Where the hell did ‘koko ya fridge’ come from?

Lately I have been feeling so nostalgic. I could imagine myself as a young girl in Driefontein, the small village where I grew up. I see that girl going to fetch wood from the forest, going to fetch water about two kilometres away from home and being fit as a horse.

What did she eat? She ate mostly porridge made of mabele (sorghum) and morogo. Oh, maybe I should mention that mabele had to be stomped using a pestle and mortar and then ground with a grinder and regardless of the type of grinder, there was a lot of physical work and sweat. That was girl duties. Toned arms guaranteed. I could trade these flabby things for that any time hey!

Some days she ate a combination of mielies and beans. Meat days meant a free range chicken would be slaughtered. Each member of the family would get a piece, just enough for a taste. It was great. Households which were better off consumed what was then called ‘refrigerated chicken’ or ‘koko ya fridge’. How we envied them! They didn’t have to run after a hen or deal with all the mess of cleaning the thing up.

Once in a while a goat would be slaughtered and it would be shared amongst relatives. The same with a cow.

When my eldest sister started working for a supermarket in town, we also began to enjoy ‘refrigerated chicken’. It was softer than the home chicken which is today called ‘hard body’. I remember the explanation was that such chickens were machine bred and the chicks could be old enough for consumption in a few weeks, unlike the usual home chickens. We felt lucky to be able to finally have access to that.

I remember my mother was never a sickly person. She used to work in the mielie fields and that was hard work. She walked a very long distance to those fields and continued to labour there. And she was very healthy, seldom complained of anything. I may be wrong, but I think her health problems started a few years after she stopped ploughing the fields. She stayed home and even had some help at home. And we ate refrigerated chicken and other stuff we had not had access to before.  

I also remember that there was a time people used soot and ash to clean their teeth. No one stressed about the lack of toothpaste. I don’t miss cleaning teeth with ash and soot. But I wonder why I have to buy activated charcoal to help me with various health issues including oral hygiene. Why is it that I am told over and over again, though in many different ways, that the lifestyle I was exposed to as a young girl was the best? Many of us have various health issues which are mainly lifestyle related. We continue to abuse our bodies by consuming a lot of wrong things. I guess it’s like they say: ‘sin has a way of feeling so good’. This is when we are trying to justify our wrong deeds.

Oh, I know that back then mielies would be cooked in a huge pot and the corn silk was seldom removed. And we used to drink the water thereof. Guess what? Apparently people with kidney problems can consume corn silk tea. You just brew that for 30 minutes and voila! You can deal with kidney issues and bed wetting. You think that’s absurd? Go to your source of information.

I am on the road to reclaiming my health. I need to get rid of this sciatic pain which denies me the pleasure of being in the outdoors to admire God’s work. I also need to have my digestive system back in order, and I am prepared to do that the natural way. I know it’s probably going to be an arduous mission. I poisoned my body eating a lot of stuff I had no business eating just because I could afford. I am going to be patient enough to let nature take care of this beautiful body. That may mean growing my own food and dare I say I am prepared to do it?