By Femi Akinpelu Joseph
It was on Tuesday 6th of October, 2015 at
Surulere, Lagos. My aunty had just been delivered of a baby boy a week earlier,
and now it was time for the naming ceremony and party. That particular day, I missed
work because of the ceremony in the house; I had of course, taken permission
from office before the day. This was necessary as I happened to be the only
grown up person living with her (my aunty), aside the house -help. I needed to
assist the family in various ways to put things in place and to have a properly
arranged party setting.
Two days before this day (on Sunday the 4th), my aunt’s
husband and I had driven to the nearest market to buy most of the things that
were used for cooking and also other needfuls like serviette, cups,
tooth-picks, bottled-drinks, and the (canned) drinks.
On the D-day, professional cooks landed in the house very
early and began cooking from around 6 in the morning, together with some other (family)
aunties who travelled down to celebrate with the family. I personally made
arrangement for canopies from a rental shop nearby. At about 10a.m, the baby’s
parents and few other family members left home for the child’s christening at
the church. They returned in about two hours later. From now onward, visitors
began to troop in to the house to say hello to the new born baby and say
congratulations to the parents.
Before they left for the church event in the morning, my aunt’s
husband had stocked the house with more bottled soft-drinks (about 6 crates), in
addition to the canned drinks that we bought 2 days earlier, so there could be
enough for everyone to drink. Then we decked the canned drinks in one
container, the bottled drinks in a separate one and the bottles of water in
another one.
And then the party started, first with the sharing of drinks
to visitors.
I noticed that the first set of drinks that was requested for
was the canned malt drink. Then I smiled. Afterwards, bottled water, canned
soft-drink, and canned beer, just going on and on like that. Nobody would even
show any interest in those innocent bottles that were lying down chilling in
that drum. Funny enough, someone was later assigned to watch over “all” the
drinks, but this person stood very closely only to the canned department, and the
bottled section was left to take care of itself (OYO – On Your Own). In my mind,
I was saying the former president Obasanjo’s quote “I dey laugh o”.
I was just moving around, from place to place, a very
interesting experience that I had. To the people cooking, I would be like ‘eku
ise o’ (in Yoruba), that is, welldone! Then I would hang around the drinks area
for sometimes to see how events around there were unfolding. People just can’t
stop patronizing the cans, but the bottled folks, no way!
No one touched the bottles until when uncle, (my brother
in-law) asked that we took some of the bottles, along with some bottles of
water to visitors sitting under the canopy. After a while later, I left the party
scene, right into the room, balanced myself on the bed and continued with my
reading, of a particular popular book (Purple Hibiscus) that I had just
laid my hands on. I read for a while and went to eat, without drinks. I’m no
fan of sugary drinks. The serving of food and drinks still went on. I checked
the containers all round, the one canned drinks was already going lean, whereas
the bottled one was still fat and swollen. Suitors were not forth coming. People
were busy packing (the canned stuffs), both for themselves and loved ones,
probably at home, or somewhere else.
At about 9pm in the evening, after lots of eating, drinking
and some dancing, as expected, many people left. To conclude my observational
work, I checked and I saw that the drinks in cans were left with only about
10, while the drinks in the bottles were still fully loaded, and it felt like
it was only the cooks and other women around that had picked out of it.
That night, I quizzed a few people that I could talk to, on
why people were only interested in canned drinks and refused to touch the
bottled one; and they told me that culturally people perceive the canned drinks
to give more respect when you take them, and it is also easy to carry round. Secondly,
they said that in the event that someone wants to “take away” or “take home”,
it is the canned drinks that does it right. But I asked myself, what is the
significance of that can stuff? If you decide to take the ones in the bottle, would
you still not have the same feeling of satisfaction? I’m just wondering.
This has been my observation about the disparity in
interests that people show towards canned and bottled drinks for some time now,
and I hope others would also come up with a more profound answer, as a basis
for this unfair treatment being meted out to the drinks in the bottles.
It may interest the readers to know that over 3 crates of the
bottled drinks still remained untouched many days after the event. On the other
hand, no canned drink was left again after the next day.
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