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No. 00268 |
May 3-9, 2003 |
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Eating Goats’ HeadsBy lute wa lutengano Some years back, I think in the early 80s, I found myself in the land of Germans, to be more precise, in Berlin. I had gone there to study journalism for a year or so. I must admit that it was quite an interesting experience. By then I was a young man who had just graduated from the University of Dar es Salaam, or as they used to call it then, Manzese. My stay in Berlin was an eventful one and actually I almost got married to one lady, a German, ‘mitchen.’ I hope that is the right spelling. Anyway that is another story altogether. We had a cafeteria at our school where we used to get our meals. But on most weekends, we used to cook for ourselves. That necessitated our frequent visits to the markets to purchase the necessary provisions. Since most of us were carnivorous we were frequent patrons of the meat section of the nearest market. But we were not the typical type of customers. The butcher we used to patronise had several departments for various types of meat. There was the pork section, chicken section, fish section, beef section and pets food section. Being students and having little Deutsche Marks we were forced to get our meat provisions from the pets food section. We would buy several pieces of not so good meat including some offal etc and that made our day. I vividly remember the owner of our favourite butcher praising us for the great love we attached to our pet dogs. If only he had known that we were the dogs! I remembered this incident because a few months ago, according to a friend of mine, it again happened, but in reverse order. You see two prominent Arusha elders received a potential investor, or as they are popularly known as ‘mwekezaji,’ from Europe. The visitor wanted to invest in agriculture, and preferably acquire land on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. The elders were enthusiastic and after receiving him at the Kilimanjaro International Airport, drove him to Moshi town. Being lunchtime, they took him to one of local joints where ‘nyama choma’ is the speciality. The two elders, whom I won’t name, decided to impress the investor, by ordering the speciality of the joint, which is a boiled goat’s head. The service was prompt. A goat’s head from one of the boiling pots immediately landed on the visitor’s table. This was accompanied by three bowls of pepper hot soup. One of the elders picked a knife and cut a piece of an ear from the goat’s head and swallowed it. This was followed by a piece of nose. The other elder, being of poor dental form, cut a piece of tongue and munched it. Before long they ordered some fresh blood ‘kisusio’ to be mixed in the three bowls of soup. The investor was all the time monitoring all this with increasing alarm. It was at this juncture that he decided to abandon ship. He collected his documents, sneaked his way out and took a taxi to Kilimanjaro International Airport. At KIA he took the first plane out. The puzzled elders were at a loss as to what happened to their investor, who did not even have time to collect his bag before flying out. It was only after a week or so that they got the facts. It so happens that the investor had been alarmed by the strange habit of eating goats’ heads and washing them down with soup mixed with raw blood. With the voracious appetite of the two elders, he feared that once they reach the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, he might be next on the plate. The investor might have been influenced by news coming from Congo where cannibalism has been reported. To think that can happen on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro is stretching one’s imagination to the limit. |
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Last modified:
May 01, 2003. Webmaster: WDJMallya |
