Palm wine is a traditional beverage extracted from the sap of palm trees and has been a staple drink in many cultures, particularly in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Islands.
This ancient drink has been cherished for centuries, not only for its unique taste but also for its numerous health benefits.
Here are nutritional value, medicinal properties, and cultural significance of palm wine:
Nutritional Benefits: Palm wine is a rich source of essential nutrients, including:
1. Vitamins: Palm wine contains vitamins B, C, and E, which are vital for maintaining healthy skin, hair, and eyes.
2. Minerals: The drink is rich in minerals like potassium, magnesium, and iron, which are essential for maintaining healthy blood pressure, bone density, and red blood cell production.
3. Antioxidants: Palm wine contains antioxidants that help protect the body against free radicals, which can cause cell damage and contribute to chronic diseases.
4. Probiotics: The drink contains probiotics, which can help maintain a healthy gut microbiome, boosting the immune system and supporting digestion.
Medicinal Properties: Palm wine has been used in traditional medicine for centuries, and its medicinal properties have been extensively studied. Some of the key medicinal benefits of palm wine include:
1. Anti-Inflammatory: Palm wine has anti-inflammatory properties, which can help reduce pain and inflammation in the body.
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2. Antibacterial: The drink has antibacterial properties, which can help combat bacterial infections and promote wound healing.
3. Antioxidant: Palm wine’s antioxidant properties can help protect against cell damage, reducing the risk of chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.
4. Digestive Health: The probiotics present in palm wine can help maintain a healthy gut microbiome, supporting digestion and reducing symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
Cultural Significance: Palm wine plays a significant role in many cultures, particularly in Africa and Asia. The drink is often consumed during social gatherings, ceremonies, and festivals, promoting social bonding and community building.
1. Traditional Medicine: Palm wine has been used in traditional medicine for centuries, with different cultures using it to treat various ailments.
2. Rituals and Ceremonies: The drink is often used in rituals and ceremonies, such as weddings, births, and funerals, to promote spiritual connection and community bonding.
3. Social Bonding: Palm wine is often consumed during social gatherings, promoting social bonding and community building.
Tag: Palm Wine
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Health benefits of palm wine
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Palm wine seller killed for demanding N3m compensation from daughter’s lover
A 50-year-old palm wine seller, Matthew Idahosa, has been killed by a supposed lover of one his daughters from whom he reportedly demanded the sum of N3m as compensation.
The late Matthew was said to have been angry that her daughter’s lover, Atekha Iyare, a vulcanizer, slept with her.
The incident happened at Oza village in Orhionmwon Local Government Area.
Atekha, 50, who was paraded at the Edo State Police Command said he was shocked that the girl’s father said he would not marry her even if he paid the N3m.
He said the girl is a student and that both of them were lovers.
The suspect said he fled from the village when late Matthew was using policemen to harass him.
He said: “I thought the father had forgiven me because I ate rice in their house on Christmas Day. The father brought policemen and the matter was being settled.
Read also: 47-yr-old kills, buries lover over N.5m in Ogun
“I ran to the bush when the man threatened to kill if I did not pay the money. They told me him to give me his daughter if I paid the money but he said no.
“When hunger was too much, I came out and decided to face the consequences. The man saw me while going to his farm and we started fighting. He held a gun while I held a wood.
“When I managed to get the cutlass from him, I cut him on the face and ran away with his motorcycle to avoid arrest. I was arrested by vigilante in Afuze, Owan East Local Government Area.”
Police Commissioner, Hakeem Odumosu, said the suspect would soon be charged to court at the completion of investigation.
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Sweet and stale palm-wine from Ekiti
Fresh palm-wine is sweet. When the foaming and frothing stuff is cooled by Harmattan, nothing can be more appealing to the drinking palate. But stale palm-wine is more potent and potentially far more destabilising. Nature converts the sugar into more alcohol which heads straight for the seat of reason. The Yoruba have a proverb which captures the mystery. Pounded yam, even when it is twenty years old, can also burn with severity.
