Young Life in Freetown: Chickens and Chicken Hierarchies
No one knows how chickens got to Sierra Leone. But a lot of people in Freetown today think breeds from European countries are superior to local fowls. Unlike Ndama cows, which were domesticated in Fuuta-Jaloo more than 8,000 years ago, and are still loved for their meat all over West Africa, chicken born and bred in Sierra Leone don't do well at all in social comparisons. But backyard farmers want local breeds and they are spreading knowledge of raising them to others for inspiration. "People say that the eggs of local fowl do not have the same nutrients as the English fowls and that the local fowls have thick skins," Cecilia Conteh said. Cecilia thinks it's all down to the feed. She is raising two backyard hens hatched from fowls that she got as a gift from her grandmother who lives in a faraway village. Isata Kanu's free-range hens are thriving with added grains of rice in the morning and evening. Tigidankay Koi says her chickens keep her fa