Dog's dinners prove popular in Nigeria

[NewEte]

By Senan Murray
BBC News website, Abuja

Dogs are scarce in Abuja because many now eat dog meat openly
The famous reverse news headline "Man bites dog!" is old news to some restaurants in Nigeria's capital, Abuja.

"Welcome to animal kingdom where man pikin dey show dog pepper," says Chibuzo Eze in Pidgin English, meaning: Welcome to place where the son of man is giving dogs a hard time.

Mr Eze then hungrily gets back to tugging his chunk of dog meat.

He is standing under a mango tree in "South Africa", the name of an open-air restaurant hidden behind the living quarters of a Western construction firm in Abuja.

"It is called South Africa because behind those high walls you'll find rich Europeans and outside here is Soweto, where we, ordinary masses, struggle with dog meat," Mr Eze explains with a smile playing on his face.

'Improves your sex life'

Mr Eze says he eats dog meat because "e dey protect person from all those nyama-nyama disease them" - it gives you immunity from different diseases.

   
DOG MEAT TERMINOLOGY
404: A dog is also called 404 after the French-built Peugeot pick-up van, a tribute to a dog's ability to run fast
Headlights: A dish with the eyes of a dog as the most prominent component
Gear Box: Dog's liver, heart and kidneys (usually more expensive that the ordinary meat)
Tyre: A dog's legs. Mr Umoh claims that eating a 'tyre' makes you a fast runner
Sentencing: The act of clubbing a dog to death rather than slaughtering it

A few yards away Bassey Umoh, South Africa's owner and chief chef, pokes at larger chunks of sizzling meat barbecuing on wire gauze over an open fire.

Mr Umoh, or Oga Bassey (oga is Pidgin English for boss) - as the "South Africans" fondly call him, says he has been selling dog meat since he completed a two-year apprenticeship in the business some 30 years ago.

He also eats the meat he sells.

"Eating dog meat gives you a special protection against the most potent juju (charm)," he claims, reeling off the benefits of dog meat.

"Dog meat also improves your sex life. And if you eat dog meat, you cannot be poisoned."

But not everyone is convinced by Oga Bassey's arguments.

"The very idea of eating dog meat is absolutely disgusting," says Mary Iroanya, an office worker in the capital.

"The talk about dog meat curing diseases and giving protection against charms and the rest is mere superstition.

"People who eat dog meat only use those excuses to convince themselves that what they are doing is okay."

Her colleague Adeola Osinuga is also less than convinced by such claims. "Besides, I cannot eat dog meat because dogs are like pets," she says.

Easy target

Oga Bassey, however, says his cuisine is in high demand although his business is not doing so well because dogs are becoming scarce now in Abuja.

"Everybody is eating dog meat openly now, that is why dogs are scarce," he says.

Many Abuja dog owners complain that their dogs have gone missing, probably ending up in the likes of Oga Bassey's big dog pepper soup pot.

Eaters of dog meat claim there are many benefits

Most Nigerians keep dogs not as pets, but as guard dogs.

And instead of keeping them in kennels, the dogs are usually left to wander about freely, making them an easy target for people to kidnap and sell to restaurant owners like Mr Umoh.

But Mr Umoh says he does not buy stolen dogs. He, however, admits that it is often difficult to tell whether some of the dogs sold to him have been stolen.

"We have heard of people stealing dogs to sell. Our policy here in 'South Africa' is that we do not deal in stolen merchandise. So, we normally quiz our customers to be sure they are selling their own dogs," he explains.

"Moreover, 'South Africa' is not the only dog-meat joint in Abuja," Mr Umoh adds.

Indeed, there are three popular dog meat joints in this district on the western edge of Abuja alone.

Also as a rule, there is always a dog-meat pepper soup joint in every army or police barracks in Abuja.

   
Dog meat is not any different from any other meat. The claim that it cures malaria is definitely not true
Dr Yakubu Nyandaiti
Nigeria's riot police seem to have a thing for dog meat too as a popular dog-meat joint called Obalende sits in the middle of their barracks in Nyanya, another Abuja suburb.

Another popular dog-meat spot is "Zimbabwe", an open-air joint next to a small river on the outskirts of Abuja.

Unlike "South Africa", "Zimbabwe" is, however, notorious for its gamblers, pick-pockets, prostitutes and bootlegged spirits.

Culture

Another dog-meat eater, Beke Nnkwo says he was introduced to the cuisine as a cure for malaria.

   
Oh la la! You don't know what you are missing
Beke Nnkwo
Dog-meat lover

"People who eat dog meat have no business with malaria," Mr Nnkwo says. "So, I was introduced to the meat as a cure for malaria and I can testify that it works."

Medical opinion, however, seems to differ.

"Dog meat, to the best of my knowledge, is not any different from any other meat. The claim that it cures malaria is definitely not true," says Dr Yakubu Nyandaiti a consultant at Nigeria's University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital.

"It cannot be true either that it boosts human immunity," he says.

For Mr Nnkwo, however, an Igbo from south-eastern Nigeria, eating dog meat is a question of culture.

"I hear they eat frogs in certain parts of the world. But I tell you, no matter how you cook or dress a frog, I can never eat it.

"But dog is different. So, eating dog meat is a question of culture for me."

Dog meat is also eaten in Plateau and Gombe states in the north and it is becoming quite popular in other parts of the country including Kaduna and Adamawa with Abuja as the newest entrant.

Asked how tasty the meat is, Mr Nnkwo beams and says: "Oh la la! You don't know what you are missing."