Ekiti, the land of rolling hills, rugged mountains, wonderful topography and equally wonderful people is also the land of palm-wine and pounded yam. It is the forest of a thousand professors where brave hunters (Ogboju Ode) prevail and predominate. The place had been in the news of late, but for the wrong kind of reason. How one had wished that it is for the academic exploits of its children, or the famed industriousness of its native people that Ekiti has been in the news.
The state gubernatorial election has now come again. But not so the controversies that erupted shortly before and immediately after the election. The sight of a weeping governor, floored by fistic adversity and drooling like a baby, is a new low in the demystification of democracy in Nigeria. Each day brings new revelations. Where one had expected a clear victory for progressive forces, however badly disunited, it has been an electoral cliff hanger. Where one had expected a departure from old electoral norms, it has been a consecration of impunity and electoral infamy. Old pounded yam can be very scalding indeed.
Let us now cut quickly to the chase. This is a matter of utmost importance to the Ekiti people, the Yoruba nationality and the Nigerian nation. It is a matter beyond the contending gladiators of the moment. How this matter shapes up will determine the democratic destiny of the nation and the relevance and suitability of our current democratic model to the extant historical consciousness of our people.
It will now be hypocritical and dishonourable to aver otherwise. Kayode Fayemi was not the automatic candidate of this columnist as far as the APC flag bearer in the last Ekiti State election was concerned. It was not that one had any candidate of choice in the matter. But one felt that it would have been better and healthier for the party, and in the greater interest of the people and the nation if the slate had been wiped clean and the board cleared of the mutually antagonistic debris both within and outside of the party.
That way it would have been easier to forge a new beginning based on elite consensus in the state and the commonality of poverty among the people. At a point, it seemed as if the party local leadership was groping and intuiting its way towards the idea of a consensus candidate before federal force majeure took over the proceedings.
It is not easy to have a sense of equanimity over being electorally humbled and humiliated in one’s domain as a sitting governor. This is more so when it was then discovered that the electoral advantage was procured through substantial fraud and chicanery. Right from the beginning, the Fayemi campaign was projected as a grudge match with the governor-elect himself famously being quoted as saying that Fayose would be caged on Election Day. Looming in the background was an unforgiving presidency very much embarrassed not to say embittered by Fayose’s endless taunts and often ill-bred tirades.
The grudge match has now produced a grudge mandate with the whole state badly polarized and bitterly divided. Never in the history of Nigeria has a homogeneous sub-national people been this fractured and factionalised. Fayemi and the Ekiti elite have their work cut out for them. Ranged against the enlightened educated class and the outraged salariate that made Fayemi’s return possible are a grumpy section of the elite fired by reverse nationalism, casual riffraff on the fringe of society and the vast homophobic underclass spawned by unemployment and the de-industrialization of the state.
Whether one likes him or not, Fayose has shown himself to be a man of extraordinary political dexterity; a consummate conman and ham actor given to boisterous theatrics and relentless rabblerousing. A robber baron himself without any qualms or scruples, the Afao-Ekiti born politician has managed to reinvent himself as a champion of the masses even as he contributed to their plight and pervasive poverty.
It is this combination of gifted charlatan and social shaman which makes Fayose a particularly dangerous customer. He has also managed to tap into a deep well of elite resentment and frustration with the unfortunate anti-restructuring stance and seeming sectionalist bias of the federal authorities.
The old ACN had perfected a strategy of containing him by trying to keep him inside while pissing outside rather than leaving him outside to piss inside. But this strategy was bungled by the politically short-sighted in the wake of the ACN fusing into APC. Eventually the bad boy returned to give his tormentors a good run for their money.
Those who care should also note that within the larger restructionist lobby of the South West, Fayose, whatever his antecedents, remains a Yoruba notable. Indeed if he were to surface at an Afenifere gathering with his electoral conqueror, it is obvious that it is the rogue populist who will be wildly lionized ahead of the triumphant victor.
