MY MUM, THE CROWING COCK AND THE MEAL OF ACHU

                               ABOVE: A BOWL OF ACHU THAT IS READY FOR EATING
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WHY THE COCK CROWED FOR MY MUM

(For Sofa Bertilla)

Why did it crow once?

I want to know

If the only reason was thirst

Then what do you say about hunger?

My mum used it to pounce

She pounded for us to blow

That`s why always to rise, she was the first

So that come what might, we`d hold out the thunder.

 BACKGROUND TO THIS POEM

My mother`s achu early mornings

Recently I was carrying out a transaction at an Express Union Money Transaction agency here in Cameroon. As I waited to be served, I felt bored and decided to write a short poem while waiting. While I was contemplating on what to write about, someone`s cell phone started ringing in the form of a crowing cock. I immediately thought of all those many years ago when I was a little boy, and my mother got up at cock crow, to start cocking cocoyams with which to pound achu, the delicacy of our tribe. This was in the wee hours of the morning when practically everyone else was asleep. But it was at such times that my mother got up, after listening to the first and second cocks crow. That was how she determined what time it was.

My mother prepared achu the traditional and conventional way by first of all putting “achu cocoyams” in the pot and cocking them. Once they were half cooked, she would then place traditional achu bananas on them, cover the pot and then seal the part of it that linked the pot`s lid to its top. She used the rotten and soft layers of banana or plantain stems to do the sealing. This was a mechanism intended to keep the heat in the pot. It was some kind of traditional pressure cooker.

After the cooking was done, the cocoyams would be pealed and put in the oblong achu mortar and pounded. The bananas were peeled and pounded in like manner, but separately, after which the two were then pounded together to give the soft and whitish stuff that is achu. When achu is served, this is traditionally done in plantain or banana leaves that have been cut and warmed to make them supple and malleable. Achu is then served in them and tied in bundles. At eating time, the bundle of achu is opened, massaged and worked with the fingers until it is tender. Then a large opening is made in the centre of it, after which achu soup which is yellow in colour is poured in. If there is meat, it is added. Achu is eaten by being cut skillfully with the fore finger, dipped in the yellow soup and then swallowed without being chewed.

Why I dedicated this poem to Bertilla

I started and finished the poem above at the Express Union agency. But after I had been served I forgot to pick up the piece on paper on which I had written it and which was lying on the counter. I didn`t realize that until someone came calling out at me from behind:

“You forgot this, sir,” she said waving the paper.

“Oh, thank you so much. What is your name”

“Sofa Bertilla”, she replied.

“Then I`ll dedicate the poem to you, Sofa Bertilla”, I told her.