The many faces of egg ? – Francis Ewherido

By Francis Ewherido
In August last year, we read about the collapse of the marriage between the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi and Olori Wuraola Zaynab. Then last week we read about the marriage of the Ooni to his new Olori, Naomi Oluwaseyi.
Some people wondered why a prophetess will marry the Ooni and perform “fetish” traditional rites. Some commentators even mistook the red substance she stepped on as blood. The Yorubas in our midst have since identified it as camwood.
In these days of social media, people are quick to drop comments and pass judgment. In the process, they ignore the substance and go after shadows. The substance is that the Ooni is remarried to a 25-year-old consenting adult.
Marriage is a personal matter and she has made her choice. She will savour the glamour of the royal marriage, even as she bears the grind that is the lot of every marriage. The rest of us have two options: wish them well or leave them alone. That is just by the way.
When I was writing about the failed marriage of the Ooni last year, I used raw eggs as an imagery to depict the sensitive nature of marriage. I said, “Couples and intending couples need to treat marriage like a raw egg. Like a raw egg, marriage – every marriage – is fragile.
If you do not handle it with care, it will breakup.” I hope the Ooni and his new Olori will see marriage this way and accord it the tenderness it deserves so that his marriage will endure this time around.
Incidentally, the Ooni’s marriage to his new Olori took place a week after the world celebrated the World’s Egg Day on October 12. As I was reading the stories and adverts on the benefits of eating eggs, my mind went back to the early 70s when my playmate got the beating of his life. He stole his mother’s money to buy ikoho r’iyawo (guinea fowl eggs). The beating was very severe for a child of his age.
I cannot recall what angered his mother more: the theft or eating ikoho r’iyawo. Guinea fowl eggs are very tasty and it was like a taboo for children to eat them when we were growing up.
Parents feared that children who had appetite for guinea fowl eggs would grow up to be thieves. I guess the fear was that eating guinea fowl eggs would become an addiction and the children would have to steal to satisfy their addiction.
In old African societies, domestic hens, guinea fowl and quails were the main sources of egg supply. And the eggs, like the head of fish and head of animals, especially bush meat, were reserved for the men, the head of the families. The wives, especially the amebo (favourite wife), ate from it too, but not the children.
Ignorance is a tragedy. Unknown to our forebears, children need to start taking eggs via their mothers while they are still fetuses. Consumption of eggs by pregnant women has multiple benefits. Eggs are a good source of iron and an essential mineral for production of blood cells.
Consumption of eggs prevents pregnant mothers from being anaemic. At least a pregnant woman needs to be healthy to enhance her chances of giving birth to healthy children.
In addition, eggs are also good sources of calcium. The foetus needs calcium for development of bones and tooth buds. Finally, eggs are also a source of protein which enhances the growth of the foetus. After children are born, they still need all these nutrients from eggs for physical and mental development.
So by denying children consumption of eggs, our forebears were actually messing around with the balance development of their offspring. But thank God there are other sources of calcium, protein, iron and good cholesterol, so our forebears and some of us who grew in environments where children were forbidden from eating eggs had even development.
Eggs are good for everyone and serve different purposes depending on your age. For older people, eggs reduce risk of heart disease and attacks, they help to improve our eyesight and lower the risk of eye diseases.
They also help to slow down muscular degeneration as people grow older. Of course eggs contain all the essential vitamins, apart from being a good source of the very important Omega-3.
We can go on and on talking about the benefits of eating eggs.
But egg also has a divisive side. For instance, how many eggs should you consume a day. Some sources say two, others say three. At a time I heard four eggs a week. But the Australian Food Federation recommends that people should eat six eggs a week, while the Irish are for an egg a day.
We may never get a uniform answer because sizes of eggs differ, just as the sizes and ages of the people who consume them and their state of health. Here, your doctor/dietician and your body will be your best guide.
Again what is the best way to take an egg? The answers are legion. I was very skinny in my teen years. To add some flesh, I was told to mix raw egg with milk and drink. It was a very agonizing experience. The mixture looked slimy and unappealing and the taste was unpalatable, but I was condemned to taking it. Now, they say eggs contain some bacteria which might infect us if taken raw or undercooked.
I do not know if anybody still takes eggs raw. Eggs can be boiled, baked, fried, scrambled, microwaved or poached. There are thousands of other ways eggs can be prepared or used. You just need to step out of your environment to discover new ways eggs are used as delicacies.
Beyond the ignorance of our forebears, eggs have continued to be misunderstood over time. There was a time when people took the egg white and threw away the yolk. The yolk was demonized. But research findings have since found out that yolk of eggs is in fact very good for the body because it contains a rich array of minerals and vitamins and we have little or nothing to worry about the cholesterol in the yolk.
For now, researchers are firm and uniform on one thing: eggs are good for you; yes, you. Let the researchers continue to worry about the best way and appropriate quantity of eggs to eat. For the rest of us, egg is good; let us continue to enjoy it.