camouflage pieces using Durags to have conversations about culture.

Now his pieces sell for tens of thousands of dollars at galleries across the country and has been hailed by the art world as the next big thing.

Anthony brought me to a place where every child of immigrants spent countless hours, the beauty supply store to source materials for his next masterpiece.

We lived at the beauty supply store.

- Yes, yes.

- Like it was, there was not a week that went by that we didn't go to the beauty supply store.

- When I started making these paintings, there was something about coming in here and like looking at it as like paints, you know?

In a paint supply store.

- What's the durag symbolize to you?

- Something that was like unapologetically black.

Like there's not many objects that you'll say, right?

Like this is for like black people or white people.

But like the durag is specifically designed for black hair, for that maintenance to prevent it from frizzing up when you sleep.

And then there's also this political element of kind of you're flaunting yourself, like you could show the hair that's under the durag, and that's just as beautiful.

- Do the ideas come in a flash or do you take a while to really process and kind of gather what the next piece will be?

- Sometimes like you just see something, you're like, oh, let me do this with it.

And then maybe a week later you're like, oh, it's like, it was a whack idea.

And then other times you have an idea and it you do it and it just works.

- We shopped till we dropped, hopped in the car, and took a trip down memory lane.

At age 13, Anthony left Missouri to attend school in Nigeria and it gave him a new perspective on himself and the Nigerian culture.

I'm sure there was a stark difference between your life in Missouri and then your life in Nigeria.

- Yeah, it was a culture shock.

I mean, I, again, I'd been used to being around like Nigerians and other Africans.

That Nigerian community is something that I associate with Missouri in a weird way.

It's different if like I'd moved somewhere where like I was introduced to it for the first time, but in fact, like I never knew it to not be that.

I also knew there was a separation between like my African community and like my American community.

Again, I'm coming from Missouri, so it's like.

[Buki giggling] - That's where I saw some like real wealth for the first time and I was like, and it's just, the irony of it, right?

Because people think that, like sometimes Niger, like prior to me going, I'd be at school and they'd be like, "Aren't there dirt roads?"

And I mean, yeah, there are, the same way there are dirt roads upstate.

- [Buki] You better believe it.

- But I really, I feel like that whole experience opened my eyes.

- [Buki] The studio.

- [Anthony] Welcome.

- [Buki] I feel like I've just entered Batman's lair.

- [Anthony] Something like that.

- Something like that.

Anthony gave me an exclusive tour featuring some of his favorite pieces.

Who are the deciders?

I was just having this conversation that art is so subjective, what?

Who decides what is art?

- Well, I think the viewer does.

I think the artist creates what the work is, but I think giving meaning to what it is is like different depending on who's making the read.

And I always feel like beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

These were the earlier works.

These are like, and Jordans.

And it's just like garri like covered on these Jordans.

- It smells like it.

The material Anthony used to cover those Jordans is garri, which is granulated cassava.

It was introduced to Nigeria in the 16th century by the Portuguese.

It's one of the staple foods of the country, because it's inexpensive and versatile.

It can be cooked hot and savory or cold and sweet.

- These are all things, when I'm bringing them together, I'm like, how can I make something that is like authentically an African American object?

- [Buki] Next stop on the tour, those signature durags.

- It was colorful and it was like a material that I could objectively just use to make composition, but I knew that regardless of what the work looked like, somebody could interact with the work and feel connected to it.

And that was kind of my goal from the start.

- [Buki] Anthony wasted no time showing me how the pieces come together.

- What makes these durags, the people, outside of them being durags is like, people see the stitch or they see the contrast stitching, which is on certain durags.

And that's kind of what clicks.

- And his assistant, Carly, gave me a crash course on working for legendary artist in the making.

- It's been a while Carly, what do I do?

- So we're gonna cut it.

- Okay.

- Cut it like three inches.

So it's like right here.

- Okay.

- Right.

That's good.

- All right.

- And then rip it.

Oh my God, we're ripping it!

- Then rip it.

- Rip it.

- All your might, come on.

[fabric tearing] [Anthony laughing] - That's right, woo!

[Buki vocalizing] - All my frustrations.

No, I'm just kidding.

[all laughing] See Anthony?

I'm smooth with it.

I'm smooth with them hands I'm using.

Oh yeah, well I'm good.

I'm good.

I swear Carly, I'm good.

I don't, I mean, I feel like it's a little crooked.

- That's good.

And then you can let it run a little more.

