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FAAJI FUN: Faaji Sundays founders Yinka Odukoya (left) and Frances Para-Mallam

'THE VOICE' spoke to the founders of Faaji Sundays – a lifestyle event that celebrates West African culture and cuisine – about youth, food, and the meaning of ‘drunch’:

Q: What was the inspiration behind Faaji Sundays?

Yinka Odukoya: Although we would like to say the idea was rooted in a revelatory experience while on a visit to the motherland, the true inspiration stemmed from a discussion between my business partner Frances and I. We were discussing my pan-African food business and love of food festival events. Frances and I then began to envisage how much we would want to put together a foodie event that resembled all the things I loved – and that is when we came up with the concept for Faaji Sundays.

What’s the inspiration behind the name?

Frances Para-Mallam: We go by one mantra – to positively promote our west African culture through the philosophy of Faaji – a word that originates from the Yoruba language, meaning ‘enjoyment’.

Q: Your west African culture clearly influences your work. Have you always felt this connected to your culture?

FPM: With both of us growing up in a Nigerian household with parents who speak the language and share fashion, food and history knowledge, we were bound to be influenced by their environments. Yinka has always been extremely connected to her culture, with previously running her food business for five years and going back to Nigeria to live there for a year. I have also fallen more in love with the culture through my curiosity for the arts, fashion and travel.

Q: Faaji Sundays is an event that combines food, music and socialising – which aspect of it is your favourite?

YO: My favourite is definitely the food and the live band, as I love to dance.

FP: Mine has to be our creative vision coming together on the night and seeing people enjoy the experience.

Q: So Faaji Sunday offers a ‘bottomless drunch’ experience – but what is ‘drunch’?

YO: We initially planned for a brunch, but decided that our demographic aren’t really early birds. So we shifted it to an early evening event and called it drunch – a combination of late lunch and drinking. Drunch is popular in France and we aim to be the first well-known drunch event within the UK.

For more information on Faaji Sundays, click here.

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