Eating dog
By Yemisi Ogbe |
It is exactly over familiarity with the dog that in my case breeds my utter contempt for the idea of eating dog meat.How I am possibly expected to eat some domesticable constantly salivating animal that smells like a dank rug, eats its own fecal matter, licks its privates and has the capacity to exercise an uncanny intrinsic intuition, is beyond my culinary comprehension. It just does not feel right to eat dog.
It does not therefore follow that I am one of those people who would sleep in the same bed with a dog, play chess with the dog and then take it to the South of France on holiday. I have absolutely no desire for dog companionship. I have not yet even perfected my fellowship with human beings. If there is something hypocritical about attempting to determine which animal to eat or not to eat by the animal’s intelligence, affability to human beings, hygiene and other unpredictable parameters then let it be so. And by the way, I have the utmost respect for the moral courage or self-righteousness or strength of conviction or whatever, that it takes for the vegetarian/vegan to say an unshakable "No" to placing himself at the apex of the food chain and eating everything beneath him. Until further notice I am a meat eater, not a liberal one, but nonetheless one.
My sensibilities are easily offended and I still constantly wonder whether since one is not eating dog, one should also not eat pork since pigs are said to be the most intelligent “domestic” animals in the world, and since George Orwell’s allegorical Animal Farm considers them so intelligent to be worthy representatives of our domineering and presumptuous humanity.
The reality is that Nigerians eat dog, and to the degree of “well well”. In the same manner that we eat monkey and horse and camel and deer, and goat and beef, whatever meat presents itself and appeals to us. It is probably more psychologically honest and healthy to admit this than to say one eats one meat and not another. We Nigerians generally tend to have a nonjudgmental straightforward relationship to our meat. We have the capacity to view the slaughtering of the animal and still eat its meat without any iota of remorse. As harrowing as it may be for someone from another culture to be presented a dish called Isi-Ewu with eyeballs, brains, tongue and parts of the skull of a goat so brazenly tossed with vegetables, to us it is completely commonplace, and completely delicious.
I believe that people like myself who have urban dwellers’ hang-ups about eating dog are in the context of Nigeria, a minority. Dog meat is being consumed in Plateau and Gombe, in Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Abuja and in Ondo, and these are only the states that are consistently documented. In Cross River State, dog meat is affectionately referred to as 404, where it is a serious delicacy. Sit-outs on Hawkins Street in Calabar South, and in an area called Adiabo are renowned for their dog meat prepared in special sauces. Dog is not cooked in stews, since like Isi-Ewu, or Suya, it is the not an accompaniment to a meal, rather a delicacy deserving of all the attention worthy to be paid a main course. People who go to the mentioned joints often do so specifically to eat dog.
Why 404? I asked Nsor Nyambi, whose witty exposes on Calabar and Cross River have helped me navigate the culture as well as have a good laugh. “...Because dogs run with speed like the 404” he said.
The 404 is of course the Peugeot sedan (“pijo” in Nigerian lingua franca and “piyot”, soft “t” in CrossRiverian articulation) that my generation caught a passing glimpse of before the more enduring 504. At the time, the 404 sedan was considered very fast indeed, and when Crossriverians were searching for a worthy comparison for the speed of a running dog, 404 was the exaggerated equivalent. And I suppose there is some wicked irony in terming a type of meat running meat; running as fast as a car, yet not outrunning the eater.
As to whether Nigerians who eat dog are 100% comfortable with the idea, I wonder why if it is so, that no one I have asked if they eat dog has ever given me a straightforward “yes”. It is always “those Akwa Ibom people” or “those Ondo town people”. And those rare people who admit to eating it don’t do so without looking mischievous, and they never just eat because they enjoy doing so. They eat it because it is a cure for malaria, or it wards off Juju or it improves your sex drive...
