Ten years ago in Igbo land and presumably other parts of Africa, local fowls were almost going extinct as we became used to the fleshy, fast growing chicken breeds like broilers and tireless egg producers like layers. Uncontrolled influx of imported protein products like turkeys didn’t help the trend as well.
At this time,(ten years ago) anybody seen eating local chicken was seen as poor and needing pity, not because it was unsafe or lacking in essential nutrients but because society says so.
People that kept these local breeds sold them at giveaway prices because demand was practically nonexistent.
Fast forward to 2026 when people are now flooding back to ancestral and traditional practices, demand is now higher than supply and the effect is that price has skyrocketed, increasing by more than 500%percent and upto over 1000% in some places.
When you track the movement of these fowls you find out that over 99% of them ends up in shrines and ancestral altars where they are used for one ritual or the other.
The question is…why local fowls? Is it not the same blood? Are these deities and their priests not enticed by size broilers and the eggs of layers? Why the local fowls and her eggs?
Let’s look at how these breeds are raised. Broilers and layers are raised in specialised poultry houses with controlled human contact. The farmer wears protective gear before entering the farm, changes into a specialised shoe at the entrance of the farm and covers his hands with hand gloves just before stepping into the farm.
It is so serious that you are not allowed to spit out saliva in the farm because it violates basic biosecurity protocols as Human saliva contains bacteria, specifically gram-negative bacteria that are harmless to humans but can cause severe respiratory infections in birds, potentially leading to coughing, sneezing, and even death.
On the other hand, the local fowls roams and interacts freely with humans. They eat from crumbs from our tables(which most likely contain our saliva), they drink from our wash hand basins, sometimes when you spit out saliva or cough, they rush to pick them. When they get to an open defecation site,they practically feast on the excreta and drink your urine.
Why is the deities demanding these dirty bony skeletons instead of the hygienically raised and fleshy broilers?
Here is the mystery…..First of all it’s necessary that I mention at this point that this point that shrines and or deities used to our ancestral libraries and scientific research centres. They were saddled with the responsibility of making sure that our environment and food was safe.
We all talk about the cycle of life which suggests that we understand that life is cyclical and not linear. Introduction of any foreign body to the wheel disrupts vibrational frequency and will likely lead to breakdown of components or the entire system.
The “hygienically” raised species have zero interaction with us so it’s alien to us. When you eat them, your body struggles in vain to recognize it. Breaking down becomes exhausting and assimilation impossible, what ends up happening is attachment.
Meanwhile your body quickly recognises the local fowl at the point of introduction because it already has your DNA gotten from the urine it drank, crumbs from your table, wash hand water, saliva etc making break down,absorption and assimilation seamless.
When you use any animal for rituals, the deities don’t eat them, you and your friends do. So when the deities is demanding a certain type of animals, it doesn’t make the demands for itself but for you.
Ụzọ ndụ 
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