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Sapele Water (ogogoro, Kaikai, Local Gin) Proof My People Have Always Been Excep - Politics - Nairaland

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Sapele Water (ogogoro, Kaikai, Local Gin) Proof My People Have Always Been Excep by atlwireles: 2:24pm On Aug 09, 2015
By Ena Ofugara


It is Chinua Achebe in his great book THINGS FALL APART that showed us the beauty of Africa with our culture and the role of palm wine and Kola nut. What he did for the Igbo culture can never be quantified. Maybe someday I shall speak to his spirit and learn so I can do same for my people.
But before then, with the narrative of the WARRI MAN (warri of course including the neighbouring Ughelli, Sapele and the hinterlands as well as Urhobos, Itsekiris and Ijaws, Isokos) as rough, uncouth and unintelligent, the very narrative with which Shell, Chevron Mobil etc used in not hiring locals but instead using my people as junior staff and cleaners etc while loading it with Hausas, Yorubas and a sprinkling of Ibos, I have over time and will continue to use my medium to prove the Deltan...Urhobo, Itsekiri, Ijaw, Isoko, Kwale and those who have migrated from Esan, Bini, Ondo, Anambra etc and acculturated are some of the most brilliant people in Nigeria.
Like Igho Sanomi, RMD, Alibaba, Okagbare, Col Oviemo Ovedje the inventor and even the Esan girl that just went to space but grew up in our ways, etc, we have always been a brilliant people and our OGOGORO is one of the biggest proof.
ALCOHOL IS BIG BUSINESS. The Prohibition in America and the rise of the Al Capone's prove that alcohol is an essential need.
Even the most dogmatic Christian must have read what Apostle Paul who wrote a lot of the Bible and practically the blueprint for modern Christianity said to his "son" Timothy
""Don't drink only water. You ought to drink a little alcohol for the sake of your stomach because you are sick so often" 1st Timothy 5:23
Those who live in Sapele and environs have always noticed the curative ability of alcohol as well as in cleansing cuts and infections.
Now while Chinua Achebes people the Igbos stopped at Palm Wine, while Soyinka's was leading his own people to sing "I love palm wine, I no go lie, na inside am I go live and die, my papa na tapper, my mama na seller..." (Yes I hear he wrote the song) my own people felt palm wine was way too soft for the vibrant "Warri spirit"
And so without learning from any whiteman on distilation, my people tapped the palmwine....both upwine and tombo, added fire to it and the collected the "smoke" and as it settled, there was OGOGORO/KaiKai/push me I push you.
It was ingenious and Yorubas and Igbos came from far and wide to buy this alcohol which they quickly labeled SAPELE WATER.
Yes "Warri People" have never been satisfied with the usual. PALM WINE TOO DEY TAY TO HIGH PERSON. NO TIME. WE GET MANY WIFE FOR HOUSE AND FARM TO GO. TURN AM QUICK FOR BODY...ONE QUICK SHOT MAKE WE GO CLIMB BANGA TREE BRING OIL DOWN.
So while our neighbours were drinking palm wine with all the sugars and developing big bellies, the "warri man" was keeping shape and even getting thin and wiry with his SAPELE WATER.
Even the gods of the land liked the new drink better. Ogun and other traditional gods grew a taste for SAPELE WATER. ANd it was used for their worship and as libation for the earth.
Even the gods of the skies loved kaikai and when rains were to be stopped so there be no flooding, the priests light a fire and blow the gin into the fire and chant the incantation
Then the whiteman came and told my people and by force YOUR GIN HAS BACTERIA. (how can kai kai that kills bacteria be said to contain bacteria? Oyibo too dey lie give us) and thus labelled our OGOGORO "ILLICIT GIN"
It became a crime to be seen distilling alcohol. AND THUS, A POSSIBLE MEANS OF FOREIGN EXCHANGE WEALTH WAS DESTROYED as they brought in its stead SEAMAN's AROMATIC SCHNAPPS and exchanged it with the Warri chiefs for our palm oil, slaves etc....selling us what we already have.
Till date, the African gods like the African chiefs and people consider the replacement usurper SEAMAN's AROMATIC SCHNAPPS as the drink of the gods and use it to bless marriages, as libations to the earth and as appeasement to the gods that bring forth rain...SAD.
However it is, vilified and used derogatorily, OGOGORO/PUSH ME I PUSH YOU/SAPELE WATER/OGOFI/SKAI/KAIKAI/ILLICIT GIN by whatever name is a testament to the brilliance and industry of the Niger Deltan, the Urhobos and their migrant neighbours who learnt and imbibed our ways.
And when you see me go LOUD AND GARRULOUS AND GREGARIOUS AND BELLIGERENT AND BELLICOSE AND JOCOSE...it could be the alcohol brewed/distilled by my forebears in my veins and veins of the "WARRI MAN" and as such NATURALLY HIGH.
Thus WHO DO ANYHOW MUST SEE ANYHOW. WARRI NO DEY CARRY LAST
(N.B. I took cognizance of the fact all of us from this region are considered Warri and also that many of the Urhobo families trace their origin outside Urhobo with Bini and Esan usual suspects and also that many wo worked in the distilleries were also of varied tribes. OUR FATHERS WELCOMED THEM THEN, WE WELCOME THEM NOW.)

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Re: Sapele Water (ogogoro, Kaikai, Local Gin) Proof My People Have Always Been Excep by SeXistBaStaRd(m): 2:25pm On Aug 09, 2015
lipsrsealed

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