Dog meat ‘Shag-bai’ carnival lights up Billiri in Gombe, It’s in our blood, we’re not ashamed – says convener

Against all odds following opposition from a section of the community, Billiri town which is the headquarters of Billiri Local Government Area of Gombe State came alive when the Tangale people celebrated the Shag-bai festival popular refer to as the Dog meat eating carnival.

At the close of the event, Tuesday evening December 28, 2021, the carnival procession brought back festive celebration to Billiri town in an event that was said to have been observed by Tangale forefathers.

The mammoth crowd, mostly youths, who marched excitedly from the popular Kalmai Dog meat market into the town, were accompanied by loud music including Tangale’s traditional dancers who thrilled excited onlookers.

Convener and chairman of Shag-bai carnival, Mr. Jesse Malum while speaking with Journalists said that , the essence of the carnival was to project the identity of the Tangale people as a people who eat and do so many other things with dog.

According to him, “the essence of this carnival is to project our identity. Many people think to eat dog is a dirty thing and our people faced some social stigma. We are trying to tell them that eating dog meat is a positive way of life. There is nothing negative about it, we’re not ashamed of eating it”.

He recalled that not long ago, “a DPO came to this place and there was an ugly event where people believed he was trying to stop somebody from selling dog meat at a particular spot. It was resisted because it  is part of the people

Jesse Malum, who is a lecturer at Alex Ekweme Federal University, Nduifo Alike, Ebonyi State said that, “I think such things should not happen because this is Tangale land and the constitution of Nigeria has made security agencies and Government to protect and promote people’s culture”, he stressed.

He stated also that, “Shag-bai is not just about celebrating dog meat but dog as a whole. So if you talk about dog meat, our forefathers didn’t have goats before now, what they had were dogs. If they were celebrating anything, they kill dogs. In fact, in our marriages till today, there is what is called ‘bayauli’. That is, money paid to buy firewood to cook bai (dog)”.

Talking about dog meat market, Jesse said, “that is a loud statement of a Tangale man’s culture”, adding that “if we have a visitor our forefathers used to welcome them with dog meat”.

He also said that there exist a gap between the present generation with their culture which the carnival is trying to interface and mingle both and cautioned the youths against being Eurocentric but saying, ” they must come back to their African culture “.

Speaking on the massive turnout for the carnival, he said, “despite the challenges we faced in organizing this carnival, there has been massive support and turnout and it goes to say that eating dog meat is in our blood. If you separate a Tangale man from eating dog meat, it means you don’t even know the Tangale man. If a Tangale man’s new religion forbids eating dog meat, we don’t  force him, he should face his religion”.

According to him, “But he shouldn’t tell us that Tangale man doesn’t eat dog. Even the person that doesn’t eat dog meat, his parents had ate dog meat so much that dog meat blood is running inside his blood”.

Also speaking, an elderly man by name Isaac Usman added that the outing was to tell the world that ” this is Tangale land and we are synonymous with eating dog meat, it is our culture”.

It  will be recalled that earlier in the month when the convener gave an indication of hosting the festival, another group went on air to debunk it stating that the festival is alien to Billiri and Tangale nation stressing that it will not hold.