[NewEte]

I think this is a combination of poverty and ignorance. Nigerian
is such a local country.  :o  Suddenly, there is a nick
name for every corner of Abuja where dogs are sold
such as South Africa, Zimbabwe, etc. These dog eaters
even begin making gigantic claims about how dog meat
cures infectious diseases. Which research facility did they use
in determining those findings? Where is their research
data and proof? This is totally laughable, but where
poverty thrives, it breeds severe ignorance as we see
here.

Most dog owners, especially in the developed world,
spend hundreds and thousands of dollars yearly for
their dog's health. Dog's often get heart warms, ticks,
and other life threatening diseases even under good care. This is why they
are such high maintenance domestic animals. Keep in
mind that these are well groomed and loved pets in the
most developed nations. Now imagine a suffer head Nigerian dog
running around the streets drinking from the sewer to
eating straight up shit from the gutters. Imagine a stray dog's health
condition. These dogs have never seen a vet in all their
hard life, they usually just wander about not eating
dog chow or Purina, but straight from the community dump.
Imagine the diseases that these dogs carry in their
body. What is even more puzzling according to this
report is that the internal organs such as the heart,
liver, or kidneys (which filters most of the waste
product, and houses most of the diseases) are
considered the real delicacies, and most often
preferred by dog eaters.

These are strange people forced into abnormal behavior
by the situation and hardship in the country. Look like a comical story, but it is actually something to
think about.

[HUSNAA]

I dont think it is poverty that drives these ppl to eat dogs. It probably has more to do with culture than anything. Remember it is not only dogs that are considered a delicacy, even donkeys are eaten. There is a scarcity of donkeys in northern nigeria cos they are transported to the southern part of the country where many ppl eat the meat. I have seen a truck load of these sorry donkeys once on Zaria road heading south. I felt really sorry for them. There is something soulful about a donkey... i dont know.. i just like the creatures. I was in Nyanyan once when I was a student in BUK and we had to go on a field excursion and we went to a  little hilltop hamlet called Orozo, its road turns off from the main  Nyanyan road  on the right. There every morning when we came down to buy breakfast in Nyanyan, there was this awful looking woman very coal black. She was always dressed in a single wrapper tied round her torso and nothing else and her hair was all astray and standing on ends. She was a local chef selling cooked bush meat. I remember that I always used to see a very blackened dead bat lying atop her bush meat display table. What I used to think was that the bat looked exactly the same color as the woman. The amazing thing was that she was never short of customers and I couldnt even stand the sight of her!!
People all over the world eat amazing things. It is not a surprise that ppl eat dogs in Nigeria. Elsewhere in Africa, I think as close as the Benin republic and CAR, baboons monkeys and gorrillas are a great delicacy. In Thailand, cockroaches are a delicacy and in China, anything short of human flesh is eaten. Hey, wait a minute, human placenta is considered a great delicacy and one can buy them as contraband, in China (and I think HK also, although I am not sure cos they are more strict over there). The human placenta (after giving birth) is supposed to promote youth.... how about that?? Better to eat the dog meat..........

[lionger]

Yea there's nothing intrinsically wrong with eating dogmeat; its a delicacy in certain parts of Nigeria (apparently in Calabar). I know it's also eaten in Korea and other Far East cultures. What is stupid though is the ridiculous claims of enhanced virility and protection from STDs that some apparently hold to. Very irresponsible indeed.

This part of the article is funny though:

"Welcome to animal kingdom where man pikin dey show dog pepper," says Chibuzo Eze in Pidgin English, meaning: Welcome to place where the son of man is giving dogs a hard time.

;D ;D ;D

[Dan-Borno]

What is stupid though is the ridiculous claims of enhanced virility and protection from STDs that some apparently hold to. Very irresponsible indeed.

Lionger, I am very surprised at this your comment. 
Did you take your time to investigate whether it is true or false?
There must be a wisdom from their saying,
those who eat the meat know best the benefits they drived from the animal.

Will you be surprise if I tell you that "RED LIZARD" cured chronic cough sickness?
So, I think these people are talking from experiences over a period of time.

Abi you dey jealous of them, you no sabi eat 404?  ;D  ;D

[lionger]

Dan Borno, I hear you.

Even the report itself cast doubt on the alleged benefits of eating dogmeat. Such claims need to be verified by medical research; especially one about STD-protection. It was this claim that I had in mind when I made the comment about stupid and irresponsible preconceptions. In a continent like sub-saharan africa, where AIDS is a big concern, such ideas are very dangerous. There really is no room for error here. Another famous mis-conception about AIDS in southern Africa is that having sex with a virgin cleanses one from the disease. Needless to say, this myth has resulted in child molestation and sex abuse and of course the increased spread of the HIV virus. Can't we also assume that the myth was actually true, since through 'experience' they know best? Perhaps some did, to their own ruin.

So we can't have the young masses goaded into irresponsible sexual behavior, thinking that a regular visit to 'South Africa' (what a silly name, really) will keep STDs at bay. You get me  now? This is my chief concern. I got nothing against 404, and I would eat it without question if served to me. In fact I've had some of it already when I was in Korea.

[alkanawi]

could there be a link,even if tenous,between the famed "horizontal versatility  ;D" of Calabar women and the culture of eating dog meat?

[HUSNAA]

Dogs after pigs are the greatest harborers of diseases. I once remember in my biology or zoology class (cant remember which), the lecturer was telling us about  the number one deadliest  virus or bacterium (virus more likely) is carried by dogs. The virus or bacteria lodges in the cells or tissues and multilpies into a semi tumor or cyst full of little bacteria or viruses which must be surgically removed. If during the removal the tumor or cyst is pierced,  if the watery substance or pus contained within that cyst gets into the blood stream, the virus or bacteria will invade all the cells of the body  courtesy of the blood circulation and there, each little baceterium will multiply into a cyst full of eggs,  which will hatch and become bags for more cysts and so on rather like a concentric event. The eventual outcome is death of course.