Nigeria, the land of plenty

Mon beau sapin, roi des forêts/ Ô Tannenbaum Lagos roads and streets are always the best place to find out about what is in the air thanks to street hawkers who are doing a business with every possible needs, that is to say, needs that a person sitting in a car would want to fulfill. Everyday, chips are and drinks are the usual suspects to feed and quench the thirst of passengers. Newspapers in the morning, books in the evening, hats during sunny days, DVDs and CDs in the evening and on weekends. It is amazing to see how well demand is being addressed by a timely supply. the choice is yours: prepare Christmas party and/or refuel with jerry cans But specific situations are also quickly taken care of. Fuel shortages see a flurry of plastic jerry cans and plastic funnels being peddled. And since a couple of weeks Christmas is out on the street with hats, mask and even Christmas trees, so just pick the one you like. red is the color of Christmas

tanker for sale As in Singapore, many ships are crowding the horizon on the sea along the Atlantic coast of Lagos. These are patiently waiting for  their turn to come to unload or load their containers in the harbour of Apapa or Tincan Island. Most of them come and go after have completed their duty. But unlike Singapore some are just staying longer than expected, by design or by accident. Hence the coast is littered by ship wrecks which are rusting away and sinking in the sand progressively so that, in the end, they are no longer visible. once a great ship Stories point out human error as a reason for the ship's beaching. The captain went to see his girlfriends and the ship drifted ashore... seriously? More probable is that these ships are either beyond repair or the company owning her in financial trouble and therefore the ship is abandoned. from raw material to recycling One of them was a complete tanker standing ominously on the sand at the e...

who's wearing the hat? Lagos Jazz Series is back in Lagos, an interesting mix of jazz directions produced in a couple of venues in the course of a week. Well, this year the line-up was disrupted by the killings of Radisson Blue in Bamako, Mali which caused American artists to cancel their trip until further notice. An unfortunate confusion between Bamako in Mali and Lagos in Nigeria. While both are in western Africa, they are worlds apart. Lagos has not seen any terrorist acts or at least not in recent years. Occasional armed robberies may happen but these remain rare and police is now doing a much better job to prevent them. chinese vibe from the Collective Fortunately, not all artists were coming from the US and two big artists made the day on November 27th over a collaboration. First Seun Kuti and Egypt 80. Seun is the younger son of Fela. He is keeping alive the flame of his father Fela Kuti by perpetuating Afrobeat, pretty much in the way his father left it a...

coconut treats for sale Tarkwa Bay is a stretch of divinely fine sand at the exit of the lagoon into the ocean, it is shielded from the high sea by a seawall of huge stone blocks which provides to the beach goers a bit intimacy from the tankers entering the harbour of Lagos. a beach with a view Opposite the lagoon entrance is a vast construction work for the birth of a new city, Eko Atlantic: 250,000 people will live there on 9 million square meters. This will be a new center for finance and energy sectors, built on reclaimed land. It will be powered by its own power grid, independent of the rest of the country which produces about 20% of what Nigeria needs everyday. So far three towers have come up the ground. Eko Atlantic: one, two, three Well, back to the plastic strewn beach. it is a quiet getaway from the city center, a 15 minutes boat ride from Falomo bridge in Victoria Island. The sand stretch is lined up with reclining chairs of wood and cloth. A c...

a portrait of Suzanne Wenger in her last years Suzanne Wenger, an austrian artist, came to Nigeria in 1950 and decided to stay in Osogbo for the rest of her life as she became a yoruba high priest under the name of Adunni. She worked with her then boyfriend Ulli Beier to create concrete sculptures in the sacred grove of Osogbo , a wood on a hill traversed by a river. She contributed along the years to reinvigorate the local yoruba art scene in Osogbo. She adopted many children, some of which became famous like Nike . After a few years in Osogbo she contracted tuberculosis and was cured with the help of local medicine thanks to contacts with Yoruba priests. She was then initiated to Yoruba beliefs and became a \yoruba priestess. welcome to Suzanne and Ulli's world Her house in Osogbo has three levels. It is built of stone and concrete. Her bedroom was on the second floor, a simple room with a bed, a collection of fine artifacts and some now dusty books.  The hous...

market experience starts early The Yoruba city that became the city of Suzanne Wenger: Osogbo is about 200/250km north east from Lagos. It features an interesting mix of churches and mosques. The railway crosses the town. Osogbo central mosque The oldest part is hosting a market along several narrow streets, the remains of a palace, the grand mosque with a dome partly damaged as if a bomb had landed there. Grass grows on the edge of its roofs. It is built of stone the same way as the cathedral which looks much less impressive and all towards the sky.  the cathedral of all Saints A part of the market is dedicated to witchcraft. A lot of the houses could actually be very beautiful colonial buildings were they not in an advance stage of dilapidation. Their façade are reddish yellow as if the ground had slowly varnished them.  faded beauty

