A day at Lagos exotic meat market
Beyond its fame for fish and seafood, the ever-vibrant ancient Epe’s Oluwo market in Lagos State stands out as a hub for exotic bushmeat, making it a choice destination for hunted meat lovers both locally and globally, Weekend Trust reports. As one drives into Ajilogba Street in Epe where the popular Oluwo market is located, […]
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Beyond its fame for fish and seafood, the ever-vibrant ancient Epe’s Oluwo market in Lagos State stands out as a hub for exotic bushmeat, making it a choice destination for hunted meat lovers both locally and globally, Weekend Trust reports.
As one drives into Ajilogba Street in Epe where the popular Oluwo market is located, the tranquil lagoon currently invaded by the water hyacinth (ewe gbeborun) living freely on the surface would no doubt catch someone’s attention, a few metres away, so also will the inscription “Oluwo Modern Fish Market… Epe Terrestrial and Aquatic Hub in Lagos State,” boldly written at the entrance. Call it Oluwo market or Epe fish market, the hub of exotic bushmeat, fish and seafood is uniquely cited at the river bank.
Fenced with lock up shops, and then vendors and traders occupying spaces outside, the twin market, for many years, has played a significant role of converging people of varying cultures. Traders and customers travel from far and wide beyond the Lagos metropolis to carry out their trades. Many travel as far as Oyo, Ondo, Ogun and other adjoining states for transactions. It’s also a destination for foreign food lovers and others who have visited this place as a tourist destination with some making documentaries of the place.
It was a Saturday morning, but the market was devoid of the hustling and bustling activities for two reasons. The water hyacinth invasion has prevented movement of goods from the riverine area, from where bushmeat and fishes are brought to the market.
Oral history says the market has existed for centuries before it was relocated to its present site at the bank of the lagoon in 1990, it was sited near the marine police office in the town. The relocation was said to have become inevitable when the physical size of the market was becoming inadequate for the traffic of buyers and sellers who daily besieged the centre for transactions.
“Market opens by 8am and closes by 7.30pm. It’s an everyday market. Once you have what to sell, come to the market.
“People go hunting and fishing every day and they have to sell it. There are no public holidays here. It’s Monday to Sunday,” Sunday Adeeko, Coordinator Market Youths in Epe, told Weekend Trust.
The bushmeat market
The bushmeat section of the market appears to have been dwarfed by the fish section with the name of the market ‘Oluwo Modern Fish Market’. Traders say the reason is not far-fetched because Epe is known for fishing.
The bushmeat traders occupy the rear section of the market while those who deal in live bushmeat operate within the market building. Vendors and those involved in roasting the meat are located outside the fence.
The bushmeat market offers many forms of wildlife like crocodiles, antelopes, tortoises, porcupines, monitor lizards, snakes, snails, grasscutters and alligators.
“We sell all kinds of bushmeat. Just name it,” 70-year-old Mrs Mopelola Giwa, who has been in the trade for over 40 years, told Weekend Trust.
She said “Asides selling the animals, we also eat it. They’re healthy animals and they’re good for consumption. You know those animals are in the bush and they feed on leaves and nature for survival. So, they’re fresh and good for human consumption.”
Giwa explained that the raw hunted meats are brought by local hunters from riverine areas and other adjoining communities like Ijebu Ode, Ijebu Igbo, Ogun Waterside.
“We have customers from Lagos, Ogun and other parts of the country. We even get buyers from abroad. That’s our job. We don’t have any other job,” she told our correspondent.
The 70-year-old trader explained that they have stopped selling prohibited animals like pangolins and elephants following a stern warning from the government.
“We were warned by the government against selling pangolins. They said it caused some kinds of ailments and you know you can’t be bigger than the government. So, we stopped selling pangolins,” she explained.
Market where women ‘rule’
At Oluwo market, it’s the women’s world. Only women trade in bushmeat just like in the fish section.
However, a handful of men are seen engaging in other trades and assisting their wives in the transactions.
Mrs Aina Iyabo, Secretary Oluwo Market, told Weekend Trust that “Oluwo Market is an ancient market known across Lagos State for its strong female presence. Our forefathers started the market centuries ago.
“There is nothing weird about it. It is just that selling bushmeat and fish in the market is more of a female thing. Men are involved in fishing, but when it comes to selling, it is for women.”
Our correspondent sighted some Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo men engaged in selling wears, pepper and other commodities.
Sunday Adeeko, Coordinator Market Youths in Epe, said “It’s predominantly a female market because they outnumber the men. Women are directly involved in the selling. A handful of men in the market are into other businesses.”
Mixture of generational trade, division of labour
Our correspondent noticed that many of the female traders inherited the trade from either their mothers or mothers-in-law.
There is also the practice of division of labour in the chain of the trade from hunters to the women who buy raw bushmeat and then to the merchants who roast the meat for direct sale or on behalf of the customers.
Some husbands, who are hunters, also hand over the bushmeats to their wives for sale in the market. This, it was learnt, has sustained the age-long trade within the community.
“I have been in this trade for over 40 years. I was born into the trade. That’s what my mom was into. She used to buy the animals from the waterside. I learnt from her and grew in the trade,” the 70-year-old woman said.
For Mrs Abiodun Yinusa, her mother-in-law introduced her to the line of business.
“My mother-in-law was doing the trade and I learnt from her. We buy from hunters from Ijebu – Ode, Ijebu Igbo, Waterside and even behind the lagoon here. Most times, we go to look for them and at other times, they bring it themselves,” the woman said.
Speaking on the price of bushmeats, she said “Contrary to the belief that our meat is costly, it is not. For instance, there are some grass cutters you can get for as low as N3,000, N5,000 and N10,000.
“For monitor lizards and alligators, you can get from N10,000; N20,000; N30,000 and upwards.”
