Sokoto Indigenes Sustain Ancient Way of Roasting Sallah Nama, by Issa Hamed Alhaji

The 15th of June, 2024 which was a day to this year’s Eid-Adha or Eid-el-kabir, the purchasing of Karen tareni by Sokoto indigenes was enough to tell that the sallah celebration has set.

They bought it till the early morning of Sallah day, 16th of June, 2024 with rejoice and happiness glowing on their faces. Anyone who sees their preparation for the sallah will conclude that ram is not costly in the state.

Karen tareni is an ordinary long stick sharpened like an arrow which is used to hang ram for roasting on the sallah day. The great demand for it annually symbolizes the consumption of sallah sacrifice animals (locally called nama) will also be high.

While speaking with a Sokoto indigene, Asiya Kamaru shared her experience on Sallah celebration in the state. She explained, “After slaughtering the animal, the men will cut it, remove all the intestines and give the remaining parts to the women of the house. They will now roast the body of the animal by putting one big stick in its middle and use karen tareni to hold the hands and legs of the ram. Then, they will hang it on the fire.”

“Different families in the neighborhood gather their rams for roasting, that’s how they usually roasted sallah ram in the olden days. Maybe it originated in Sokoto state, that’s why you will hardly see it in another state apart from Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara,” she added.

In his own experience, Usman Kawu Yusuf said, “The stick is also called mashin sanda. It’s used for hunting animals, mostly used in setting traps for wild animals. Also, during this big sallah period it’s used for roasting ram and any other sacrificed animals.”

A family man, Mallam Dahiru Sokoto (pseudonym) boasted that he had never forgotten to buy the roasting stick during any sallah. “Since I have started slaughtering ram for sallah, I had never forgotten to buy karen tareni on the sallah day or a day before, it’s part of our norms that we learnt from past generations.”

“I do slaughter two rams because we are many in my family, that’s why I buy four roasting sticks to make the ram roasted at the same time,” he said.