I asked someone who moved here from Nigeria so I have one one tip now.

Background from Serious Eats is interesting

It was then that I learned about the roots of this dish in the kingdom of Jolof, a historic 15th- to 18th-century state in the Wolof-Senegambian region, on the southern edge of the Sahara far to the west of Nigeria.

the Dyula ethnic group, famed merchants who established trade routes throughout the region centuries ago, were responsible for the dispersal of jollof south of the Sahara, taking it with them as they traveled. Today, every country in West Africa has a version of jollof, each reflecting its particular history and influences. Several regions beyond the African continent also have versions that speak to how far it has spread, particularly via the transatlantic slave trade—Lowcountry red rice and New Orleans jambalaya in the American South are both descended from jollof rice.