Food & I

They say that the way to a man’s heart is a tale of two cardiologists. The hospital cardiologist travels via femoral artery in the groin or the radial artery at the wrist to arrive at the heart using tubes and radiological equipment.

The lady in the kitchen, also a cardiologist of sorts and perhaps an “other room practitioner” gets to the heart through her soup laden with polysaturated fatty acids. This fat travels via the stomach to block off the cardiac arteries leading to “death by brief illness” as they say in Nigeria. What a woman can do, a man can do also. There are male cardiologists in the kitchens of this world cooking up slow poison.

Food is beautiful and there are many beautiful things that can kill but let us move on from terra –depression to terra-happy.

I love food and by the grace of God it will not kill me either through the fast or slow poisons contained therein. Food is such an iconic necessity that lends itself so generously to literature. In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, yams are portrayed as Alpha male tubers symbolising wealth and power. Who can forget Chapter Five with its tale of a wealthy man celebrating the Feast of the New Yam with what can best be described as a Trump Tower of foo-foo. The mould was so high that relatives who sat on opposite sides only saw each other when the “mountain” had been levelled, aided and abetted by vegetable soup.

Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist asked for more and was punished for his audacity. This story strikes a chord with all for the request for an extra helping is universal especially at the table of a skilful chef.

Unfortunately, some children in the world are not fortunate to have a tiny first course not to talk of having jara. Parts of Africa are in famine. It is sad that the neighbouring countries cannot help. Africa looks West for help when these things happen. One does wonder if these countries have stored supplies of grain to last them as least a year. If they don’t they should. Without electricity grain was stored for seven years in Egypt during a famine according to the Bible. This was ancient Africa. In today’s world one should expect hunger to have been eradicated by now.

The thought of a child going to bed hungry is heartbreaking especially when there are no wars to blame. Growing maize and rearing goats and chickens is a simple matter. Piping water from the sea or local rivers is also a simple matter.

The Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System is an ocean far underground spanning Libya, Egypt, Sudan and Chad. Discovered in Libya in 1953 while prospecting for oil this reserve of fresh water was exploited by Muammar Gaddafi via the Great Man Made River project in 1991. It sounds incredulous that the eastern Sahara desert has water underneath it.

This is just one example of how water can be piped across vast geographical areas to provide water for the irrigation of farms. Bad weather has been going on since time began and governments should plan for it. Countries that import food and have no stored grain or water supplies are disasters waiting to happy. And when the inevitable drought happens the children die first.

The two African leaders with lofty and ambitious ideas in recent times have been Muammar Gaddafi of Libya and Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso and they are both dead. Both had firm plans for agriculture. Ironically the leaders in Africa with no long term plans who just roll over and let the multinationals rape the land tend to live very long.

I still love my food. West Africa grows cocoa and imports chocolate bars yet I still love my African food. I have been blessed never to have lived in an area of food shortages throughout my life. I see people who run away from food because they want to lose weight yet in some corners of the world people go hungry.  When one person starves we all starve as human beings.

Ukodo is a meal I enjoy. It is one from Urhobo land and it conjures memories of childhood and family. It is strongly linked to my identity as an Urhobo man so much so I wrote a poem about it entitled ‘Ukodo Tonight’. Eating together around a table is good for family life and at the table kids get reminded that they are part of something important.

Good affordable food and water is a fundamental human right.

(Epp us share di Gala Sir).

Babawilly

Dr Wilson Orhiunu

22-11-2016