August 24
Up at five, but felt rather well rested. One more day, and I figure that I’ll be on local time.
Down for breakfast in the hotel with our group at 8 AM. Spent the rest of the morning in the air conditioned hotel restaurant, implementing Funmi’s clever idea of having people come to see us, rather than our having to run around to see them. Spent time with two of the young Nigerians who were with us poolside last night, Ayo and Uche, exploring a wide range of business ideas. In the 1990’s Nigeria suffered a real “brain drain,” with many talented young people going abroad and not returning, due to a perceived lack of opportunity. That seems to be reversing now, with young people seeing unlimited opportunities to make money here, and the political climate improving somewhat (though it has a very long way to go still).
We were also visited by a person in charge of medical research for a large pharmaceutical company, called Novartis. He and the Olopades all seem to think that a partnership between his company and the University of Chicago was a natural, a win-win situation, giving the U of C access to large amounts of data and giving Navaris the research help of the U of C, along with attendant credibility.
Other discussions with the Olopades included Nigerian traditions of child raising that infused children with a sense of their goodness and value, which interested Susie a great deal. Family songs, Orikis, were created to reflect this practice and to tell the family story, and we will hear some when we visit Sola and Funmi’s mothers tomorrow. We also spent time discussing issues of medical ethics, an area of passion and expertise of Sola.
In the afternoon, we headed off to an art gallery, Terra Culture, which had some well-made wood sculpture and also “paintings” made of buttons. Interesting, good and competent work, but not exceptional. We ate lunch at a restaurant that was part of the gallery. After lunch, we headed for a market area called Lekki, stopping en route at a small marketplace where we changed money with somebody who provides better rates than are available in banks. On the way to Lekki, we drove through Bananna Island, a very high end area, with large, expensive homes and upscale offices.
Lekki is an area that houses stalls of merchants selling crafts of all kinds, as well as clothing. The area was set up by the government to create a place where people could come to shop and buy from a large number of merchants. The market is like many we’ve seen around Africa and Asia, with rows of owners trying to entice you in to their shops/stalls to look at their wares, which they were offering you a “good price” on. The market was interesting enough, but less colorful than some others we’ve seen. The Olopades and Kipharts purchased a few things, and Carol bargained for a couple native-styled dresses for granddaughters, Zoe and Phoebe. At the market, we ran into a Nigerian from Chicago, Ayo, who the Olopades knew, who had purchased a lot of art in the market over the years, who led us around. Ayo was with a Swiss wealth management guy, Marcel, who he’d met the night before. Of course, Funmi, who knows everyone in the world, knew Marcel’s boss, who had thrown a fund raising dinner for the Global Health Initiative in Winnetka. Ayo snapped a photo of Funmi and Marcel to email to Funmi’s friend.
We headed back to the hotel to shower and change, then rushed out to dinner at an upscale hotel, a surprise party to celebrate Dick’s 72nd birthday. We got lost on the way to the hotel, and there were hilarious exchanges between Funmi, who was barking orders to the driver and demanding his cell phone to seek directions, and Sola, who was telling Funmi to “chill.” Funmi is not a chilling-type person.
Eventually, we made it to the dinner, which Funmi had orchestrated to bring her “Chicago family” together with six Nigerian friends, who she called her “Nigerian family”. There was a printed dinner menu for Dick’s birthday, with choices for each course. All the Nigerians were dressed in local garb, the women in flamboyant dresses, and the men in stylish, understated suits. Unfortunately, I had not brought my camera, but Carol has good, video footage.
One of the women was a high school friend of Funmi’s and one of the men was a high school roommate of Sola. They called each other, “My Boy” and the husband of Funmi’s friend was referred to as, “the Prince.” This was a very educated and highly-successful group of people in their early sixties, and included a prominent lawyer, a woman who worked for the Ford Foundation, an oil and gas consultant, a woman who ran an NGO that made micro-loans to small women farmers, a highly successful business man with varying business interests, including converting cassava into ethanol, and a woman who ran a catering business that sold to airlines. They were not short of opinions, vociferously expressed, on a wide range of topics, so it was a very lively evening, punctuated frequently with boisterous outbursts of laughter. The twelve of us were joined at a separate table, by five young professionals with whom we visited after singing happy birthday to Dick and watching him blow out the candles on the cake the Olopades had bought.
We headed back to the hotel, tired but exhilarated from a most memorable evening.
August 23-24
I know you’re getting impatient for us to reach Nigeria. Well, by the time you read this, we’ll have arrived. But right now we’re in the Frankfurt Airport, awaiting our connecting flight to Lagos. Was able to make the last blog post from here and, indeed, could have done it from the plane by purchasing an hour of wifi for about fifteen bucks. Pretty amazing, but it pales in comparison to making blog posts from a bus in rural Guizhou Province, China last November. That one still boggles my mind.
Flight to Frankfurt was around seven hours (nine, with delays), a couple hours layover, then about six hours or so to Lagos. A long haul, but we’re used to it. And it’s a lot longer swim. Not surprisingly, the demographics on the plane change dramatically on the two legs, from almost all white, half German speaking, to almost all black, English speaking.
