In Hausa culture, the head of a chicken is one of the most detested parts of meat to offer to anyone. But this is a big deal in Tiv culture. The head of a chicken is a big prize given to children with outstanding academic performance.
When a child makes good grades in school, the father of the child would provide a chicken so a special meal could be made for the child. And the head of the chicken is his reward. This special package comes together with the legs of the chicken, which are stuck into the head through the mouth, with each facing the opposite direction.
Many adults remember with joy when they performed well in the exams and their parents gifted them a chicken and they ended up with the head of chicken.
Terwase Tyodoo, 48, remembers how, for many years he enjoyed the head of chicken reward because, as a child he was very brilliant and always came tops in his examinations.
Tyodoo said it was not as though his parents never gave him any other parts of the chicken, but this was special because it was usually bigger and because the meat is bony, as a child, “you had the joy to chew on it for a long time, and that gave you some kind of special feel.”
Lynda Inyareghdoo Adzuanaga, who lost her grandmother recently, in a tribute shared a memory of many great moments she shared with her grandmother. One of such memories was how her grandmother rewarded her with chicken heads. Lynda said of her grandmother, “You never shied away from displaying my school results and ensured to reward me with the chicken head.” She said, no one else got the chicken head because she was always coming tops in her academics.
“I can remember I benefited from this reward when I took first in my primary one,” Joshua Agerseer, 40, a civil servant and resident of Makurdi told 21st CENTURY CHRONICLE. Agerseer remembers what an awesome experience it was when he got the reward in his first year in school. Agerseer, however, could not continue enjoying this reward when in his second year, he met a teacher who always beat him in school, so he lost concentration and didn’t do well again in his academics.
“Our parents usually kept chickens, and they would name the chickens on us,” Moses Tyotom, a primary school teacher at Adikpo said while sharing his experience. He said, “whenever that particular chicken was slaughtered for a visitor’s meal, we got the head as compensation as the ‘owners of that chicken that was slaughtered.” So, the chicken head reward was not just for educational rewards.
Another lady, Doobee Agah, a mother of three while speaking to 21st CENTURY CHRONICLE from Makurdi, however, said this reward was not only for brilliant academic performance, but was reserved mainly for last born children, as she happens to be a last born herself.
Agah said it was always a delight whenever she saw a live chicken brought home for a meal. This, she said, was because “I knew I was always going to get the chicken head and eat it alone.” Agah said she grew up loving this delicacy and has continued to eat it even now because none of her children would eat it. They simply don’t like it, and I tell them, “you don’t know what you are missing,” said with a little chuckle.
This chicken head delicacy and its attendance reward status for children would seem ordinary, and without any deep meaning. However, 21st CENTURY CHRONICLE discovered that there are more reasons behind why the head of chicken became a reward gift or prize for brilliant children in Tiv tradition.
Elder Iorver Asar, 62, a member of Tiv Traditional Art and Cultural Initiative said a form of an herbal brain tonic (jiagba) was usually given to kids who were seen to exhibit leadership traits. This tonic was given to them to enhance their intellectual abilities. This jiagba was a combination of herbs and animals, mostly birds with eloquent vocal abilities.
Most notable among these birds was chicken, a mostly domestic bird. The part of the chicken and the other birds used was the head and legs of a very mature cockrell with a very long and hard spur. This herbal tonic was believed to cure stammering, autism and any other form of mental or cognitive disabilities.
Children who were given this jiagba enjoyed this chicken head and legs exclusively, while mostly not recognizing the other components of the combination. This was a special treat.
As modernization has continued to push many cultural practices to the background, only some fragments of this particular ritual have remained in Tiv culture, especially in the townships. Although the practice of rewarding children with the head of a chicken is still practiced, these days, not many children even like eating chicken heads. For some that like it, they don’t even know the significance of this to their culture and just enjoy eating chicken head.
Yet for some, chicken head is just a delicacy that can be bought from the grill and eaten. There are no strings attached.