- Whoop.

[Anthony giggling] [Buki vocalizing] - [Anthony] That's your souvenir from the studio.

- Oh listen, this is gonna be worth millions one day.

I'm good.

I'm good with that.

Where is Nigeria in your work?

- I think it's in all of it.

I believe that the Nigerian experience, because the work is coming from me, are in all parts of the work.

- [Buki] What is art to you?

- [Anthony] I think art is ideas.

Art starts at an idea and it kind of evolves from there, but I think you have to have the idea to start the process of art making.

- Listen, I'm gonna need this one over here in the back, and you know I am your older Nigerian brother, so respect your elders.

I'm going to need a discount.

[Anthony giggling] Okay, just that one in the corner and we're ready to go.

- Oh well, we'll work something out.

[upbeat music] - My Nigerian origin story began once upon a time in the late 1970s when my dad met my mom.

They got together and had my sister Anu and four years later, had me.

It's safe to say that if it were not for Nigeria, there would be no me.

So this wouldn't be a homecoming without two pieces of home.

Well, well, well.

- [Kenni] Hello.

- [Buki] Mom and sister joined me in my kitchen and just like that, it was 1998 again.

Let's do it.

- Alrighty.

[upbeat music] [upbeat music] - The base for most soups and stews in Nigerian households starts with a blender.

We blend peppers, onions, and tomatoes in various combinations.

But the one thing that all dishes have is pepper.

Usually in the form of scotch bonnets.

Today, mom is making one of my favorites called Ogbono soup, which is a flavorful stew made with Ogbono seeds that are ground up and cooked in as sumptuous thickness that compliments the various meats and vegetables that go into it.

And just as I remembered, it's in the kitchen where the best conversations happen.

Who taught you how to cook?

- No one really taught me how to cook.

I watched the person that raised me.

I watched her cook, my aunts, and sometimes friends.

There's certain things I need to learn how to cook.

I watch them.

I ask.

You have to peel the beans, you have to grind it.

You have to do it the way it's supposed to be.

That's what makes it authentic.

- Nigerians don't typically eat dessert, but a wildly popular street food is puff puff, a fried yeasted dough doused in powdered sugar, one of my sister's favorites.

She mastered this recipe and the Nigerian culture years ago.

You are the one that's always doing the African food.

How did you get the bug?

'Cause you know, I wasn't trying any of those recipes.

- Because we grew up different.

Like in school where we went, Montclair, everything was different.

Especially for me, I always felt awkward.

So I just embraced everything else that was different, so.

- [Buki] And I didn't feel awkward?

- [Anu] No, you were the popular kid.

- [Buki] I wasn't.

I was so not.

- [Anu] So that's how I ended up embracing everything that's Nigerian.

So whether it was the food, the clothes, the language, everything.

- [Buki] And we can't forget about the meat pie, one of my specialties and my dad's favorites.

He was overseas, so I made this in his honor.

This recipe was passed down from his mom, who was a baker, to my Auntie Nika, who is a baker and a caterer, to me.

I guess it runs in the family.

And last but certainly not least, is the Iyan or the pounded yam.

Yams 101.

This is not a yam.

This is a sweet potato.

This is a yam.

This beautifully ugly root vegetable is prepared like potatoes in Nigeria.

But this way over the stove top is the classic way.

And it's believed that it's the consumption of yams that Nigerians have the highest rate of twin births per year globally.

My mom should know, she's a twin.

A quick change later.

And it was time to eat.

- Cheers.

- Mm.

- Mm, that's good.

- I can taste the- - Not like this spice.

- Not too peppery.

- Not like the one I made.

Remember, the one I made?

No, that jollof rice that I made, that was so peppery.

- No, no, no, no, forget about the jollof rice.

- He said his scalp- - It was the beans.

- It was the beans.

- Four people, one bathroom.

- Peppery af beans, one bathroom.

- Mm, mm, mm, mm.

- Mom, tell me about growing up in Nigeria.

What do you remember?

- I left Nigeria when I was five.

Well, '68 or so.

I didn't really have that much experience in Nigeria.

I had most of my upbringing here.

- I know life was, life was kind of tough for you guys.

You and dad when you know you guys were coming up and everything like that, especially with a newborn kid, right?

- [Kenni] Yeah, it was tough.

Very, very tough.

- You guys even slept in a car once, right?

- Well, yeah.

I mean I did all kinds of work.

I worked, I cleaned planes.