What this suggests is that the Yoruba Question, like the National Question, is too deep and fundamental to be resolved by mere elections. Desperate political competition for desperately scarce resources is not amenable to electoral resolutions. No matter what happens to the current arrow head in the next three months, the Fayose tendency will continue to rear its head in Ekiti politics for a long time to come until the root cause is tackled, and comprehensively too.
Geography also matters in this business. Landlocked and hemmed in by a rugged mountainous terrain, Ekiti had for long endured and enjoyed the bucolic bliss of an isolated agrarian community surviving a on subsistence farming, its principal assets being a passion for western education and the celebrated pristine integrity of its denizens passed on from generation to generation and buoyed by the stirring tradition of heroic resistance to tyranny.
But for industries to thrive and survive, there must be fiscal empowerment of the populace and massive infrastructural development which remain the remit of a visionary state and patriotic political class. Without this, the only industry that can thrive is the industry of degraded and degrading politics in which pauperized voters are offered money to surrender their electoral suzerainty. The peonization of democracy requires extreme poverty to flourish.
It should be obvious that what Ekiti people require to spring the trap of electoral peonage is nothing short of a New Deal; a comprehensive blueprint for economic emancipation and the emasculation of pervasive poverty. Compare this forlorn fate with the geographical luck of their aristocratic neighbours to the south, the Ondo people, whose centuries-old access to the sea and its riches has allowed them to invest their wealth in the economic emancipation of their people.
It has now become economically imperative that Ekiti nation must break loose from its geographical isolation . A massive drive to open it to the outside world must be the priority of its elite in cooperation with the government. For starters, there ought to be a railway loop that connects the state with the Lagos-Port-Harcourt line or the Lagos-Abuja track. The Omuo-Kabba ; Ado-Ikare; Ado-Aramoko; Ado-Omu-aran via Ifaki and Ado-Akure via Ikerre gateways ought to receive immediate attention either through eventual dualization or fastidious rehabilitation.
There is opportunity in every crisis. The sweetness of the APC victory in Ekiti state lies in the fact that for the first time since the First Republic all the core states of the old West have now come under one political umbrella. This is a unique opportunity to drive regional economic integration and a comprehensive economic blueprint which is specific to the needs and aspirations of the region.
In the Second Republic under the leadership of Obafemi Awolowo and the surviving stalwarts of progressive governance there was an umbrella union of LOOBO states which drove regional cooperation and integration despite the unitary constitution bequeathed by the departed military administration.
But with all energies currently concentrated on the deadly power struggle at the centre, it is hard to see how this can become a reality. Indeed with the current anti-restructuring and counter-devolution mantra of the federal authorities, such ideologies of regionalism are likely to be viewed as politically suspect and surplus to electoral requirements. This is more so since the APC victory is federally inspired and driven by an obsession with unitarist centralization and conformity with statist principles.
The west may well be in more political trouble than it has ever bargained for. Rather than coming together to pursue the agenda of regional integration, what we are likely to witness is a relentless subversion and deliberate undermining of regional authority by state viceroys who are more beholden to central authority than to any regional leader. They may choose to humour them from time to time, but that is as far as it will go unless the regional leadership chooses to press its luck.
If this lack of synergy were to be the case, the ensuing regional discontent coupled with the fallout of the herdsmen imbroglio may just be enough to tip unitary federalism into terminal crisis in Nigeria. As usual with their earlier history, it is always at the point when the Yoruba people think they have achieved the greatest feat of integration that the sparks of disintegration begin to fly. Ancient pounded yam can burn the palms indeed. But let that not debar the good people of Ekiti from enjoying their pounded yam and palm wine this fine morning.
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Amazing world of palm wine tappers
Palm wine plays an important role in the economy of many communities across Nigeria and the many citizens depend on the commodity for survival. Ijan-Ekiti is one of the communities renowned for the production and sale of palm wine and its residents say they have so many things to show for their loyalty to the local beverage. ODUNAYO OGUNMOLA reports.
