Paraga, another name for the cocktail of locally-brewed gin and roots, seems to have become a phenomenon for the treatment of ailments. CHINAKA OKORO examines the hazards associated with the drink.
It was like any other evening for Nwokike (pseudonym) popularly known as Baba Paraga in the neighbourhood. He ambled towards his usual “joint”- a roadside mini-bar where some women sell local gin- in search of some busy moments.
As he staggered along as a result of many years of constant consumption of paraga (local gin mixed with herbs and roots), he heard two voices in varied cadences that rose to a crescendo in an unbridled argument over a matter.
Ekwedike is about 50 years old but he looks 70. His frailty is conspicuous. Tall and dark with wrinkles all over his face, his veins are like railway lines criss-crossing a major railway station, while his waist is as fleshy as that of a lizard.
He had been at the ramshackle joint for over three hours, gulping paraga as if there was a trophy to be won for it. Ekwedike’s two other colleagues are present, also drinking as if their lives depended on it.
The “bar” tender- Mama Hotshot beams with smiles. She is happy not because she is selling fast but because she is sure to make extra money by padding the actual bills of the drunk men.
Ekwedike belched. He dipped his left hand into his armpit and rubbed his face with the malodorous sweat he scooped therefrom. He uttered a grunt any pig would be ashamed of and belched again.
Finally, he partially got hold of himself and made an exit from the dark rancid joint trying to find his way home. He lurched along for about 40 metres.
The laborious journey was undertaken in about 35 minutes, but he made it all the same.
Unfortunately, Ekwedike did not reach his home alive as his lifeless body was found along the road the following morning. He was run over that fateful night by a hit-and-run driver.
His colleagues mourned him at their joint the following day to the extent that “the bar” tender to order for more kegs of the raw stuff to satisfy the cravings of the mourners.
Ekwedike’s case is only an example of the increasing list of victims of alcoholism. While some drink themselves to death or lose valuables at paraga joints, others sustain various degrees of injuries whose scars they would carry to their graves.
Two distinct groups
Two distinct groups who patronise the locally brewed alcoholic cocktail have been identified. The first group are the chronic drunkards who would rather refuse to provide money for feeding for their families so that they would have their “usual.”
Ekwedike was among this group. Before his death, he always had tiffs with his wife, Uwajuru over feeding money. He would swear that he had no money on him any time his wife demands money for feeding from him.
But he would surreptitiously sneak out to Mama Hotshot’s joints and drink himself to stupor. This group would always take it either as “normal” drinks or as herbal medicine.
The second group comprises those who take it purely because of its purported herbal medicinal value. Those in this group may not take it to the point of being drunk.
Some observers of the paraga phenomenon say the destruction of the middle class came with its impoverishment of the people. The realisation that society no longer offered them much hope induced some of them to begin to look for means of escape from their despair such as hard drugs, alcoholism or gambling.
A booming business
In Lagos and some other states of the federation, paraga business has become popular, some say lucrative. Apart from the high demand for it, its popularity may not be unconnected with the fact that it has also become lucrative and the star-off capital is very low – a few bottles, a wooden table and bench and about 2, 000. The sellers do not need to pay rent as they operate virtually free in car parks and street corners.
With varied names such as Kaikai, Edegbe, Eric Moore, Sapele water and Ogogoro, the ubiquitous tables with all shapes and sizes of bottles are usually so strategically located that they easily attract attention. And whenever the regular patrons gather, the slang is the same.
It is either “give me jedi, opa eyin, ale, iba, lime, dogonyara, or pepper soup“, all referring to the different types of the cocktail, paraga.
Paraga sellers explain
Miss Eroka Folarin, a paraga seller in Ikotun area of Lagos, who spoke with The Nation, classified the concoction according to their perceived medicinal values.
She said, for instance, that jedi and lime are for stomach problems, iba and dogonyaro are for treatment of malaria attacks while opaeyin and pepper soup are for the treatment of back ache and sore throat respectively.
She also said there were two major types of gin which are used as paraga. One is “original” while the other is “chemical”.
“The ‘original’”, she said, “is sourced from palm wine. After fermentation, it is distilled to get the alcohol content. The ‘chemical’ is the industrial alcohol which is undiluted or a mixture of chemicals (which she declined to mention) and water.”
Despite the popularity of the paraga cocktails, there are fears that the health hazards associated with its consumption may, by far, be more than the unsuspecting consumers may assume.
Scientists have discovered that alcohol can be remarkably toxic – more than any other abused drug. However, experts are somewhat confused as to how much alcohol it takes to cause harm. This is so because, as they maintain, the human brain needs some dose of alcohol daily.
Medics explain, warn
Dr. James R. West, one-time Head Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at the Texas A&M Medical School posits that “the effect of low levels of alcohol appears to be subtle”, noting that “another factor making it difficult to say exactly the impact of alcohol is its widespread effects on the brain and body.”
“Alcohol is a dirty drug,” West said. He added that “it affects a number of different neurotransmitters, and cells can take it up.” In comparison, West said, cocaine is taken up by only one neurotransmitter.
Because alcohol affects so many sites in the brain, researchers believe that it is far worse than any other abused drug.
Chemical analysts Cynthia Kuhn, Scott Swatzwelder and Wilkie Wilson have also argued that alcohol, being a sedative hypnotic (sleep-inducing), about 20 per cent of it is absorbed through the small intestine. They maintain that alcohol molecules are carried through the bloodstream and come into contact with the cells of virtually all the organs of the body.
It is even more dangerous, they further argued, for someone to drink on an empty stomach as the blood absorbs the alcohol rapidly. The body also absorbs higher concentrations of alcohol, such as mixed drinks or shots, very quickly.
Explaining why some individuals engage in excessive consumption of alcohol, Mrs. Mary U. Egwim, an Analytical Chemist said: “After drinking, people usually feel pleasurable and become loquacious at first.
The feelings usually give way for drowsiness as the alcohol is eliminated from the body, and the drinker may become withdrawn. This pattern often encourages people to drink more to keep the buzz going.”
Egwim said: “Immediate medical attention is necessary if a person becomes unconscious, is impossible to arouse or seems to have trouble breathing.”
This, she said, is because drinking a high concentration of alcohol in a short period of time can suppress the centres of the brain that control breathing and cause a person to pass out or even die.
Dangerous when alcohol is in blood
Dr Ngozi Canice posited that “when people pass out, their bodies continue to absorb alcohol. The amount of alcohol in the blood can reach the dangerous levels and they can die in their sleep. Continue to check on someone who has gone to sleep drunk.
“Do not leave that person alone. It is dangerous to combine alcohol with other drugs, especially those that make one sleep.”
Dr. Canice cautioned against excess consumption of alcohol as most of them are metabolised in the liver and then excreted, even as she noted that when someone drinks more alcohol than his liver can handle efficiently, the additional alcohol accumulates in the blood and body tissues.
It is believed that some people’s blood alcohol concentration will be higher after drinking too much of it. It is also assumed that if a person abuses alcohol, he or she may become dependent on it, which means that alcohol would become part of the person’s physical functioning.
The effects of liquor on the body depend on the amount of it the person consumes. But the immediate consequence of drinking, especially in excess, experts say, are likely to be loss of control, flushing and dizziness, loss of coordination and motor skills, impairment of brain and nervous system functions, irregular pulse and enlarged heart, unconsciousness and memory impairment. (The Nation)