We’re here. Airport in Lagos was quite a scene, starting with the customs guy asking us for phone numbers of our host. We gave him the name of the Lagos hotel and with a sly smile, he said, “Oh, you were invited by a hotel?” That wasn’t going to fly, but luckily we flagged down Funmi and Sola, who had already cleared the Nigerian line. We explained what was going on, Funmi grabbed an airport official and, with her in tow, marched over to the customs guy and had everything cleared up in two minutes.
We went over to the baggage area, where Funmi and Sola retrieved the ten boxes they’d brought from the University of Chicago, essentially importing a small hospital. Airport officials inspected tags for everything, and Funmi let them know that she was an OON, Order of Niger, an honorific title bestowed on her a year or two ago, based on the nomination of the Governor of Ekiti State, with whom we’ll have dinner in a couple days. The honor is akin to OBE, or knighthood, in England. I told Funmi that I intend to coast through Nigeria, telling folks that I’m a FOON, Friend of an OON.
We were met at the airport by people from Ibadan (where we will also visit), with whom the Olopades and U of C have a continuing relationship. We and our twenty bags were loaded onto and transported by stretch golf cart-like vehicles, that wove with great difficulty into the parking area, where two vans awaited us. The crowd at the airport was part in Western dress and part in colorful native garb. Our cart drivers had to get out periodically to physically stop traffic to allow us to wend our way into the lot.
In the vans, we immersed ourselves in very heavy Lagos traffic. Our drivers tried various routes, finally getting us to the hotel in only about two hours. En route, we passed by the water slum areas with clouds of pollution hanging above them that almost abut the Victoria Island area, which houses the financial center of Lagos, and our hotel.
The two-hour ride was actually fine, though, as the air conditioned van provided a moving living room in which we all could learn more about Nigeria’s and the Olopades histories. Whenever we travel and hear or read about the histories of the places we visit, I am struck by how foreign our own experience is to that of the rest of the world. No foreign occupations, no colonial experience, no military juntas and rule. It makes it difficult for us to truly imagine the experiences of the places we visit. To give you the big picture on Nigeria, we were struck by how it bestrides sub-Saharan Africa as a kind of colossus. The population of Lagos alone is two-thirds the population of the entire country of Ghana. In a sense, Nigeria is three countries, the Ibo-dominated, oil rich Southeast (which seceded as Biafra in the late 1960s, resulting in a 30-month civil war that killed more than a million), the Yoruba West of the Country that includes Lagos, the country’s engine, and the Hausa North, which is largely Muslim, agrarian and military. These countries have different languages and cultures. There were originally twelve states in the three regions, but those twelve have now morphed into thirty-six, each with a government, and each (except Lagos) largely dependent on an oil-rich federal government for funds. Small wonder, then, that corruption is a big problem.
Funmi and Sola are both Yorubas, and proud of it. Funmi’s father was an Anglican minister and Sola’s a businessman. Both Sola and Funmi were highly educated in the best and most competitive schools in Nigeria. They are both dual citizens, travelling on Nigerian passports on the way over, and US passports on the way back. It’s important for us to keep in mind that in dealing with Funmi and Sola, we are talking to the upper strata of Nigerian society and not to think that they are representative of the population as a whole. I’m sure I’ll fill in more about the Olopades as we go though Nigeria together.
We arrived at the Blowfish Hotel, a very comfortable, though unpretentious place and were taken up to our rooms, passing through a courtyard area, with a very nice and large pool. We freshened up for 15 minutes, then met in the lobby for the short, one block walk to Yellow Chilli’s a popular local restaurant. There we sampled from a wide range of tasty Nigerian foods that Funmi and Sola ordered for our table.
After dinner, we walked back to the Blowfish and sat at tables by the pool. There we were joined by about eight young 30-something Nigerians, friends and relatives of the Olopades very accomplished children. It was a very attractive, impressive and educated group of young business, financial and entertainment industry people, most of whom had lived in the US. Nobody would sell this group short, and if they’re the future of Nigeria, that future looks bright. After 45 minutes or so of lively discussion, comparing life in Nigeria with life in the US and elsewhere in Africa, we retired to our rooms, exhausted from our 36 hours of travel.
August 22-23.
Flying from Chicago to Lagos via Frankfurt. In coach. Those of you who read my Myanmar blog will recall that I announced that I was in my business-class years. Well, I thought I was, but here’s what happened.
We’re flying United/Lufthansa, so I have insufficient miles to get a business-class ticket. I was intending to purchase a business-class fare, but discovered that for Carol and me the difference between coach and business was about $9000. The purpose of our trip is to help in rural areas of Nigeria and Ghana. When we thought about the difference between flying coach and business, and what a charitable contribution for the causes we wanted to support would mean instead, the decision was really pretty easy. So, we are sucking it up back in coach. Not that bad, really.
We are traveling with our friends, Dick and Susie Kiphart, and Funmi and Sola Olopade (well, not “with” exactly, but on the same plane). We have traveled with the Kipharts a number of times in Ghana, and the Olopades joined us last year in Ghana. None of us, other than the Olopades who were born there, have been to Nigeria. The Olopades are both doctors, and run the Global Health Initiative at the University of Chicago. If you want to know something about Funmi, I encourage you to take a look at http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/36681/title/Cancer-Knows-No-Borders/. Sola is equally accomplished, but does not have as good a press agent as Funmi.