Palm wine is an alcoholic beverage created from the sap of various species of palm tree such as the palmyra, date palms, and coconut palms. It is known by various names in different regions.
Palm wine production by small holders and individual farmers may promote conservation as palm trees become a source of regular household income that may economically be worth more than the value of timber.
The beverage is consumed in both urban and rural areas of the country. It is good beverage for the old, young, male and female individuals. It is tapped from the palm tree after usually painstaking efforts by those skilled in the art.
It is created from the sap of various species of palm trees such as palmyra, date palms and coconut palm.
The sap is extracted and collected by a tapper. Typically, the sap is collected from the cut flower of the palm tree. A container is fastened to the flower stump to collect the sap. The white liquid that initially collects tends to be very sweet and non-alcoholic before it is fermented.
When palm wine is tapped, it is fresh and sweet but within 24 hours, it can become sharp and sour, containing more alcohol than some of our alcoholic drinks. This is because the palm wine undergoes various stages of fermentation.
In rural communities located in the thick forest belt, the process of tapping palm wine from palm trees is called palm wine tapping. A palm wine tapper climbs the palm tree with a rope (known as ete in Igbo land) that is locally designed for that purpose. It is tightly curled round the tapper’s waist.
When preparing to climb the palm tree for the day’s tapping, the tapper ensures that the rope or ete is in good condition to prevent it from cutting either mid-way to the tree top or when he relaxed on it to start tapping.
Apart from the rope which is the primary instrument for tapping, the tapper also climbs the palm tree with a cutlass, a knife and a gallon or calabash. When the tapper climbs to the top of the palm tree, he will cut some palm branches to expose the tissue and use the knife to create a hole in the tree. A hollow bamboo or empty pipe is used to direct the sap into a gallon or calabash which is fastened around the tree.
To enable him to collect the sap, a container is fastened to the flower stump into which the sap drops intermittently.
The white liquid that initially collects tends to be very sweet and non-alcoholic before it is fermented. An alternate method is the felling of the entire tree. Where this is practised, a fire is sometimes lit at the cut end to facilitate the collection of sap.
Ijan-Ekiti, a town located in Gbonyin (Ayekire) Local Government Area of Ekiti State is renowned for palm wine tapping which has impacted on its economy in terms of providing employment for the people.
A typical day for its palm wine tappers begins at 6:30 a.m. when they head to the farm on their bikes to carry out the business of the day.
By the time they go back to the farm again around 3: 00 p.m., the gourds tied to the stem would have been full of the juice which they take to the various drinking centres in the community where various customers are waiting.
Southwest Report met with a prominent palm wine tapper in Ijan, Mr. Moses Kolawole, whose entire life revolves around the business. Kolawole, popularly known as “Kako” in the community said he inherited the job from his late father, Pa Morayo Kolawole and had been in the business since the death of his father some years ago.
Kolawole, who is indigenous to Ogbagi-Akoko in Akoko Northwest Local Government Area of Ondo State, said he had been living in Ijan for over 40 years (from 1976 to be precise) also explained that palm wine tapping is a “big business” which many Nigerians underestimate.
He said palm wine tapping and its sale has had a positive impact on the grassroots economy, revealing that he had succeeded in training his children who are now graduates and had built two “palatial” houses and purchased decent cars.
According to him, palm wine business will continue to be relevant because it has more benefits than beer and other alcoholic drinks which are going out of the reach of the poor because of their “high” prices.
Kolawole said: “I began the business over 40 years ago and I never learnt it. I inherited it from my late father whose name was Morayo Kolawole in Ogbagi-Akoko in Ondo State. My father died 20 years ago (in 1996). My mother, Folake Ogundele, later came to Ijan here to marry and settle down.
“The work of a palm wine tapper is not an easy job because you cannot do it if you are a lazy person. If it is raining heavily, you must head for your farm in the rain because if you don’t go on time, the juice may turn sour and that will turn out to be bad business for you.
