Chepele, “Man with the Pot”: the village comes to Douala
One pot under a mango tree, then a restaurant where you eat off leaves and drink from horns, behind IUC in Logbessou. How a table can bring together traditions that the big city keeps apart.
By L'équipe NiceThings12 October 20264 min read
Douala moves fast. People often eat standing up, between two errands, without looking at their plate. And then, in Logbessou, behind IUC, there is a place where you do exactly the opposite: you sit down, you wait for the food to cook, and you eat as in the village. Its name fits in a nickname: “Man with the Pot”.
One pot under a mango tree
The story the house tells is simple: it all began with a single pot, set under a mango tree. Its founder, Achu Valery, known as “Ngessman”, with recipes passed down through generations. The pot became a restaurant, but the nickname stayed.
The village, in the middle of the city
Chepele describes itself as an “African barbecue” in a village setting. Here dishes do not arrive on china: they are served on leaves, in calabashes, on wooden trays. Palm wine is drunk from bamboo cups or horns. The house announces live music, drums and traditional dances.
The place is also called “Chepele Village”: each hut carries, on a board, the name of a people or a village of the country. Bakweri, Bamileke, Ewondo, Kom, Nso, Mankon, Oku, Wum… You sit “with the Bakweri” or “in Mankon”.
On the menu, names you do not hear every day in the streets of Douala: the “Pork Salade”, the signature dish (pork, country bitter leaf, boiled plantains), achu, kati kati, nang tare, ngom tare, and seasonal vegetables.
According to the menu the house publishes, each day has its dishes: eru and ndolè on Wednesdays, ekwang on Thursdays, achu with yellow soup at the weekend, grilled chicken and pork every day. Allow 2,500 to 4,000 FCFA a dish.
A table that brings people together
This may be where Chepele says something about Cameroon. In a big city everyone comes from somewhere else: a village, a language, a way of cooking. The restaurant says it wants to celebrate “the rich taste, traditions, and togetherness” of African cuisine, and to connect its guests to “the roots of community, culture, and nature”.
Around the same table, the one who grew up with these dishes finds them again, and the one who did not know them discovers them. You taste from each other’s plate, you ask what it is called, how to eat it. In the end, that is also what a pot is for.
You come to eat. You leave having learned the name of a dish that was not yours.
Getting there
- Where: behind IUC (Institut Universitaire de la Côte), in Logbessou, Douala.
- When: from noon to midnight, and from 10 am on Sundays, according to the restaurant’s website.
- Prices: 2,500 to 4,000 FCFA a dish, according to the menu on its website. Confirm when you order.
- Booking: by phone or WhatsApp, at the number on its page.
Hours, contact and the way there on its page.
Your turn to tell
- Which dish from your village would you like your city friends to taste?
- Have you been to Chepele? What did you order?
- Which other restaurant near you brings several traditions together?
Answer in a comment, just below.
Source: the restaurant’s website, chepele.com. NiceThings has not been there yet: what you read comes from what the house says about itself.
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