Nathalie Mangwa and Ayesha Harruna Attah

“Pinch me! I’m opening up an ice-cream shop with my friend Nathalie” is what Ayesha Harruna Attah posted on Instagram last month.

The Ghanaian novelist has teamed up with her friend Nathalie Mangwa, who is of Cameroonian descent, to establish Sur La Plage, an ice-cream pop up shop located on one of the beaches in Popenguine, Senegal. As stated on the website, Sur La Plage is “a pleasant space offering homemade ice creams and smoothies, a concept store with books by author Ayesha Harruna Attah and clothing from the Simone Mangwa brand.”

In the quote below, Attah goes into more details about the inspiration for the store and some of the yummy flavors offered:

My friend Nathalie Mangwa and I were inspired to combine our shared passions. She’s a dancer, yoga teacher, and designer who’d been experimenting with local, healthy ingredients. I love ice-cream and after I bought an ice-cream maker, found myself playing around with flavors from Senegal. So Nathalie and I combined our dreams and decided to open a pop-up ice-cream and smoothie shop, and a concept store featuring my books and her clothing. As much as we can, we only use ingredients we can find in Senegal. Some of our flavors are peanut butter, mango, and cafe touba – a local brew of coffee and Guinea pepper. I enjoy meeting people and hearing their stories, so having an ice-cream store is a great way to do that, and I can’t get over the reactions on people’s faces when they find a flavor they love.

We are excited for Attah as she goes on this new venture. She is making people’s tastebuds happy the same way she’s delighted readers with her stories. Attah has authored four books, with a fifth titled Zainab Takes New York, on the way.

Website:   www.surlaplagepops.com
Instagram:  @surlaplagepops  and  @popenglace