WE CHOOSE FOOD TO HUSH WAR: A POETIC ANALYSIS OF ODUKOYA ADENIYI’S “FOOD IS PEACE” BY EBUBECHUKWU BRUNO NWAGBO
FOOD IS PEACE | Odukoya Adeniyi
At night the moon covers our face
with cold chills and sudden tenderness.
Hunger is our expected despot:
extracting sad tunes from our lips,
coercing our bellies to recite its
anthem and raising its flag in our eyes.
The weary wind is tonight’s towncrier
of a sudden revolutionary movement in
mama’s earthen pot. Women are powerful
ingredient in the hands of the deities.
So there is a sudden fire of hope
ignited in our hearts, as the firelogs
mumble agitative words into our skin.
The brown roof is pierced with the
thick fragrance of locust beans,
blood like pepper and submissive green leaves.
Our downcast spirit is lifted
with the smoke billowing from
the explosion of Bush meats in
the pot, seductive it is, calling hefty men
to action.
So when mama serves the weapons
to wipe hunger out, the colour of the
pounded yam assures us of our innocence.
With folded hands and ‘efo ati iyan’
We fight hunger out.
Food is peace.
efo – vegetable soup
iyan- pounded yam
ati – and
“Come and eat” “food is ready”, “the table is set, ” join me at the table”: These are magic words that command happiness and peace at homes and communities. The dining hall is a place for bonding as dinner talks avail us the opportunity to talk over our differences in an agreeable mood. So, you agree with me that when someone invites you to eat, (s)he invites you to share in peace “given in a bowl”.
According to Julian Crib in his book FOOD OR WAR, “History tells us that lack of food leads to war”; “Investing just 20 per cent of the global arms budget in securing the international food supply for everyone will not only end hunger – it will also remove one of the main causes of war (hunger), based on human behaviour in the past.” When hunger recruits a family or a nation to its army of angry soldiers and forces them to “raise its flag and sing its anthem” like furious hungry lions, into crimes, it is food that withdraws and recalls this furious troop.
Mother, the cook strokes father and subdues him, she gathers her children around the pot and then they switch allegiance to her army and murders hunger. Thus, validating Crib’s claim cited above. But these “hefty men” don’t feel bad after committing this “murder”. Instead of a bloodied hand, they are convinced that white; “the colour of the pounded yam assures us of our innocence”.
Recall that in 2015, the United Nations mapped out 17 Sustainable Development Goals SDGs, number two of which is the elimination of hunger. The United Nations places this need in high priority because once hunger is taken care of, most of the crimes, underdevelopment and deaths witnessed across the globe would end. Between 1995 to 2010, world arms budget fell by 40% leading to a global reduction in all wars, while presently, the world spends about $1.8 trillion on new weapons every year with a resultant loss of about $14 trillion annually. As such, I dare say that even the UN would agree with this poet’s assertion that links food to peace.
We need to look at more ways of improving food production, availability and affordability, since it is clear that it is either we choose food or we choose war and everyone knows that the sounds from “jaw-jaw” whenever we chew food is by far better than the “woe-woe” cries when we choose war.
The global war against hunger is a just war and a war fought with the pen and plates of food is more effective than that fought with arms; and that is what we find in Odukoya Adeniyi’s “Food is Peace”.
Ebubechukwu Bruno Nwagbo
For: ANNUAL PIN FOOD POETRY CONTEST
You have said it all bro. Thanks so much I really appreciate