Tabaski

At Mamadou's house, waiting for the feast.
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In predominantly Muslim countries, such as Burkina Faso, there is this tradition to sacrifice a lamb for God. You know the story: Abraham was told by God to sacrifice his son, and at the right moment, just before slicing his throat with a big ass knife, an angel appeared and told him "Dude, stop that shit right there. You have just passed God's test, and he now knows you love him. Kill a lamb instead." So Abraham took his big ass knife and sacrificed the lamb instead. So in his honour, the Muslim people decided to make that a tradition. I'm not sure why they're the only ones, but I guess they're special... In Burkina Faso, it's called Tabaski, and hurray for us, it's a national holiday. So on Tuesday January 10th, all the Muslim people (and their non-Muslim friends as well) partied like there is no tomorrow (no alcohol but just sheer celebration). :)

The lamb is down...
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Along with a few other Oxfam volunteers, we bought a nice lamb for our security guard, Mamadou. He's the sweetest person ever and we thought it would be a nice gesture. The lamb cost us 25,000 FCFA (around C$55), which is about what he makes in a month, so let me tell you he was very happy. Not only was he going to have a lamb, usually substituted by a few chickens, but his nasara bosses were coming over to eat with his family! Big event.

So Abraham took his big ass knife...

SLICE!
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The sacrifice started around 10h30. Mamadou and his younger brother were holding the lamb down, while the older brother (seniority is everything in Burkina Faso - more on that some other time) took out a big ass knife (just as Abraham). Off course, all of us white people were standing there, closely watching what was going on, some of us through camera lens. SLICE! Blood squirted from the lamb's throat into a cleverly prepared little hole in the ground. SLICE! Even more blood. Some of us turned away. SLICE! Water was now being poured on the throat to see what there was left to cut. Nothing. It was done. I took the whole sacrifice with no apparent disgust. Weird. The most disturbing thing was definitely the noise coming out of the lamb's throat while the slicing was happening. Oh yeah, and the eyes... you could see fear in its eyes... The whole operation was not exactly something a Westerner is used to. 

Puddle of blood...
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Even though this is the first "murder" I witness, it's probably the most primal and natural event that I've ever seen. These people need to eat, so they do. No one prepares their chicken breast for them, they kill the damn chicken themselves! And they're skilled at it too. It was so mechanical and well-orchestrated...

Once the lamb was dead, the men slowly took all the skin off, helped by the young boys (by then it had stopped looking like an animal and started looking like meat in a store), then took out all its insides (bleurk!), and then chopped it all in nice pieces. It took about an hour to complete the deed, while I took lots of pictures so that i could remember this event's every detail.

Mamadou at work.
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The next step was to prepare the meat in many different forms, and this job is reserved for the women. We didn't see much of it, but all of the lamb pieces were used up (testicles included :)). Two hours later, after having played a bit of cards, we were told the food was ready. Hmmmm... liver brochettes, filet brochettes, some other pieces of lamb in rice, some other pieces of lamb in something else (you get the picture), salad, pasta, etc. It was delicious! Thank you Mamadou, and thank you poor lamb. Oh yeah, to make it easier for us to watch the sacrifice, we had named the lamb George W. And then we changed it to Harper. :)

No comment.
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After that, I was invited to celebrate the tabaski with my colleagues from work, at a director's house. Again, good food, lots of it, beer (yes, beer at on muslim holiday!), more food, more beer, and champagne. I was there alone, since Margie and the other went home. The director made a nice speech, and then it was time to go. Achille, a very funny group leader, proposed to drive me home, and I accepted. What I didn't know is that we were to pass by his friend's place for another tabaski. I spent the next two hours eating more, drinking scotch, and then some more of everything. There is just no way that you refuse to eat or drink here. No way. I was so full I started sweating. i was feeling bad, so I asked him to drive me home... So I came home late, extremely nauseous, and drunk. I didn't go to work the next day. My stomach definitely stretched that day, and I can eat way more than before. Not good. :)