“At the spot on the tree where you get the juice, there are some particles and there are holes on the palm trunk and when it gets to a stage, you have to stop. As a tapper, you must have brain and wisdom.
“There is something called orio which develops on the body of the palm tree and if you fail to act on time, the palm juice will get spoilt and if it brings out the fruit, it will no longer be useful again.”
When asked on safety measures adopted when climbing palm tree, Kolawole said: “Our fathers used a rope called asifirin but during harmattan, it is usually dry and this usually causes tappers to fall from the tree if they didn’t take precautionary measures before climbing the palm tree.
“But currently, we make use of vehicle seatbelt and thick ropes used to tow vehicles. If you are cautious while tethering it, there is no tendency for you to fall off the tree.”
Speaking on benefits derived from palm wine, Kolawole said the commodity has economic and health benefits which have endeared it to more people than it used to be.
He said: “Palm wine has tremendous economic benefits, if you can endure and have luck on your side to get a good tree. Right now, palm wine is cheaper because people now run away from beer. If you have sight problems, drink palm wine because it was created by God and has natural yeast contents.
“The people drinking here cannot go to beer parlours again because the prices of various brand of beer have gone up. Before now, the smallest bowl of palm wine cost N50 but now it costs from N100.
“The one mixed can be gotten at N50 but the one that comes directly from the palm tree costs N100 per bowl. The least bottle of beer now is sold for N170 and is more expensive than palm wine.
“You can also use palm wine to cure measles that usually afflict children. There is something called ogirikoso in the bush which has yam at its base. The palm wine will be poured on it, some people do mix it with water but my father doesn’t mix it with water.
“Palm wine is good for the body than beer, because it makes one sleep well and when you drink it, you will not be going out time and again to urinate like when one drinks beer.
“I sell palm wine in large quantity here because people come to buy from me and resell when they get to their destinations. People do come from places such as Ado, Aisegba, Igbemo, Iluomoba and other places to buy from me.
“Palm wine provides employment for many people such as the tappers, sellers and those who transport the commodity from one place to another.
“If a jobless graduate embraces this job, he will never regret it. This is so because, from a single palm tree, you can realise N10, 000 daily. In this shop, if the palm wine finishes, there will be ‘problem’ because of huge demand by consumers.
“I also engage in part-time farming. I had just sold over N85, 000 worth of plantain but I want to emphasise that this job is not for lazy people. From this job, I have built two modern houses and the car parked there belongs to me. I have also sponsored two of my children in higher institutions.”
Another tapper who spoke with Southwest Report was Mr. Sunday Ejembi, who hails from Benue State who had settled in Ijan community since 1995. Ejembi said he is fulfilled being a palm wine tapper.
Ejembi said: “I came here in 1995 and this is what I have been doing in order to provide food for my family. It is from the proceeds of palm wine tapping that I married my wife, Mrs. Mary Ejembi, who sells soup condiments.
“The business has also helped me in sponsoring my younger ones in institutions of higher learning. One of them graduated from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria and the other graduated from the Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti.
“I am yet to build a house here but the community has just given me a parcel of land to build my own house. I am fully integrated into the community and I attend meetings of Ijan indigenes.
“Another benefit derived from palm wine is that it helps a pregnant woman to have smooth delivery and after delivery, if she continues to take palm wine, her breast milk will increase which will be of great benefits to the baby.”
Kolawole’s mother, Madam Ogundele, who runs a palm wine drinking shop, revealed that she had been in the business for more than 30 years. She described her shop as a Mecca for buyers traveling to and from places such as Kaduna, Abuja, Lokoja, Okene and nearby communities in Ekiti.
Mrs. Ogundele said: “I have been in this business for over 30 years now and the business is moving very well. In fact, it is more lucrative now than beer because palm wine is cheaper and more accessible than beer.
“The five kegs I had in stock have been exhausted, you can see the empty kegs on the ground. I give respect while dealing with my customers. I ensure that there is no quarrel or fight among my customers.
