This period happens to be one of the few occasions I really do miss Naija. Could you believe nobody has given me even a bite of sallah meat.
I mean just the tiniest of bites!
When I was a kid, not too long ago, the ileya, as Sallah is called, was always preceded by the buying of rams. Most Muslims normally put their rams on leashes just outside their houses.
Of course, we knew which houses to go to on sallah day. People normally invited themselves.
Even prior to that were the ram fights. That involved the sons of the ram owners taking the rams to fields on the pretext that they wanted to feed them.
However, the real reason was to use the rams in fighting other rams. Some would even give their rams some ‘performance enhancing’ drugs.
Sometimes, a few rams would be so bruised that their horns would be damaged. If that happened, there would be a problem.
A ram with a damaged horn is not acceptable as sacrifice for sallah!
Although we seldom visited Muslims at sallah, we usually had more than enough to eat. In actual fact, we were surrounded by Muslim families.
Across the road was Baba Taju, at the back was Baba Gani, beside us lived Baba Jimoh and Baba Nojimu. Not too far away was Ajiroba.
All of them slaughtered rams. One thing about them was the fact that they made sure every household in the neighborhood was served food. The food would be served with breakable covered bowls.
Most houses had some openings in the ceilings. The openings served the Muslim patriarchs well. They normally kept the carcasses of rams there.
After the ileya, they would start giving their friends meat from the carcasses. I particularly benefited from this. Since Baba Najimu was from Owu where I also hail from, he never failed to send me some chunks of meat.
I realize COVID would have spoiled the show for some people. But I trust Naija, they would have found a way of going round the households where rams were slaughtered!
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