Mrs Ronke Ogunmefun, who is one of those involved in roasting the bushmeat, said, “I was 13 when I started this trade with my mother. When I got married, I left but after my mum died, I returned to the job. So, I have been doing this on my own for about 15 years now.”
‘It’s a lucrative business, we’ve trained graduates’
Seventy-year-old Mrs Giwa told Weekend Trust that she has trained two of her children who are polytechnic graduates through this business.
She said “Two of my children are Polytechnic graduates; however, they don’t have jobs yet.
“It’s disheartening that after struggling to send them to school, they’ve graduated but no jobs for them. How do we encourage others to go to school?
“You see those youths involved in cybercrime; they will tell you that they can’t go to school because those who did have not gotten jobs. Government should please provide jobs for our children. If my children are gainfully employed, I would not be out here everyday struggling for what to eat.”
Another trader, Mrs Ogunmefun said, “It’s a lucrative business and that’s what I do to send my children to school. My first child is in secondary school.”
On her part, Mrs Yinusa said “We are grateful to God. The trade is serving me well, all my children are in school and I built my own house from this trade.”
Like meat, like fish market
Fish sellers, many of whom have been in the business for more than two decades, said they learnt from their mothers.
One of them who identified herself as Orubu said “I have been selling fish for about 30 years; all kinds of fish. I sell red snapper, tilapia; white catfish; shining nose, barracuda, red snapper, pangasius (obokun) and the popular wedding fish, eja osan.
“I started with hawking small fishes before I was able to get my own shop. This is what my parents were doing. My father would go fishing while my mother would sell. We are from Ikeran. So, we inherited this trade from our parents.”
Idowu Balogun, a BOT member of Oluwo Market and also a fish seller, said, “I was born into it. It’s my mother’s business. So, I started when I was in elementary school. When we return from school, we will join our mother here. When she became old, we told her to stay at home and we took over.
“We don’t want to force our children to do it except if any of them indicates interest.
Traders beg for facelift, assistance
The market was relocated to its present site at the bank of a lagoon in 1990 when the physical size of the market was becoming inadequate for the traffic of buyers and sellers who daily besieged the centre for their transactions.
It was observed that with the increasing influx of people, there may be a need for further expansion and upgrading in the future.
Mrs Giwa said “The market needs a facelift. We need more shelves and tables to keep the animals. We also need loans or grants from the government for the business to flourish. Money drives business.
“We buy from hunters and they won’t sell on credits. It’s even inhumane to ask a hunter who went hunting overnight to sell his animals on credit. He won’t even listen to you and where you are begging for credit, those with money will just make payments and move on.
“So, we need the government’s support in terms of soft loans and single digit credit loans.”
Adeeko said “We need a cold room to preserve our fish. We preserve them with ice blocks. You will see freezers in almost all the shops, but we buy blocks from those who bring them from Ibadan, Ijebu Ode, Ikorodu. They preserve it with blocks before taking it anywhere they’re going.
“A big cold room will serve us better in preserving our fish. We need solar lights.”
The market secretary said “First, we want government to help us with loans. As women, we rely on Lapo loans for the business. Many have lost their goods to accidents and the menace of water hyacinth. But they would have to take loans to continue the trade.
“We need help in terms of equipment, loans and grants. Also, there’s no light. We use ice blocks to preserve fish. We get the ice blocks from Ijebu Ode, Ibadan at a costly rate. Government should please help us.”
Water hyacinth turns hard nut to crack
Our correspondent observed how water hyacinth, which invaded the lagoon for about a week before the visit, became a burden to the traders.
More than three boats loaded with humans and goods were trapped at the waterfront.
It was gathered that water hyacinth not just disturbs fishermen, but commercial boating activities because it affects their propellers.
The market secretary said “Water hyacinth has become a burden. You can invest a huge amount of money on fish and lose it to water hyacinth. The water hyacinth affects fishing, trading and transportation of traders.
“The water hyacinth can wash away equipment. Most times, canoes carrying loads can get stuck on the waterfront, and sometimes water hyacinth will stay there for weeks.
“The water hyacinth can kill people and when canoes are stuck, anything can happen.”
Weekend Trust reports that the water hyacinth, which floats on water, originated from the Amazon and has spread very quickly to many tropical and sub-tropical countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, South East Asia and the Pacific.
On September 24, 1984, the plant reportedly arrived in Nigeria and accumulated very fast on the waterways at the Lekki and Epe lagoons.
A marine scientist, Dr Charles Onyema, said there are four ways to control water hyacinth: use of machines, herbicides, organisms that feed on flowers and handpicking.
“When government comes into the picture, they look at the mechanical or the physical ways by bringing dredgers and heavy-duty vehicles and they would dredge, but that does not solve the problem because the source is from upstream.
“The ones in Epe lagoon are from Ogun State, even Ondo State and as far as Oyo State where it developed and flowed down with the rainy season.
“They usually block everywhere at the end of the rainy season. What we must do is to study them, their seasons and also take them out before they accumulate in our water bodies and begin to disturb us.
“Water hyacinth entered Nigeria for the first time in September 1984, and since then, it is proliferating and traversing many states in Nigeria. Before then it did not exist in Nigeria,” he had told this paper.
A customer at the market and Nigerian polyglot, Adedeji Odulesi, urged the government to fix the challenge of water hyacinth.
“I can see a lot of water hyacinth and I think that will hinder movement. I heard one woman complaining that they have caught fish but the water hyacinth is hindering them from getting here. And definitely, those fish will die. If the government can help them to clear the water hyacinth, it will help their business,” Odulesi said.
The Chairman of Epe Local Government Area, Princess Surah O Animashaun, did not respond to enquiries from our correspondent when contacted to speak on some of the challenges facing the market.