Into Africa

December 1: How to Smoke a Bush Rat

On Tuesday, Mamie [Signe’s host mother] said that she was going to the farm to smoke agouti. I came along to see just how one prepares the famous bush rat. Agouti is a delicacy here in Benin. Its meat is sought after like Maine lobster or Norwegian salmon. To buy one live agouti you’ll pay about $15. Then you have to prepare it.

The two farm hands tried to capture three plump agoutis, about the size of groundhogs, from their cages. (The agouti makes noises similar to a chipmunk or a squirrel, it has four short legs and a long skinny tail, similar to a rat’s. It’s certainly not the typical rodent that often becomes road kill in Ohio.)

There is no butchery here for small animals like chickens, pheasants, or agoutis. I had witnessed Dede, age fifteen, slit several chickens’ throats on our back patio. When Alexis took the large knife and cut the agouti’s jugular and vertebrae, causing the animal to pant and gasp for air, I had to look away. Taking the life of any living creature is difficult, but an African’s got to do what an African’s got to do. Watching its life drain out with the red blood on the cement well covering under the hot sun gave me a funny feeling in my stomach....

I held the tail and the paws as Mamie quartered the animal. The head with beaver-like teeth and small ears made a fifth part. I made a mental note not to eat the head, if I could help it.

Mamie seasoned the meat with a sauce of pepper, anise, salt, and oil, as one brushes barbeque sauce over ribs. She placed the pieces onto the large iron grill that fit perfectly into a cement chimney. Guess what we used for fuel: coconut husks and coconut branches! Mamie added a few Laurier leaves to the fire to give the smoke a good aroma. We spent the next two hot hours fanning the fire with a palm leaf-woven fan, adding more wood, and turning the agouti pieces.