Nigeria, the land of plenty

bathing in Calabar Easter week-end in Nigeria is a 4 day weekend. Nigerians travel a lot to visit their families, especially in the mostly christian south. Despite fuel shortages, people travel, by car, by bus or by plane. The flight from Lagos to Calabar was at 7.40am with a number of other flights between 6.30 and 8am. I therefore arrived at 6.20am only to find a single queue to check-in for all the flights that was already filling up the complete hall. Nigerians can be very patient with their country and their leaders but some of them cannot stand queuing so they will use any sort of VIP shortcuts, for a fee, provided by helpful airport staff and create havoc at the check-in counter by flooding the area normally designed for a few passengers actually checking-in at the counter. The process snowballed rapidly, making any movement at the check-in counter impossible because of people and heavy suitcases occupying every square inch of the floor. On top of that there is no exit path ...

brand new royal carpet The King of the Yorubas lives in Ife, 200km north east of Lagos, not too far from Ibadan. He is known as the Ooni of Ife. He has a palace and has obviously a few houses in town. No one is supposed to know where he spends the night. The Ooni is in his early forties. He was recently elected following the passing on of the late Ooni of Ife - le roi est mort, vive le roi! The burial ceremony of the late Ooni, called Oro festival, fueled rumours because traditionally a man, associated to the Ooni and called Abobakun, is supposed to be buried with the Ooni to accompany him in the afterlife. That man, reportedly fled, as the late Ooni passed away, in the hope to escape his fate. This was a few weeks ago. As we visited Ife, some people told us the Abobakun had since died but maybe we did not understand it quite well? a beer brand celebrating the new Ooni of Ife However we got to understand that the Ooni occupies a prominent role in the Yoruba world and acts as ...

Keziah Jones and his famous hat Lagos is a city where music counts: bodies like to shake on the rhythm of percussions; churches are resonating with gospel; bars, clubs and pool parties rock at the sound of the latest tunes locally produced and heavily exported; and of course all the mobile phones serving to their owner their own selection through their earphones. But there is also the Musical Society of Nigeria ( MUSON ) which feature a school of music and is hosted in an old but well maintained building in Lagos Island, the MUSON center. african jam: Keziah Jones, Hammay Saho, Age Beeka, the Venus Bushfires, Nneka and the Muson ensemble The last week of February, MUSON produced a series of concert bringing together classical musicians playing strings, traditional percussions, chora players and a griot singer from Gambia - Hammay Saho-, a nigerian male soul singer - Age Beeka -, a nigeria female gospel singer - the Venus Bushfires - and two internationally acclaimed musicians ...

Epe fish market by the lagoon Epe (pronounced Ekpe in yoruba) is a small city located on the narrow stretch of water that separates the lagoon of Lagos from the one, further in the east, known as Lekki lagoon. It is built on the small hills that border the water. It is connected by a bridge to the Lekki peninsula. The town is famous for its fish market located on the water side. It is the place to buy fresh water fish, some of them still alive. They are kept in plastic buckets but also directly in the lagoon water in woven baskets. available once a year Many more is for sale such as crayfish, crocodile, turtle, monitor lizard, big snails.  Game meat is also available coming from the nearby forest of the Omo reserve. We saw two wild cats with white spotted black fur and a strong scent; As we left we saw antilope legs arriving to the stall. Some fishes are particular, one is sending electricity shocks when you touch it, another one was looking like a prehistoric fish with ...