‘Ileya’ in Lagos

As  though  afraid not to hurt the already slaughtered ram, the man employed to ensure that the animal ended up in small pieces, carefully and like an excavating process scrapes the skin of the animal using a new razor blade. It was like his take home pay will be slashed if he mistakenly scraped  any […]

As  though  afraid not to hurt the already slaughtered ram, the man employed to ensure that the animal ended up in small pieces, carefully and like an excavating process scrapes the skin of the animal using a new razor blade.
It was like his take home pay will be slashed if he mistakenly scraped  any part that produces blood. But such careful attention was only meant to produce neater meat at the end of the day.It also shows the expertise of the person in charge.
It was just a day after Ileya, according to the Yorubas, a word used to refer to the Eid el-Kabir festival. Up in the North, the Hausas call the festival “Babbar Sallah” translating the Arabic term Eid el-Kabir or “Sallar Layya” referring to the sacrifice of animals.
In Lagos such a day begins with the erecting of canopies, a simple symbol to tell that a ram or a cow will be slaughtered. The higher the number  of tents in a particular place, the greater  the number of rams to be sacrificed there.
“The idea behind putting up the tent is to provide a shade that would allow preparation for the celebration to be made, since there is no space inside the house to do all these chores,” said Kabir Muftawu, a resident of Ladipo at Ebute Metta, who also sacrificed a ram.
Indeed, space is always an issue in a huge city like Lagos, crammed apartments in crammed buildings force people to do most of their activities outside.
“During this Sallah period people even go to the extent of renting a space to put up canopies, because it is easier to slaughter an animal outside and prepare it there, because even the frying or cooking the meat cannot be easy using the gas cooker inside. But outside you can use firewood,” Alhaji Garba Abubakar, a resident of Oyingbo said.
But what many find amazing is the method used in preparing and  eventually cutting the meat.

Unlike in the North where the hide is completely separated from the body of the animal, down South, they prefer to scrape the hair off the animal and cut the meat, leaving the hide (without hair) with the slaughtered animal.
“When we do that we get more meat from the animal slaughtered, you don’t lose everything. So, you end up only throwing away little, thereby getting value for your money.” Salawuddeen Adebayo, another resident of Oyingbo said.
But Alhaji Garba has a different view on that. Hear him “The meat is coming from the animal, so also is the hide. So why give up the hide when one can eat it after scraping the hair.”
According to him, the hide gives the meat a neater appearance, stressing that removing the skin from animal, and then coming back to cut it ,amounts to  a double task.
“If you follow the process of removing the skin, and later you come and cut the meat, is that not  a double task? he posed.
Although kpomo, another form of processed animal skin, is a popular delicacy down South and even in the North, many in Lagos prefer to leave the skin than separate it from the actual meat, which eventually increases the quantity of the meat during the Eid el-Kabir or Ileya.

Scraping animal skins during this period fetches a lot of  money for many youths- who could do a neat job of it.
“The job requires  a calm mind and full attention, or else you will end up messing everything up,” 26 year old Seun, said.
According to Seun scraping a big ram costs  N5,000, while a cow goes for N15,000, saying the job takes up a lot of time to get accomplished.
But scraping the rams and cows, as well as cutting them into pieces is always not the end of the activity. Just  as they men are busy erecting the canopies and arranging the chairs, the women  are always busy setting up the fire and pots, big pots – readying the scenario for frying and boiling the meat.
“Usually a day before the Ileya, we get the pots ready and gather enough firewood.In some cases we used  to hire the pots, if the ones we have are not enough,” Iya Saliu, one of the women engaged in the chores, told our correspondent.

By night fall most of the activities are brought to an end. It remains for those who performed the layya to share the meat to relatives, neighbours and friends. In many areas people gather around to continue celebrating throughout the night.
Though observed once in a year, the Ileya period continues  to remain one of the most memorable moments which many look forward to.