If you are using Google today, Nov 4, 2022, in the UK, the USA, Canada and in some African countries, you can see an illustration of a rice dish. Such temporary alterations of the logo – usually an illustration or an interactive game – on the search engine´s homepage are a daily occurrence to celebrate events, products or famous people.

Today´s Google Doodle shows a bowl of jollof rice, a West African dish made using long-grained rice, simmered tomatoes, onions, peppers, spices and cooking oil; it usually also contains meat. The illustration shows the preparation of the one-pot meal, with Haneefah Adam, a Nigeria-based artist, supplying the artwork and a soundtrack created by Hervé Samb, a Senegalese jazz musician.

Jollof rice has been made since the 14^th century in regions of West Africa spanning parts of today´s Mauritania and Senegal. Historians discovered the dish spread with the Mali empire, with some agronomy experts claiming it became popular during the French colonial period when the reduction in planted areas had to be compensated by rice imports from Asia.

There are many regional variations of jollof rice, with each West African country having a least one variant. In Nigeria, stock cubes are common for jollof; in coastal regions, seafood is usually added.

World Jollof Day is celebrated on August 22, with food festivals not only in African countries but also in the US and Canada.