Africa is a vast continent with very many different peoples, ethnic groups, languages and very different cultures. The cultural diversity is really striking if you decide to take a look at it, and these cultures are so numerous and varying that you'll surely be thrilled!
I never like it when I hear generalizations about Africa, because Africa is really diversified. One general description or perception can hardly ever fit as the variance is overwhelming.
The ways of the little Village next to yours can be so different from the ways of your own people even when the proximity is similar to that between two teeth in your mouth!
Even the languages can be very different when they are but two neighboring villages as close as two nuts in the same shell.
Did you know there is even a Village in Cross River State of Nigeria, where the male folks have a different language from the female folks? But they're all in the same village? And inter-marrying and inter-you-know-what (wink) in the same village?
How do they communicate, you ask? Well, that would be covered by some other story on some other day.
But you see it right there, huh? The cultural diversity of Africa.
Now, this is a series I'm starting, where I'll be telling you all (everyone of y'all) about funny African Customs. This series is not going to be based on information I gathered from the net or something, they're going to be based on things and customs I experience(d) in the course of my life as an African living in Africa. All original and never before published.
As there are many different cultures in Africa, your neighbour having his and you having yours; some of the things being done as a custom by your neighbour might be strange to you, disgust you, or amuse the living hell out of you and crack your ribs glass-fashion.
These effects of our neighbours culture might even have more effect on people who are not from our region entirely, not from our country and not from our continent. A funny custom from your neighbours culture that got you laughing while standing can get someone from another country laughing while rolling in the mud - and worse, it can get someone from another continent laughing while rolling in the goddamn mud! LOL.
So without further fuss, let's go to the funny African custom I have for today:
A Custom That Required A Young Boy To A Treat With A Rodent
This custom is all the way from a village called Nnug Ukana in Ibiesikpo Asutan Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.
Source
These are some art from Akwa Ibom State:
Source
Ok, now, this is how it goes:
I was in the neighborhood one day, outdoors, spending time with friends of mine and inside one of my friend's house his Dad, Mum, and other elders had a lot of convincing and cajoling to do. I asked my friend what was going on and he related the whole story to me.
He told me the whole family had eaten roasted seasoned beef (AKA "suya" in Nigeria) the previous night, and after eating it they all went to sleep. But his younger brother Maurice (real name withheld) went to sleep without washing the hands he ate the seasoned beef with. And this boy has a 71 reputation for sleep walking and stuff like that. While he was sleeping, a little mouse came to lick off the little spice and beef remnants left in the unwashed hand. While this was going on, little Maurice, deep in sleep, got hold of the mouse, and thinking it was beef, put it in his mouth and bit off half of it and swallowed.
Goddamn
The next morning, the other half of the mice which was uneaten was seen in his hand. The part that was uneaten was the head and fore limbs of the rodent.
So it happened that it was the custom where they're from that a man should not eat little animals like mice, frogs, etc. But that if a man should ever eat something like that he should make sure he eats a full one, and not half of it. And so now that the boy has eaten half of it, he had to finish it.
Now, no matter how weird this custom may sound, it was being applied right before my very eyes!
Maybe their ancestors were great hunters who always caught big animals and deemed it a shame to eat little animals - especially eating just half. This was the best explanation I could fathom after thinking on it later on. Good guess right? Right?
Well, this was the modern times, you know, so with everybody wide awake they couldn't expect the boy to eat the mouse again, even Africans see mice as horrible and unclean animals, even this boys' people. They couldnt expect the boy to eat the mouse again while awake - especially raw. So his Mum cooked the mouse in a little sauce for the boy to eat. He still didn't want to eat it and that was how all the cajoling and persuading that I met in their house came about. Everyone (the elders that is) where begging him to eat it.
In the end the boy ate it, and was given a lot of other good drinks and food to make him forget about the taste and horror of eating a mouse.
This whole incident was the subject of a big joke amongst us friends of the family until we all agreed it is a bad joke as it makes the little boy a little upset. So we stopped it.
That's all for today, lovelies!
Thanks for stopping by.
WATCH OUT FOR MORE ON THIS SERIES!!
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