Dinner is Served, Fish or Ice Cream?
Mangoes will not do
In Africa, it’s either a full-course meal or anything short, and we consider sleeping angry.
Yes, angry, because sleeping hungry angers us, especially when there were other options present. Lemme compare.
For white people, or what I see in television shows and movies, your high school children take one bite of a sandwich and one sip of juice and run off to school. For us here, even the whole sandwich and a glass full of juice isn’t our preferred breakfast.
Some tribes here in Kenya will see that as an act of aggression from the parents; you clearly want to kill that kid. Perhaps that’s why most of our politicians are fat with a full-course breakfast plus our taxes.
But sad to say, not all African homes keep our heavy eating tradition. Some are slowly losing it. Some already lost, especially the cool kids in the rich suburbs.
We don’t blame them;
Maybe having money kinda takes the hunger away by itself. But what about when folks visit the cool kids from upcountry who still maintain the heavy appetite of a true African? Will they eat juice and biscuit and go to bed? Or a slice of bread and jam for lunch?
Let’s see if Wafula here agrees.
Wafula comes from the tribe in Kenya with the most eating appetite, the Luhyas. They especially prefer ugali, which is a Kenyan staple food. Even if you cook rice with 10 chickens, if there is no ugali, they haven’t eaten.
Now, holidays came, and Wafula was overjoyed to finally visit his cousins in Nairobi city, among some affluent estates. When he finally arrived carrying his village bags and clothes, he was ushered into the well-manicured compound and later into the dining area of the two-story building. It was 6 pm in the evening, and the family had gone out to the park, being Saturday. The housemaid was leaving and instructed the young man that the family would soon come back, and he’s free to start off dinner without them as they may come back late. Dinner was already placed in serving dishes at the dining table with arranged plates for everyone.
‘Dig in,’ that was the only word Wafula heard from the maid as she closed off the door to leave. Wafula could not believe how his uncle had really loved him to prepare such a meal, and so, he dug in.
Thirty minutes later, the family returned.
As they entered and called out to him, he responded he was still in the dining room. As they all entered to greet him, they stood in shock, especially the children. No food was left behind. Wafula had eaten the whole meal prepared for six family members. At first, he didn’t understand why they were gazing at him and thought it was his funny village clothing, but as their gaze went slowly from his face to the last piece of meat he was holding, focus slowly started to return, and he murmured internally without saying a word. He could now see there were other plates on the table.
I don’t remember what transpired after that.
My first visit to my rich aunt in the leafy suburbs had a similar story, well not quite.
I had just arrived in the evening and I was given biscuit and juice, but the aromatic smell of fish in the kitchen made me know this wasn’t the main meal. Once I had finished, the main dinner was served, my favorite fish, Tilapia. But being a guest, I didn’t want to start off eating, so I let the last-born girl of the family start off first. Once she tasted a piece of the fish, her princess's face changed to ogre with bitterness, and she lamented that the fish was bitter.
My spoilt aunt shouted to the maid who was in the kitchen to bring ice cream to replace the bitter fish. I only remember lifting my plate close to my chest in a defensive position with my left hand as my other stretched towards the serving dish with the fish.
I wasn’t going to let anyone take the scrumptious meal I hadn’t tasted yet for ice cream. But I had gotten it all wrong. The ice cream was for the little brat. My sighed look on the face met with my aunt’s disapproving look, and she knew this was a village boy with an appetite.
I let go of the serving dish, and the word ice cream has never been mentioned in that house whenever I am around.
