Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Ponmo, My Foot!


I was in Abuja recently and happened to walk behind a couple who were obviously not residents. Like all visitors, we were just going round the shops looking for somethings to buy as a memento of our visit to the nation's capital. From their conversations, I reckioned they were Yoruba.

After some time, we chanced upon a leather shop with all kinds of leather sandals, shoes, wallets and something that looked like thongs. Faced with such an array of choice of leather ware, the woman could not but exclaim, in Yoruba.

'Ha! Awon Hausa yi ma ni bata orisirisi o!
(These Hausa people have so many types of shoes o)

To which the husband replied sarcastically and rather self derisively:

'Eyin Yoruba o ni bata. Nigba'to je pe gbogbo awo yin le ti je tan ni ponmo. E wa ma wo roba kiri abi ke ma wa Italian leda l'Aba'
(You Yoruba people cannot have shoes, when you have eaten all your leather as ponmo. That's why you wear rubber sandals about and look for 'Italian' leather in Aba).

Ouch!
I couldn't help but laugh particularly as the man with his bald head and full tribal marks was really putting on a show to everybody's delight.
With the number of cows, rams and goats slaughtered daily in Lagos alone, the hides and skin industry should be booming seriously. In fact we should be exporting leather but unfortunately, we eat more than 95% of all the hides generated. Given that ponmo actually contains little or no nutritional value known to man, it is a mystery why Lagosians (not just Yorubas) savor it so much. It is like a Lagosian's meal is not complete without some ponmo on top.
Did you hear about the Yoruba man who was invited to Buckingham Palace as a guest of the Queen for whatever. After the dinner in his honour, my country man was asked to give a vote of thanks. he thanksed the Queen profusely for the honour done him and went ahead to comment on the meal itself. He said:
'It would have been a sumptuous meal but unfortunately there was no ponmo!'
What exactly makes ponmo a delicacy? Anybody knows?

9 comments:

bumight said...

LOL! free us o!
the feeling when u roll softly boiled pomo between ur teeth....ah heaven!
seriously though, u have a point there, we eat our leather, the hausas craft theirs!
food for thought (no pun intended)

N.I.M.M.O said...

@DocBumight: Tell them o! Ponmo sweet no be small. But is it true that ponmo is carcinogenic? Thats another angle to the topic.

Fluffycutething said...

Can't stop smiling here....

sure even the man's wife had a good laugh...

I'd also like to know why Lagosians like ponmo... i'd honestly rather not eat the thing abeg...

Tasteless!!!!!!

Splash said...

the guy is quite right.
but some people's thinking sha.
i think we just like the wrong things.

Myne said...

Ponmo can be sweet sha especially when stewed till soft in tomato sauce. LWKMD, that guy is funny.

Tigeress said...

lol! funny post. But as Bunmight said- free us jo!!!

SOLOMONSYDELLE said...

oh my goodness!!!! I am dying from laughter over here. That man is hilarious!

I can't speak on why people eat ponmo myself because I have never eaten it and am not a fan of assorted meat, loL!

Anonymous said...
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Unknown said...

I stumbled upon this thread by chance and i have been laughing ever since, i can just picture the scene, just hilarious.

I don't know about the taste since my mom eats alot of Ponmo but i know that real leather feels wonderful on the feet.

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