Feathers and Hood

Hello beautiful people, it has been days since I last published an article. Asides the fact I was taking some time off to rest, I was enjoying the Eid celebrations. Oh well, one of the activities I was involved in had given rise to this article. On Friday evening, a family friend (who is a Muslim) had brought two Cocks 🐓 (roosters). We couldn’t kill them on Saturday because it was a busy day for us and we barely had time to do all the work involved, so we stuck to what would be easier to cook.

My cousin mentioned to me that she was scared of them and I teased her if she’d be scared if they were in a pot of stew. She laughed and said “of course not”. It was later in the evening I learnt that I would be the one to kill, remove the feather and also cut the chicken into pieces. Well, I was one of two people in the house who could do that. I was surprised when my cousin who is in the same age bracket as me said she doesn’t now how to remove the feather.

Growing up, killing and removing of feathers from chickens is a common tradition in almost every household especially during festive seasons. I remember a time my dad had told me he bought four chickens for 2000 naira ($4) each. Now, they sell for about 8000naira (about $16). How time had changed. As a child, I always knew all what had to be done when it comes to the aforementioned tradition, but I never really took part in it until I was much older. In fact, I can count on one hand the number of times I have killed a chicken myself. Killing a chicken wasn’t really the problem, the real problem was removing all the feather after. For one, I have seeing residual feathers or shaft when eating a chicken. It really makes me lose my appetite.

So, whenever I am tasked with removing the feathers, I take my time to be as thorough as I can be. Thus, I can be at it for hours. Picking the feathers carefully and ensuring the skin is intact too. Also, butchering the chicken is usually done carefully so that the bile duct isn’t punctured. It is believed if the bile duct is punctured, it can spoil the entire meat, making it taste bitter. Well, I don’t know about that, because I have never experienced such.

Doing the work made me reminisce about my childhood, all the fun I used to have as a kid. It is strange really, how age and time can conform preferences. As a child, u watched a lot of cartoons, and when I am not doing that, I am out playing with other kids in the neighbourhood. I played a lot of street football, as well as video games too. Little or no worries, except about what you want to eat or which uncle or aunty will give you money. Now, as an adult, I still play football, but not exactly with people in the neighbourhood as I used to as a kid.

As I removed each feather from the chicken for the first time in over ten years, I thought about the responsibilities that comes with adulthood and how we often romanticise about being a child again. Perhaps if we stopped and embrace adulthood and all of its beauty too, maybe, just maybe we will enjoy it more than we did our childhood. On another hand, there are those who had a traumatic childhood, and only had the opportunity to overcome that trauma now that they are adults. Adulthood has a lot of its advantages too, and maybe I will write about that subsequently in another article. Until then, live your lives to the fullest and be happy. Childhood is in the past, and we can only cherish the memories it gave us.

Thank You For Reading 🖤🖤