When in Rome, do as the Romans do. In this informative article, we take a look at Luhya rules of eating chicken. We share these rules to help you avoid cultural faux pas so that you can enjoy chicken in a way that respects and celebrates it as a much beloved Luhya delicacy. Please your Luhya host by observing the following rules of culture the next time you land a chance to enjoy delicious ingoko prepared the Luhya way.
First, you need to know that ingokho (Isukha) is a culturally significant food among the Luhya. This means that while chicken is often enjoyed for its own sake, there are certain instances in Luhya culture where only chicken can do.
For example during the Maragoli rite of kurugiza, a cultural event that acts as a housewarming party to cement a marriage, only chicken and obusuma are served as the first meal of the house. Mind you, it is not just any chicken, but a proper jogoo that the woman of the house must fetch from her parents’ home; that comes as part of a package of sendoff gifts that also include other foodstuff and cooking utensils. This first meal and the utensils used to prepare it come from the woman of the house side and symbolize her coming of age. They serve as a blessing from her people as she begins to ‘cook’ as a honorable woman should, in her new home.
Then, there are other situations when chicken can’t be served. Like in culturally impure events as during the burial of one who died an unnatural death. It is not only in such solemn occasions that chicken cannot be served, but also in situations where the guest does not deserve to be honored by having a chicken slaughtered – like among the Bukusu when a son-in-law who hasn’t paid dowry goes visiting his in-laws.
Chicken? Fit for royalty
Therefore, do not take being served chicken in a Luhya home for granted, a meal of chicken is often considered an honor.
Therefore, sharing a meal of chicken with a Luhya host is quite unlike your KFC chicken or kuku kienyeji wet fry experience at your local. For among the Luhya when it comes to serving engoko, certain ‘small things’ matter a lot. For example, at your local fast food joint, no one asks you if you’d prefer a cockerel or a hen. Similarly, at your local eatery, the best you can hope for when it comes to this choice, is a chance to pick the chicken you want slaughtered for you. Often, this even it is not entirely up to you as it quickly becomes a matter of what your budget will or will not allow.
However among the Luhya, the breed, sex, how the chicken is dressed, how it is served and to whom certain parts are served to is a matter of great pontification. These seemingly small issues are at the heart of the rules of eating chicken among the Luhya. In what follows, we will be giving you a quick rundown on a few things of note.
Four Luhya rules on eating chicken
and a other cultural things to consider when it comes to Luhyas and chicken as a meal
First. Male guests get a cockerel slaughtered for them. This includes events involving males such as during birthdays or even baptism. There even is a myth that when a cockfight ensures in a home, the fight is taken to be nature’s way of sorting things out. The is because loser of the fight sooner or later will get slaughtered for the Luhya believe that a cockfight means a male visitor is surely on the way.
Second. Certain parts, in particular the gizzard (imondo or emondo) and a cut of the back (isundi) that is curved out when Luhyas dress chicken the traditional way (a part which it is ensured that it holds the slaughtered chicken’s reproductive system), are reserved for the patriarch or the alpha male in the group of visitors.
Third. As a general rule, special guests do get served chicken. Very special guests do get served chicken that has been dressed in quarters only (kinamaa). Very very special guests (like the groom after payment of dowry) do get served a chicken disemboweled and cooked whole.
Fourth. Another of the important Luhya rules on eating chicken is that chicken wings are to be served only to girls, sometimes women, and uncircumcised boys. While uncircumcised boys are not to feed on chicken feet for it is believed that they will bleed too much during circumcision. For another reason, children are not to be feed on chicken feet as it believed that they will grow up to be village gossips who do nothing but wander around picking and passing gossip around.
This entire body of Luhya rules on eating chicken makes dressing chicken among the Luhya an art. Growing up, Luhya boys are expected to learn by apprenticeship this important life skills from their father. They are required to pass the technique down the generations so as to ensure embarrassing mistakes do not happen.
What would you like your chicken with?
Finally, and admittedly more trivial, it is important what you choose to accompany the chicken. On modern tables, chicken is often served with rice, chips, baked potatoes or chapatis. But back in the day, a Luhya man would take offence at being served chicken with either of these accompaniments. He simply considered it not good fuel for his loins, such is food not fit for omundu strong. Basically, to a true Luhya palate, chicken is honored with real food i.e. obusuma.
All considered , by upholding chicken as food fit for a King’s table, these Luhya rules on eating chicken uphold the message of the Bukusu proverb: Nololelela nisyo engokho elia sokilia ta! This proverb cautions us against being too nosy about what the chicken gobbled up in its lifetime. Similarly, when chickens is served your Luhya guest is simply asking one thing of you: don’t sweat the small stuff. Let bygones be bygones as we forget the pains and pricks of the relations we share, feel at home and most importantly feel honored.