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It's this "Nigerian pepper" that was a mystery to me for a long time. I had a few guesses about the exact identity of this spice, but couldn't settle on any of them. One of the suspects was Ashanti pepper (''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_guineense Piper guineense]''), also known as "West African pepper" or "Guinea pepper". Closely related to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_cubeba cubeb pepper,] it was very popular in Medieval Europe, but is today largely marginalised to West Africa. Another possible candidate I was thinking of was [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grains_of_Selim grains of Selim] (''Xylopia aethiopica''), a spice that taste similar to pepper and hence is known as "Ethiopian pepper", "Senegal pepper", "Guinea pepper", "African pepper" or even simply "Negro pepper". Could this latter name have been interpreted in Poland as "Nigerian pepper"?
When googling for "Nigerian pepper", most hits I got were for "Nigerian pepper soup", a traditional delicacy of that country. Contrary to its name, it isn't flavoured solely with pepper, but with an entire mix of various exotic spices that are hsrd hard to get outside Nigeria. This is how Andrzej described it:
[[File:Negroland and Guinea with the European Settlements, 1736.jpg|thumb|Angielska mapa Afryki Zachodniej z An English map of West Africa from 1736 r., na której zaznaczono Wybrzeże Pieprzowe (''with what is now Liberia labelled as "Grain Coast'') w okolicy dzisiejszej Liberii". To głównie stamtąd eksportowano do Europy różne afrykańskie przyprawyIt was the major trade hub for grains of paradise and other African spices.]]
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