text | Literary actress
Instant noodles, the last stubbornness of the African middle class
In Africa, you don’t need to talk about RVs or gold chains to show off your wealth. Eating a bucket of instant noodles elegantly is enough to prove your identity and wealth. . No one knows this about
better than Aboki, the African boy who has been running a stall in Nigeria for 10 years. What the boy sells is nothing else but instant noodles.
Aboki revealed that a bowl of "glossy" is 150 naira ( is about RMB 2.74 ), adding an egg is 200 naira ( is about RMB 3.65 ), and adding two eggs is 250 naira ( is about RMB 4.56 (). In Africa, Nigeria is a relatively developed country with relatively high prices, but with such a spending standard, it still belongs to the hard-core middle class there.
If you dislike my roadside stall, I suggest you go to the local wet market. When you get used to seeing vegetable vendors kill 20 flies with one slap, and then grab vegetables for you directly with the same hand that just killed the flies, you may miss the clean and high-end Nigerian roadside stalls like Aboki.
Here, various vegetables are placed on thick cardboard and cut into cubes; colorful plastic plates are washed with dish soap; and golden instant noodles are spread out in delicate small iron pots, like spring. Daisies are generally fresh and beautiful, stimulating people's taste buds.
Over the past 10 years, Aboki’s regular customers are either rich or expensive.
There is no need to wear a Chanel suit, just saying "I come every night" betrays the girl's status as a socialite.
Compared with cool clothes, the instant noodles in my hands are the magic weapon!
This intellectual in suits and ties may be the most important golden bachelor within ten miles.
In the local blind date market, this figure wearing a suit and quietly eating instant noodles has charmed many girls. The most important thing is that the little brother said that must add two eggs every time!
Those who can spend so much money on food at such a young age are either the second generation of rich people or the second generation of dispossessed people! However, the guy in the suit said very encouragingly that he is an entrepreneurial dog and has just received financing.
Just as a Zimbabwean guy said, in the West, what people need is the "love and peace" spoken by Captain America, "But in my turbulent motherland, what we need is instant noodles like this, which can comfort our stomachs and Things of the soul.”
Zimbabwe, an old friend of China, has provided a precious sample for economic research with its unprecedented inflation rate of 231,000,000%.
In the years when inflation was at its peak, there was a rumor on the Internet that in Zimbabwe, instant noodles that could fill the stomach had become hard currency, and one could exchange cash equivalent to volume for instant noodles. As for a company, there is no need to talk about "options", "development space", or "year-end bonus". As long as it provides instant noodles for lunch, there is no doubt about its strength in the industry, which is comparable to the domestic BAT.
The currency of Zimbabwe during the period of inflation, with a face value of 500 million yuan, really blinded my eyes!
Instant noodle party has become something worthy of trendy people posting on their WeChat Moments.
When young people in other countries party wildly after get off work, Nigeria’s party door is only open to the middle class. If one day you don’t receive an invitation to the instant noodle party, then I’m sorry, but you’ve probably fallen out of the middle class and your class has slipped.
Girl, gathering people at home is also gathering people
Your mother is not only fashionable, but also rich~
In many African countries, if you want to be a food influencer, you must first master 100 ways to make instant noodles.
The eldest brother who insisted on filming in prison said that his muscles are all from eating instant noodles
The history of instant noodles’ “superiority” in Africa
Data from the World Instant Noodles Association (there is such an organization in the world!) show that although the most Most of the people who love instant noodles are from Asian countries, but in 2019, Nigeria from Africa ranked 11th!
In Nigeria, the most popular instant noodles are Indomie from Indonesia , with a market share of 70%, almost becoming synonymous with "instant noodles". There is a rapper in South Africa who even wrote a song with the same name as this instant noodle, Indomie boys. Judging from the promotional poster, it is no problem to form an instant noodle boy band to hit the charts.
However, when Indomie first entered the Nigerian market in the 1980s, it was difficult for locals to accept this food. This is so different from the cassava, banana, rice and other foods they usually eat. Many people think it looks like a "curly worm" and dare not eat it.
However, since 1999, Nigeria has ended 16 years of military rule, its economy has begun to develop rapidly, and it has ushered in the African version of the "baby boom." At that time, each woman had to give birth to 5-6 children on average, which meant that every family had a busy "old mother" and a group of children waiting to be fed. The demand for fast food increased greatly.