“People come here from Ado and other communities in Ekiti to drink while drivers and passengers traveling long distances stop here to enjoy themselves.”
When asked whether palm wine sellers have an association, Mrs. Ogundele responded: “We hold meetings to defend our interests, especially the disturbance from sanitary inspectors.”
Palm wine drinkers who spoke about the benefits of palm wine included Chief Adebayo Ogunjemilehin, Mr. Idowu Olokunlade, Mr. Olaiya Kolawole, Mr. Ojo Adebowale and Mr. Gabriel Ogunleye.
Another resident, Alhaji Jinadu Erinfolami, said he doesn’t drink palm wine at the joint but to eat roasted meat of grass cutter known in local parlance as okuru.
Ogunjemilehin, 65, said: “My grandfather used to drink aran (palm wine) which he poured inside the bowl and mixed with garri. Even though it was not easy to drink, he never took injection in his lifetime and he lived up to 170 years.
“In the yesteryear, our fathers used money realised from palm wine business to do great things. People such as Prof. Sam Aluko and other great men were trained from proceeds of palm wine.
“In Ogbagi, palm wine business is the number one job and they use it to sponsor their children to school many of whom have become great today.”
Olokunlade said: “I am a driver and former coordinator of Big Lorries’ Association in Ekiti State. Drinking palm wine has many advantages; politicians do come here to relax and through their coming here, some of our young ones are connected and get employment in the process.
“Palm wine is natural because no chemical is added to it like beer and it helps you to have good eyesight. I have old men who are 120 years and still read their Bible without the help of eyeglasses.”
Adebowale said: “I have been drinking palm wine for many years and I have no regrets. The palm wine of this woman (Mrs Ogundele) is very good, indigenes and non-indigenes come here to drink and the business has enhanced her status in this community.
“The business has made her fame spread up to Ado, Iluomoba, Araromi, Ago Aduloju and other places. She is an important person in Ijan because when you enter the town and say you are looking for Iya Kako, they will bring you here.”
Ogunleye said: “Palm wine is better than beer and very good to the body. When you drink it, you will not experience malaria and diabetes. Palm wine doesn’t cause any ill-health.
“Another advantage of palm wine is that you are not susceptible to frequent urination. I had taken three bowls already but if it is beer, I will be standing up time and again to urinate and it is affordable for low-income earners.”
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Three die after taking palm wine in Ondo
Three persons have reportedly died after taking palm wine mixed with different substances at Ilepa Quarters in Ikare-Akoko, the headquarters of Akoko North-East Local government area of Ondo state.
The trio was said to have taken the palm alcoholic drink at a friend’s house identified as Azeez and who was celebrating his birthday last Saturday.
They were said to have been rushed to a hospital in Ikare when complaining of stomach ache.
Two of the yet to be identified deceased died on Sunday, while the third one later died on Tuesday.
A source at Ilepa said the Palm wine was mixed with a substance called gegemu and maladol.
Apart from the deceased, some of the guests who took the palm wine also landed in hospitals as a result of stomach pain.
Confirming the incident, the Police Public Relations Officer of the Ondo State Police Command, Mr. Femi Joseph identified one of the victims as Kazeem Ogungbemi.
He said, “We can confirmed the incident, the boys went to a party organised by one of their friends. But they drank recklessly. We discovered that the drink they drank was mixed with many substances.
“The person who served the palm wine has ran away and we are still looking for him.”
The PPRO noted that the command had commenced investigation on the incident.
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Palm wine tapper offers free training
A palm wine tapper, Mr Okilo Ozoemenam, has offered to train youths in his trade for free. Why? He said he wanted them to earn a decent living, thereby shunning violent crime and idleness or wasting their time in betting houses.
Ozoemenam said he was pained each time he saw youths idling away at newsstands or engaging in kidnapping, robbery or any other violent crime.
