I saw them pour red dye inside the palm oil my mother sells

My mother sells palm oil in Awka main market. I used to help her on Saturdays when I was in secondary school, that is how I know the trade small small. The oil we sell is thick and dark, the kind that stains your fingers and smells like fresh kernel.

But there was one woman at the next stall, Mama Ngozi, her oil was always brighter than everybody own. Customers would leave our line and go to her because her own looked 'fresher'. One evening I stayed back to help my mother pack and I saw Mama Ngozi pour something from a small bottle into her drum. Red. Like food colouring but thick. I asked my mother quietly and she just said 'Emeka, shut your mouth and face your front.'

I never forgot that. Now every time I see pepper or oil that is too red, too bright, I think of that drum. My mother died in 2021 and I still don't know if what killed her was the oil she sold or the oil she cooked with. We just dey manage in this country. God help us.