People And Culture: Nigerian Tribes and Their Different Types of Pepper Soup

For the past three months, I have stayed in two different states in Nigeria stayed a week in calabar state but spent the better part of the three months in delta state visiting most of its villages. While it is true that most parts of these villages lack electricity they sure have something’s to compensate for the lack of light. 

From our previous post I wrote about the calabar Dog pepper soup and its nutritional benefit. In this post am going to list the different types of pepper soup I have come across and tasted during my three months of travelling (Dog pepper soup inclusive). In the Delta state alone I ate three different types of pepper soup.

The Types Of Pepper Soup i Came Across

 1. The Fresh Fish Pepper Soup

 2. The Goat Meat Pepper Soup

 3. The Dry Fish Pepper Soup.

 4. The Dog Meat Pepper Soup

1. The Fresh Fish Pepper Soup: This Pepper Soup is associated with Ijaw’s (Izoh Tribe) in Delta State, and as the name implies, the main ingredient of this Pepper soup is Fresh Fish from river and this is no serious problem as this tribe are located near river (this tribe mostly live close to the river). For example, there is an Ijaw village known as OTURUGBENE, it is on record that no vehicle has been in that village in its history, so to reach this village one has to travel with boat for approximately one and half hour to get there. This post is just to introduce you to get to know the types of Pepper soup I ate and enjoyed in m y three months of stay I two different states, so I won’t be talking about nutritious benefits now, but be rest assured that my posts will sure give more insight about these soups and possible way to prepare these soups.

2. The Goat Meat Pepper Soup: My Next visit was a tribe known as the Isoko’s. I visited a town known as Otor-Oweh, here I ate the Goat Meat Pepper soup. From the name you can conclude that the main ingredient for this soup is the Goat meat and according to the locals, they usually eat this soup during burial ceremonies, marriage ceremonies and other celebrations. Getting Goat meat in this village is not a problem because the locals rear Goats and a visit to their market confirmed that. Though it was the same Delta State, the Journey from the Ijaw Village OTURUGBENE to the Isoko Village OTOR-OWEH took approximately Seven Hours (7 hours). While it is true that I enjoyed the Ijaw Fresh Fish Pepper Soup, I must also admit that the Isoko Goat meat pepper soup was no less delicious.

3. The Dry Fish Pepper Soup: Just when I thought my series of pepper soup was coming to an end that was when I came across my next pepper soup, THE DRY FISH PEPPER SOUP. After two weeks in the Isoko village my next stop was an Urhobo Village named OTEFE in Delta state. The Journey from Isoko village OTOR-OWEH to Urhobo village OTEFE took about three hours (3 hours). So the taste of my next pepper soup took me about seventeen hours (17 hours). This Pepper soup is prepared with different types of well dried and smoked fish and its ingredients emits such aroma that you cannot resist. In my month of travelling one can say I was a judge in a pepper soup competition. While I was having problem deciding which was better between the Fresh Fish and Goat meat pepper soup, the well cooked Dry Fish Pepper soup came into the scene. Guess I will have to give you steps on how to prepare each of these soups so that you decide which is better.

4. The Dog Meat Pepper Soup: Actually this was the first pepper soup I tasted in my travel because I started my travel from calabar state. For more information about this pepper soup and its nutritious benefit please read the article Health-Tips: Eating Healthy- Important Reasons Why You Should Eat Pepper Soup

Pepper soup was not the only experience I have to talk about in my travel; there are also some funny controversies between these tribes as to the choice of meat they eat. For example, some part of the Urhobo tribe forbids the eating of dogs but then that same animal is an important ingredient for the Calabar when preparing their Pepper soup.

Please tell drop your comments about this post below as you wait for the next post about these controversies.