Speaking with reporters at his Umuokehi farm residence, the tapper said he has about 100 raffia trees from which he taps wine and that the youths should come for tapping lessons.
Ozoemenam called on the youths of the state to swallow their pride and learn the trade rather than “going everyday to bet to make quick money, engaging in kidnappings and armed robbery”.
He said that it pained him to see the state’s youths on a daily basis arguing at newspaper stands and “wasting the time they would have used to learn one trade or another only to turn around later in life to blame the government for not providing jobs for them”.
The palm wine tapper said that his wine business has helped him to improve himself financially, pointing out that he started life with a bicycle and now owns a tricycle and a piggery which brings in good money for him.
Ozoemenam said, “I want the youths to engage in meaningful ventures and I am willing to teach them how to tap palm wine free of charge for their financial benefits and help them in sustaining their families. Our youths should feel free to engage themselves in agricultural; production either through conventional farming or through poultry or piggery farms or anything other type of farming that would not only keep them busy but also help in the financial output for them and the state.”
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Ogunmola’s Palm Wine Drinkers’ Club goes public
It is a hilarious play, very comic, just to spice life and make people laugh. As the Palm Wine Drinkers’ Club went on stage in Lagos last weekend, its central message was not lost on the audience. Edozie Udeze reports.
The opening scene of the play showed that it was going to be a bizarre sort. The artistes had dressed up in different types of local costumes, dancing and singing to the stage. Each of them had a calabash of palm wine in his hand as they sang in a local tongue. The atmosphere suddenly became comic, most especially as Biodun Olayinka (Papa Ajasco) led the way in his usual characteristic manner. Adorned in an oversized local costume, with his own calabash obviously bigger than the rest, he swayed to the beatings of the drums and the praises being showered on the powers and potency of palm wine.
Welcome to the play, Palm Wine Drinkers’ Club, written by Kola Ogunmola. It was staged at the Terra Kulture, Victoria Island, Lagos, last weekend by the Lagos State Council for Arts and Culture led by its director Olaitan Otulana. The play is a comic display of the potency of palm wine and why some people often chose to have it as a habit by consuming a lot of it from time to time. Lanke Emu (Papa Ajasco) who was the lead character was palm wine personified. He woke to the rhythm of palm wine. He dreamt palm wine and indeed turned it into a cult of sorts. His love for it was incomparable.
He did not want to marry except if it was possible for him to have palm wine as his wife. He was so addicted to it that the first scene on stage opened with him and lots of his close friends and associates in a party mood drinking gourds of palm wine. As they did so, they danced and sang to high heavens eulogising the need for more people to come into the club as new members. It was a dance-drama full of songs rendered both in English and Yoruba with the central message not lost on the audience.
The mood of the celebration had got to a maddening crescendo when suddenly they ran out of palm wine. The left-over given to some of the guests was so bitter that they also rejected it. This was the time when Alaba, Lanke Emu’s special tapper was called in to produce more fresh palm wine. While the people waited with high expectations, urging him on to make it a bumper one, the chord carrying him carved in and he fell from the tree. Alaba was feared dead instantly and immediately the party turned into mourning for the dead.
Mourning The Dead
As they sang deep-rooted dirges for the dead, Lanke could not stand it. His penchant for palm wine soon overwhelmed his emotions. Alaba was his only source of succour. How could he live or even survive without Alaba’s palm wine in his life? While others mourned the dead, he bemoaned his fate based on the exigencies of palm wine. Even when other people sought to revive his spirit with palm wine by other tappers, he still could not be assuaged.
At this point, he went into a trance, a profound midday reverie sort of, that took him away from the living to the world of the dead. His soul wandered and wondered into the deep foyers of life, imagining that he needed to go find Alaba wherever he had gone to. This format presented a different way of showcasing the play, for it offered the audience a clue into the spirit world. Lanke Emu encountered so many different and diverse scenes and issues while he wandered into the strange elements of life.
