Tinkerbel the Egufe Snatcher

A blood cuddling scream from the living room caught me unawares. In my shock I spilled ewedu soup (traditional yoruba delicacy) on my new white jean shorts. My elder sister who was sitting beside me quickly stood up and ran out of the room as I followed in close pursuit to the living room. The scene we met was like something from the famous Tom and Jerry cartoon. My youngest sister, Esse, was in tears, rolling on the floor and howling at the top of her lungs, while another younger sister, Ohis, had caught one of our dogs 'Jackie' and was trying to beat it with a shoe!

It was the year of our Lord, 2004, my elder sister and I were visiting home from university. We had bought amala (plantain meal) and ewedu with 'egufe' (goat meat). For as long as I can remember, our parents have prohibited buying cooked food from roadside canteens because my mom who was a nurse was conscious of the health hazards and my dad simply didn't like eating out. This strict upbringing however, did not stop us from craving the odd roadside akara (bean balls) fried in palm oil or the the tuwo (Hausa traditional meal) sold on the way from the local bustop. Rather it sharpened our thirst for roadside canteen foods.  

Photo Credits: Idowu Ejere sefiesm...Sept 2015

Presently

We had bought 4 helpings of amala and egufe and my elder sister and I went to eat in the bedroom, another taboo we never try when our parents are around, while my younger sisters went to eat in the living room sitting as close to the TV as possible. They had just settled down to eat when there was a knock on the door. A friend of one of our other sisters (we are so many), who was not at home at the time, came looking for her. Ohis was anxious to begin eating and so summarily explained that Olly was away on a French Village excursion. She saw the guest off but forgot to close the door to the porch so one of our dogs, Jackie, who had smelt the food from afar quietly entered the living room and ate Esses's Egufe. Esse who was at the fridge getting some water, walked in at that moment and let out a blood cuddling scream. We heard the scream from the bedroom and ran to the living room and found Ohis who was now back in the house trying to beat the dog.

The dog was faster than her and ran out through the front door closely followed by Ohis, crying Esse, Odion and I. As we chased the dog round the back of the house, the dog noticed that the back door was open and ran through it to the living room and at that moment it must have noticed that there was another plate of egufe right there, all for the taking! We chased the dog into the living room and saw it flee out the front door with Ohis's egufe in its mouth. 

Even as i recall that day i can't help but laugh as words cannot explain the sadness we all felt that day. Ohis and Esse's sadness was justified because the dog ate their meat but even when we shared with them we felt bad and they were still dissatisfied. Esse was to mourn about the egufe for dayssssss!

Right now I am on my way to 'Iya Oyo' restaurant in Utako Abuja.. egufe on my mind!

Idowu
Abuja
2015