The kitchen is glorious!

During our secondary school days, no quiz will end without the boys explaining the meaning of ‘WEEK’. They say it means ‘Women’s Education Ends in Kitchen.’ We taunted the girls to no end and they accepted the joke as a reality. However, many of them still summoned the courage to attain great heights. Today, we have a number of the girls (now women) in the top echelons of various walks of life. But they still have their places in the ‘glorious’ kitchen.

Recently, the news went viral when the President said that his wife’s position was in the kitchen, the living room and the other room. This comment has attracted reactions from both men and women trying to position where the woman should be. Some women have ‘carried placards in protest, denying that their positions are in the kitchen. Such women include Mrs. Hilda Dokubo, the well-known actress.

But, truth be told, if the woman’s position not in the kitchen, where else can it be? Is the kitchen such a bad place? No! To me, the kitchen is a glorious place and every woman should aspire to be there.

Through the kitchen, the woman is the commander-in-chief of the home and the ruler of the entire life of her husband and her family. She has the life of her family in her hand. She determines what they eat and what they eat influences their health, and their health impacts on both their purse and effectiveness in whatever they do. She is the supreme commander of the family in whose hands, apart from God, lies their lives.

The living room and the other room will never perform well if the kitchen does not function effectively and efficiently. A man who is hungry cannot perform his work in the other room. In the same way, if the kitchen drains, the items in the living room will find themselves in the market. This is the power of the kitchen, and the woman is charge.

Who does not depend on the kitchen? No one! From the president to the beggar on the street; from the priest to laity; the professor and the undergraduate; the politician and the common man; all bow to the efficacy of the kitchen.

In Igbo parlance, my people say: When a young man continuously sighs when he is cooking, it is a sign he needs a wife. This is because he is looking for the natural owner of the kitchen to whom he will surrender his life to rule through his belly. When he finds her he, like Adam, heaves a sign of relief and hands over power. He only comes in to ask what is ready for him to eat. Any time the supreme commander is indisposed, the whole home is in disarray! This is the power of the kitchen, and this is where the woman holds sway!

Every religious person knows what happened in Egypt in what was probably the first recorded history of economic failure in the world, how people sold their lands to purchase food from Joseph. They went to the point of enslaving themselves to Joseph just to find food. Because Joseph had food, he was able to buy all Egypt. His parents and siblings bowed down before him and he ruled the world of his days. King Solomon became famous because of the judgement he delivered to the women who came to him because their kitchen had run dry. The women resorted to eating their children when they could not find food to eat. That is how powerful the kitchen department is that people can do anything, even killing and eating their own children, to keep it aglow.

The modern society is not quite different from the one narrated above. Any country that cannot feed its citizens is subservient to other countries from where they get food. Today, our country is in recession mostly because we cannot feed our population. We depend on other countries to give us food. Our currency cannot stand the pressure of international trade because we cannot stand on our own. The major portion of our import bill is on food, and so our currency has to take the plummet. And if we ever have to come out of recession, we must find food for our kitchen from within.

Currently, there is fear of kwashioko outbreak in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP’s) camps because the people there have lost contact with their kitchen and are no longer in the position to provide food for themselves. This is clear evidence that if we lose contact and grip of our kitchen, our health (physical and emotional) is in danger.

Can you ever imagine a party without entertainment (food and drink)? There have sprung up many kitchen-based businesses racking millions of money in whatever currency every year. A number of business conglomerates which major in kitchen and kitchen-related activities are doing, and will always do well, even when others are closing shops. The Nestles, the PZs, the UACs, Mr. Biggs, Tantalizers and so many others are in one department of the kitchen or the other and as long as we need food, they must continue to do business.

The importance of the kitchen has long received a good portion in the management theory. As far back as 1943 Abraham Maslow, one of the world’s management gurus and theorists, propounded his theory of human needs. He placed food as the most basic and said: “Needs in the lower categories have to be satisfied before needs in the higher ones can act as motivators. Thus, a violinist who is starving cannot be motivated to play Mozart, and a shop worker without a lunch break is less productive in the afternoon than one who has had a break.” It is unfortunate therefore for anybody to denigrate the kitchen. Any woman who disdains the kitchen has to rethink and assert her womanhood in her home. Any woman who loathes the kitchen is certainly not a real and family woman and can never be a good mother.

Any woman who pretends she does not belong to the kitchen is pretending not to be (or wishing not to be) a mother, or is loudly proclaiming that she has handed over her authority to others. Men do not play with their stomach, and any woman who can adequately meet their need has their heart.

One of the reasons why many marriages are collapsing is because the women have abandoned their natural area of authority to pursue vanities in the name of career and boardroom membership. They have, by so doing, lost grip of their homes, and the society is worse for it. Family values have been lost, integrity and hard work are becoming things of the past and we have a whole lot of societal dysfunctions because our mothers have relegated their high calling (the calling to take effective control of the kitchen) to pursue other things.

Many years ago, the wife of one of the greatest evangelists, Oral Robert, was asked by journalists why she was content with her position just as a house wife. She replied that she held holy communion three times daily in her house and she was the chief priest. But today, even the wives of Bishops are business tycoons in the expense of their congregations and their homes. No wonder why many of what are coming out from the pulpits are ‘preaching for the stomach’.

The kitchen is glorious. It is a place carefully given to the women by the Almighty. It is from there they rule the world of their husbands and children. It is from here they control all the affairs of humanity. It is from here they serve and glorify their maker and it is about here (the kitchen) they will give account to God, their maker. It is fruitless and against God for them to kick against the kitchen.

Being in the kitchen does not demean any woman. It does and should not stop her from pursuing whatever career and height she desires in life. In fact, it places her in the place of honour. It makes her the real leaders and rulers of the world. Their kitchens activities make the man perform effectively in his daily calling and looks forward to coming home after the day’s duties. It is the kitchen duties that preserves the living room and makes the other room’s activities effective.

Everybody depends on the kitchen to which the woman belongs and from where she rules as queen.