I wish I could have again the previous years that as a child I enjoyed some of the most pleasurable and appealing things. The experience I got was great but I’m not happy that such things are not commonly found today in Tiv, the society of mine.
Iyough sha ishwa (Yam with sesame) I long to re-enjoy one of my favourable meals, a delicious local food among Tiv people known as ‘Iyough sha ishwa’. A favourite combination for breakfast.
The preparation is well done by my mother. She gained the knowledge as a gift of inheritance from the grand ma, who in turn got it from the great grand ma.
Whether the yam tubers (iyough) to be consumed with sesame ‘ishwa’ was roasted or boiled, the fried sesame got grinned and later stirred with water and boiled like stew or is left semi-solid, all remains the same.
In my early school days, the consumption of such a meal gave me an appetite of thirst which enabled me to be drinking water till school closing hours without any feeling of hunger in me.
So it averted me from eating inappropriate food from other fellow pupils or from strange persons on my way home after school.
Ruam kumen sha aninge sha akpo a ichegh I also wish to be brought back in contact with ‘Ruam kumen sha aninge sha akpo a ichegh’. A meal rich in protein and minerals. I remember how my mum would get the leafy vegetable (aninge) from the bush, wash it thoroughly, mix with grinned pepper mixed with nune (locust beans), onions, gbaaye, yiye and others to make it taste great.
What about the energy given and body-building foods known as ‘choko-dafa’, mumu and anke sha gbaaye. Where have you been?
kwagh-hir, kikya (folk-tales) All the years that I have become a man and have a wife, I keep wondering where went some of those pleasurable things done that gave happiness to the young and polished them with moral lessons which were found in folk-tales narrated to us at night in addition to theatrical art-works also known as ‘kwagh-hir’.
Tiv culture, a revisit The above are some of the good cultural practices we experienced from our parents which were so appealing even in the eyes of others.
If given our ancestors a chance to resurrect, just for visitation purpose, wouldn’t they deny us as their very descendants who they left behind when we permit every good way of life bequeathed to us by them to be eroded in preference to the borrowed cultures of others?
One can see the dangers and harm of borrowed cultural activities to our Tiv society: Bad habits, disrespect for elders, heavy consumption of factory processed foods, diseases, premature deaths and poor knowledge of Tiv language, the mother tongue of the people.
I’ve to raise alarm and take action seen that Tiv culture is being disregarded in our very hands when we are the ones to enable it grow and stand.