Indomie has "taken the lead" in such an environment.
Faced with an almost blank African market, Indomie's "brainwashing" was also very successful. On the one hand, it strives to promote instant noodles as a healthy and fashionable food. In its advertisements, it often appears with high-end people such as lawyers and designers, which is very consistent with the new middle class's yearning for high-end life.
Look at this promotional photo, how could this composition be from Africa? Except for the instant noodles in his hands, the whole picture looks like a middle-class American community.
In addition, Indomie also deliberately concealed his Indonesian identity in a promotional video In the film, the brand is also intentionally linked with developed countries such as Singapore . Subsequently, Indomie, which built multiple factories in Nigeria, was considered a local brand. Under the government’s call to “support domestic products”, people started buying and buying...
Industrial designers can’t find inspiration? Is the case a headache for lawyers? A bowl of instant noodles will solve everything for you!
Even Indomie has its own fan club in Africa. Of course, this is also a social place for rich people. If your child doesn't make it to the instant noodle club, he or she is missing out.
TV station explores the aristocratic life of children in the Instant Noodle Club: outdoor playgrounds, talent shows, and instant noodles during dinner time
Wang Ke, co-founder of the African B2C e-commerce platform KIKUU (Jiku), has worked hard in Africa for many years. In his opinion, the popularity of instant noodles in Africa is directly related to poverty. "Just like we thought instant noodles were a good thing decades ago."
During the epidemic, partners in Africa told Wang Ke that it was rare to see locals buying masks. After all, imported masks cost several yuan each. A mask is equivalent to a day's meal expenses for an ordinary person. "Diseases are very common in Africa, Ebola , AIDS... Compared with the new crown, local people are more concerned about how to fill their stomachs ."
In addition, Wang Ke has also seen Master Kong and other Chinese brands of instant noodles in Africa. The price is US$1 to US$2 (about 6.8 yuan to 13.6 yuan) per box, which is definitely a luxury product. (In Nigeria, the price of Indomie is about 2-3 yuan per pack.)
How cheap is local food? Wang Ke once spent $1 to buy a huge jackfruit like the one in the photo, and a group of 5 or 6 people ate it for several days.
When we were young, we also felt that instant noodles were the most fragrant.
Just as Wang Ke said, instant noodles also had the best taste in China. Seen as a "good thing".
In the 1990s, instant noodles were dubbed the "national food" in China and were the preferred convenience meal for millions of Chinese workers.It is a magical tool for Spring Festival transportation, an overtime partner, and a business partner... The middle-aged people sitting on the high-speed train today will still melancholy think of the conductor in the green leather car who shouted "Give way, put your feet away" , and the smell of instant noodles permeating the entire carriage.
Showing my age...
This is the saddest dream come true story I have ever heard...
In China, instant noodles have experienced 18 consecutive years of increasing sales. In China in 2013, 1,465 packages of instant noodles were opened every second.
However, as affluent people become more and more particular about food health and the advent of takeout, instant noodles have gradually lost their aura as a “national food”. In recent years, in addition to imported instant noodles from South Korea and other places, many domestic instant noodles are experiencing a "mid-life crisis" with declining sales.
In distant Africa, the people at the bottom who rely on instant noodles to start their own businesses also have the right to look up at the stars.
Like Aboki, another young man who came to the capital from the countryside of Nigeria to work hard has been selling instant noodles on the streets for seven years.
The little brother has never gone to school and has no skills. He used to live in rural areas and lived in poverty. But everyone who has eaten the instant noodles he cooked clapped their thighs and praised it.
is 28 years old and single. He shyly said that he now earns more than 2,000 naira a day (contract RMB 36.7), and hopes to buy a small house in the city in a few years, where his wife and children can stay together.
Although I can’t afford to eat the instant noodles I make myself, at this roadside stall filled with bright yellow bags of instant noodles and always filled with the warm smell of ocean noodles, I can indulge in fantasy about my future middle-class life. ——This is probably a beautiful and luxurious moment for the people at the bottom.
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJdEfIo0ZL4&app=desktop
2. https://www.vice.com/en_nz/article/3d9p5y/how-indomie-became-insanely-popular-in-nigeria
3. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1BV0KqmJJVE
4. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QIfEmoHXQtA
5. https://instantnoodles.org/en/noodles/market.html
