As young boys in our early teens in
the sixties (1960s), one of the trends was to collect and amass chewing gum
photos. The photographs come with the chewing gum, in a package. Hence the name
chewing gum photo. Pronouncing it in the vernacular way, which is how we
pronounced it, it was “chingɔŋ foto” (singular and prural). The chingɔŋ foto
were photos of celebrated actors and actresses of those times. They were photos
of celebrities like Dean Martin, Burt Lancaster and Roy Rogers. It became a
status symbol to have a large collection of chingɔŋ foto. The compulsion then
was to keep buying the chewing gum to amass a large collection of photos.
If I knew then, what I know now, I
most likely would not have patronized the chewing gum at all, or at least the
way I did it. Now I know, and I got to know when researching this post. What I now know is
that chewing gum is made with synthetic rubber, the very rubber inner tube is
made of. In addition it is sweeten with artificial sweeteners like saccharin,
for example. All of these materials are toxic.
Some of the general reasons for
chewing gum are to refresh breath, keep focused, to kill a habit like smoking
etc.
The sticky stuff (synthetic rubber) that is dropped into the
environment after the toxic sweeteners have been taken into the human body is
not biodegradable. I have had chewing gum stuck on the sole of my shoes, and I
know how unpleasant it is in getting rid of it.
The answer to toxic chewing gum might
be a tropical fruit. The Ga people of Accra, Ghana call it Alasa. The Nigerians
call it Agbalumo or Udara. The fruit’s common name is White Star Apple. The
botanical name for the fruit is Chrysophyllum albidum. Alasa is a bitter sweet
fruit. It is a popular fruit. After the juice has been sucked from it, the
flesh of the fruit, and sometimes together with the skin, is chewed into a gum.
Alasa is a fruit yet a chewing gum. It is organic and natural,
free of toxic artificial sweeteners. It is environmentally friendly and ought
to be preferred over chingɔŋ that is not biodegradable.
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