I worked as a babysitter.

I shoveled snow.

I worked as a security officer.

I mean, I did a whole lot of different things to survive.

- That's what we like to call the immigrant hustle.

- The immigrant hustle.

- It's that immigrant hustle that landed my mom in the nursing field for over 25 years.

She's worked all over the country and even aided with Puerto Rico's hurricane relief efforts.

- I think I speak for both Anu and myself where we learned the work ethic from you.

- [Kenni] Yeah, that's true, 'cause you guys are amazing.

- I know I disappointed you a little bit when I decided not to be a doctor or lawyer or a nurse.

You know you were not thrilled when I came home and said, "Mom, I'm gonna study journalism."

Don't play it.

Don't play mom.

You know, you were in half tears.

- [Anu] "How are you gonna pay your rent?

How are you gonna live?"

[all laughing] I'm hearing you.

No comment.

- [Buki] It was the truth.

- Well.

- And look and look at me now.

[Buki laughing] - But I did tell you though, that I know that you're destined for something 'cause of your name.

- Yes, my name means God adds to our wellbeing.

- Yeah, I told you that you came with that.

- That's true.

That's true.

You had a dream about it.

- 'Cause I saw the name while you were in my dreams, so.

- That's right.

'Cause I know you wanted to be Diane Sawyer too.

Okay, so I'm giving you a little Diane Sawyer right now.

So let us talk about growing up in a Nigerian household.

- [Kenni] Oh geez.

- Listen, how did you know that you, 'cause we grew up predominantly white schools.

- Mm-hmm.

- So when did you realize that you were not in the typical household?

- When they said, "grounded."

I said, "What is that?"

- Everybody gets grounded.

- Well, I didn't get grounded.

- I didn't.

Still though, I was never grounded.

- What was grounded?

I was never ground, what was grounded?

- What, what, what were you doing?

What, what were you?

What were you?

- [Anu] Exactly, what, what, why, what's grounded?

That's when I was like, what is grounded?

I knew kneel.

I knew hands up.

I knew- - [Buki] The clink clack of the belt.

- [Anu] The clink clink clackety clack of the belt.

- [Buki] That's right.

- [Anu] Yeah, I knew those things.

- [Buki] The respect level.

- Oh yeah, the respect level.

- That's definitely it.

- Because the stuff I used to hear my friends say to their parents- - I could never, I could never as grown, and I am almost 40, I still cannot see myself saying certain things.

- No.

- No, it was a tough upbringing.

- But that's traditional.

- Well, yeah, yeah, yeah.

- You don't, we expect kids to- - [Buki] Yeah, well here's the thing, it's like- - You don't cook, you don't eat.

- Exactly.

- Exactly.

- It was life skills.

- Life skills.

- And now that we're older, you know.

- Can't you do laundry?

- [Buki] Sure, I do the laundry.

- Can't you cook?

- I sure can.

[hands clapping] She's like, my job is done.

Check, gotta go.

- Well, my job is done also, because you guys listened, you took the lesson.

- Anu didn't say listen.

[Anu vocalizing] What is your hope for Nigeria as they move, as it moves into the future?

- My hope for Nigeria to settle and become the country that it was before.

- I love you to death, mom.

Thank you guys for coming.

- Oh, cheers.

- Thanks for the jollof rice.

- I think you got it.

- But the real question is who is doing the dishes?

- I don't live here, so thanks for having us.

- But I cooked.

- I appreciate you though.

I don't live here though.

[Anu laughing] I'm going.

- [Buki] Sisters, am I right or am I right?

Nigeria may be rich in natural resources, but it's the people that make it priceless.

Tunde, Anthony, my mom, sister, and I got the best the country has to offer, unparalleled work ethic, creativity and talent abound, and a rich connection to the people and the food.

Every time you take a bite, you feel like you're home.

[upbeat music] - Give me a hard time.

You made me cry a lot, so.

- There you go.

I didn't make her cry.

That's sad.

I just gave her gray hair.

- Wait a minute.

First of all, you know what?

I'm not gonna put your business on the street today.

[all laughing] I'm not gonna put your business on the street today.

We're gonna wrap this right here.

Cut, cut it.

- [Announcer] Support for "Table For All" provided by Garden State Wine Growers Association.

Visit us online or download our app and passport program to learn more about New Jersey wineries and events at newjerseywines.com.

Edible Jersey, celebrating the local food of the garden state for 16 years.

Learn more at ediblejersey.com.