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Growing up as members of a particular society or community, we tend to learn different cultural and traditional practices exhibited by other Members of the same community.
In Nigeria, there are many cultures and traditions that are being practiced across the country. These way of life most times is really beautiful to view while some are really cruel as it involves taking human life to sacrifice to the gods.
I am an Igbo man. Igbo is one of the major ethnic groups in Nigeria. There are three - the Hausa, the Igbo igbo and the Yoruba. The Igbos occupy the eastern part of Nigeria.
Being an Igbo who was born and brought up among the Hausa people in the North, I learnt quite a lot about the Hausa cultures. I had to travel back to the east so as to learn my own cultural practices.
I love most of my cultural practices and I am very excited to practice them. Ranging from the food to the masquerade, every things is just great.
Most of the cultural food is very sweet. Sweeter than ice cream. However, there is one food belonging to my culture that I really hate.
This food is the Cocoyam soup also called Ofe Ede among my people. This soup is loved by many, and is cooked during occasions. Every body loves to eat this soup as they enjoy every taste it gives. The animals used to cook the soup is always tempting. It is very very good looking as the fish, snail, periwinkle, beaf (sometimes goat) and other animals are always sticking out of the soup, making you want to have a bite. The soup is actually top notch but for some reason, I dislike the soup.
The major reason why I dislike this soup was because of a Nollywood movie I watched when I was a little. In the movie, there was a witch with long hairs who was terrorizing people. She was making people fall sick and killing people for reasons I did not tend to understand. When I was watching that movie, I was eating that soup at the same time. Unfortunately, a scene of he woman eating the same soup was shown. This time, she was eating in a dirty environment. A man was with her whose leg was swollen.
When I saw that, I almost puked. I had to drink water to hold it in, then I washed my hands and thanked my mom for the food. I then went out to get some air.
Ever since that day, anytime I see the soup, I always remember the witch, the swollen leg and the dirty environment. If I eat any animal from the soup, it will be as if I am eating the mans swollen leg. Even the soup itself feels like I'm eating the liquid from the dirty environment.
Because of this, I despise Ofe Ede and have not eaten it for almost 12 years now (if I'm not mistaken). Some time ago, I tried to eat it but my body was not giving in. My mouth automatically refused to open. I had to respect myself and get something else to eat.
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