Shango is stronger than fire The day we visited the sacred grove, a very menacing storm had just passed and the rain was still falling gently. As we approached the last group of sculptures we heard the sound of drum beating. It was a group of colorfully dressed dancers performing in the honor of Shango. The dance took place at the feet of the statue of security. Four drummers were creating the beat of the dance and one man a few group of girls were dancing and praising Shango, a caracter dressed in red. At some point Shango took some fire on a metal stick impregnated with fuel and swallowed it twice, showing his control of that element. He then went on bringing the flame close to his flesh: hands, arms and legs were purified by the fire one after the other. setting the rythm  Later on, as the rain was still falling a second set of dances took place next to another statue. This time, explained the university art professor who had interpreted Shango, it was an experimen...

Alajogun-Alajere-Obluaye Osogbo is one of the few touristic destinations in Nigeria to be highlighted in western travel guides. This is because an austrian artist, Suzanne Wenger, came to Nigeria in the sixties and decided to stay in Osogbo for the rest of her life as she became a yoruba high priest under the name of Adunni. She worked with her then boyfriend Ulli Beier to create concrete and iron sculptures in the sacred grove of Osogbo, a wood on a hill traversed by a river. The place is a sacred place of worship to Yoruba gods. Oshun along the river Suzanne Wenger passed away in 2009 but the grove is still standing. Her work has been restored recently and is attracting visitors from around the globe. There is a festival in the last week of August with traditional celebrations that gathers most of the tourist in the year. the palace The grove hosts a palace with a thatched roof and walls of mud painted with basic shapes in white, yellow and dark red. A mix ...

welcome to the Ice Imperial party The rumour goes that Nigeria is the second largest champagne consumer in the world after France. At first sight it comes as a surprise but that could very well be true. Nigerians love drinking champagne especially rosé. All supermarkets in Lagos are stocking expensive brands - the brand seems to play a very important role in consumption -  from Moet & Chandon, Veuve Cliquot, Dom Pérignon, etc... The same in bars and clubs. So there would not be an offer without demand. serve it on the rocks even if you sweat That afternoon, Moet & Chandon launched its new Ice Imperial, a champagne designed to be drunk on the rocks, at the pool terrace of the newly renovated Radisson Blue in Victoria Island which sits by the lagoon side. The party started at 2pm and shade was scarce so the rocks were very welcome in the champagne! The day was unusually hot, the sky blue without a cloud. The dress code was "white" to match the color of...

going to Ibadan Going to Ibadan from Lagos can be a  long journey if on a bad day . The road traverses Ogun state before entering Oyo state, where Ibadan is located. As for most big cities, the approach is progressive, crossing suburbs and industrial area. In the case of Ibadan, though, it feels more like densification of houses, corrugated iron roofs and people at the roadside markets. colourful on a grey day Despite its alleged 4 million inhabitants, there is no real downtown and very few skyscrapers (though Cocoa House built in the sixties, 105m tall, was once the highest building in that part of Africa). It is merely a sprawl of buildings with a few floors if at all. busy landscape By one estimate in 2000, the city was covering 400km2 - four times central Paris. The city has developed as a trading hub: the railway Lagos- Kano goes through it and it has an airport. The surrounding area is full of arable land. One only gets a sense of the city...

a nearly fearless driver Ibadan is a large city, third largest in Nigeria probably, with 3 or 4 million inhabitants. Its growth is fueled by the vicinity of Lagos. It lies about 100km north east of Lagos. The road linking Lagos and Ibadan looks like a run-down motorway in the US, 2 by 2 lanes with a concrete divide that cannot be crossed. powerful and well guarded The road is famous for its mega-churches along the way that can cause huge traffic disruption when a celebration is on due to the cheer size of the faithful who congregate their. These churches look like warehouses able to contain thousands of people. The largest one being built will be a hall, 2km long (only). Muslims are in minority in the south of the country. islamic city by the roadside Then, there is a number of companies that are established a long the way resulting in a concentration of trucks parked along the road, not to mention all the ones that are just abandoned there, rusting away slowly...

moving in on wheels Isolo is an area of Lagos situated on the mainland near the airport. It has a huge market on Tuesdays and hosts also a lot of craftsmen. Next to an unappealing waterway, some sort of natural canal turned sewer, there is a memorial for victims of a bomb blast that took place a few years back and which caused a few tenth of fleeing residents attempting to cross the water to drown in it. deadly waters Adjoining the water is a hill covered by shacks. One corner is occupied by meat producers. They breed zebus and goats and produce meat. From a distance one could see the easily recognizable shape of the long-horned zebus against the sky as well as minarets of a nearby mosque. a hill with horns and minarets The hill is muddy, no pavement, just earth mixed with garbage. In places, the ground drops abruptly and reveals layers of trash accumulated over the years. One wonders if a modern breed of plastic archeologists would not be fascinated by the...