The spirit world where he got to, did not want to spare him. But they got together and gave him different charms and amulets with which to overcome his task. With an empty shell of a snail hanging on his neck, Lanke set sail on his expedition into the spirit world fully determined to discover Alaba. “Oh, palm wine,” he bellowed, “whatever can I do without you?” he asked in his sleep. Lanke then began to guzzle kegs of palm wine when he was only 8 years old. Out of all the children born of the same parents, he vowed to make palm wine his only companion till eternity. “It is only what makes me come alive,” he declared in a deep dream occasioned by the gods of palm wine.
The Dream
In his dream also, he met Bisi who had been hoodwinked by a handsome spirit husband to marry her. Even when Lanke forced himself to rescue her from the jaws of the devil, he also found it difficult to make himself amenable to her. Although marriage was conducted between the two, it did not bring hope and solace to Lanke.
The Intoxicating presence of palm wine in his system had taken roots that not even the offering of the comfort of a woman could sway him. He encountered more problems and hardships on the way, only to be woken by his people who told him that Alaba did not really die.
But even then, waking him was a big task. He only came alive when they poured a cup of palm wine inside his mouth. “And so, where is Alaba?” he asked. “He survived the accident,” they told him. “He only sustained minor injuries but he is now fit and ready to go”. This was the cheering news he had waited for. And with it the drama came to an end with more kegs of palm wine going round for the celebration.
With the infusion of drama and dance, embedded with endless songs and celebrations, the play evoked series of comic moments to relieve tension. The appearances of masquerade spirits in different forms and guises not only terrified the audience but also intensified their longings and expectations, hoping for more intriguing scenes, nonetheless.
Otulana explained that it was comic in approach to help embellish the place of palm wine in certain celebrations in the land. “You could see his special love for palm wine and even how he began by inviting his people for a celebration. Then he went into a trance because he lost his favourite palm wine tapper. All the things that happened in the stage happened in a dream. It shows you the power of dreams and what we encounter when we sleep. But Lanke was seriously entangled on his own to be able to make something out of it.”
Part of what the Lagos State Arts Council does from time to time is to package plays for the stage to entertain the public. “Yes, we did this to put the public in a lighter mood,” Otulana said. “As a Centre, what we do is to bring laughter into the lives of the people. There have been so many other plays we’ve done in the past, which pricked on the conscience of the people. Some of the plays are to encourage people to be morally upright and to see the good in the society. It is a bi-monthly preparation to keep the theatre scene alive.”
For Papa Ajasco (Olayinka), it was a show away from their routine at their Ikeja office to show how comic theatre could be used to diversify theatre. “We are doing this show now to let people know what we are capable of doing. We call it season of plays and we’ve brought it here at the Terra Kulture to intensify our reach out. It is part of what we do to make people enjoy theatre and to tell them that life can be fun at times,” Papa Ajasco said.
He explained that dance was introduced into the play to make it interesting and appealing. “It is all about the life of this man who loves palm wine beyond compare. He goes into a dream about this tapper who falls from a tree and dies. The essence of this play is that people can sit down and write this sort of beautiful story on palm wine. That the story itself can become a play on stage, shows how versatile and deep our playwrights can be. Now you have a full play on just palm wine – it is so intriguing. One cannot do without palm wine when you are getting married, during burial and other traditional functions in the society. When you get to certain places in Nigeria, palm wine is a big deal and people hunger for it. It is not only nutritious and healthy, it is good as part of your tradition.”
Olayinka who expressed his special love for stage drama, said there is no room to compare TV and stage. “I love stage more. It is where you bring out your best as an actor. You dare not mess up on stage because the audience will find you out. So when I am on stage, I am conscious of what I do to make the audience follow and be happy.”
The play has been on for a while, but it will be staged today at the same venue to let people appreciate the more the efforts of the council to make people turn to stage for relaxation. In Palm Wine Drinkers’ Club, Ogunmola’s ability to eulogise and give life to palm wine is indeed the best way to celebrate this special gift to humanity.