For those of you who found my pre-trip history post too long or boring, or want to focus on what’s key, here are Sola and Funmi’s answers to three questions I put to them a few days before we left.
What five things should readers of the blog understand about Nigeria?
Nigeria is a multi-ethnic country and a relatively young democracy despite getting independence in 1960
Nigeria is a major oil producer and probably provides 25% of US oil import of light crude
Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa with an estimate of 1 in 3 to 1 in 4 black persons in the world being a Nigerian [read that one again!]
Nigerians value education and are the most educated in terms of masters level degrees earned by all immigrants in the USA
Moslems and Christians are about 50/50 in terms of numbers with the north being predominantly Moslems and the southwest being a mixture
2. What are Nigeria’s greatest strengths/assets?
The people, not only in terms of numbers but in terms of generosity, especially the Yorubas, who are sometimes captioned as “as hospitable as the Yorubas”
Natural resources beyond oil, which is what most people know
Entrepreneurship
Confident and very assertive educated folks
Large families that provide safety net for those going through life’s challenges
3. What are Nigeria’s greatest problems/challenges?
Corruption
Sole dependence on oil
Unreliable power (electrical) supply
Poor leadership
Population explosion
Health inequities
Reflecting back on the year since I last went to Ghana, it’s been filled with incredible travel–trips to Ghuizo Province in China, to Myanmar and to Cuba. Some of you have followed all of those trips (and for those who did not, it’s not too late to do so, as there are links on the website page on which this post appears). Each of these trips was fabulous in and of itself, but the individual blogs do not begin to capture the tapestry that these trips have woven in Carol and my lives.
The Myanmar trip was planned by our friends, Dotty and Jim Guyot, who have lived in Yangon for nine years. We’ve been in touch with them before and after our trip, and are working with them to help as they are transitioning the wonderful program they created there into a new stage of development. This work has kept us in closer touch with our friends Sharon Silverman and David Zimberoff, who first introduced us to the Guyots. Hillary Myint, the young lady who showed us around Yangon, just spent six days with us in Chicago, before going up to St. Olaf’s College in Northfield, MN. She was joined at our house the last two days by two former St. Olaf professors, the Bauers, Susan and Gene, who are sponsors of Hillary in MN. We will undoubtedly stay in touch with Hillary (and the Bauers), as we will with Aung Lin Htet, the young man who showed us around Mandalay. Aung Lin Htet will start college in Maine in a few days and we have been in email contact with him since leaving Myanmar.
With regard to Ghana and Nigeria, we are in constant contact via email and in person with the Kipharts and the Olopades, and, primarily through them, with others in Ghana. It’s fair to say that hardly a day goes by when Carol and I don’t think about Ghana or Nigeria. I don’t keep all of the emails, by any means, but I just checked my email folder since last September, and there are well over 500. Joe and Ida Kwarteng, who live near Cape Coast in Ghana, and who we have become friends with from our visits there, spent a couple days at our house earlier in August, with their daughter, who is starting at Wheaton College this month and we had dinner with the Kwartengs, Olopades and Kipharts to put finishing touches on trip plans about a week ago. Funmi cooked us all a delicious Nigerian dinner.
I am in touch with some of the people I met on my photography trip to China and have just formed a small group with a couple of them and a few other photographer friends to comment on each other’s photos on line. With respect to all of my trips, I spend many, many enjoyable hours on photographs (and Carol spends similar time on poems for the trips that she has been on) after each trip.
All of this is to say that our travel has become an important part of Carol and my lives, and not only during the trips we take. I’m keenly aware of how privileged we’ve been to form the relationships that we have through our travel, and the opportunities that has provided us to experience the way in which others around the world live.
And I’m beginning to think more about writing about travel writing, too. Carol wanted to attend a weekend poetry course at the summer Iowa Writers Workshop this June, so I tagged along and took a travel writing course. I’m not sure that it will be reflected much in the blog, since I’m pretty intent on just getting the experiences down, but, who knows, it might. In any case it was fun to think about what makes for good travel writing, and to read some very creative pieces.
Here are a few notes I took that may give you an idea of some things we talked about in Iowa (if you can make any sense of them):
Annecdote v .comprehensiveness
Food, high art, etc
If you go…then (advice)
Literary travel writing, rewards multiple readings
Gives something to the writer
Travel includes metaphysical as well as physical
First, second and third person
Sensory detail, image, multiplier
Use of names, numbers, facts, history, geography
Conflict
Characters
Treatment of time
Themes
Makes us open to new ways of thinking, and writing. Receptivity.
Bucket lists
Othering, how we deal with the other we encounter in traveling
And, occasionally, we delved into the philosophical aspects of travel, too, so I’ll close with a couple quotes that ring true to me.
“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” Martin Buber
“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” Henry James
Okay, enough background, context, etc. Let’s see what Nigeria has to offer.
Okay, so are you packed? Carol and I leave for Nigeria on the 22nd, and I go on from there to Ghana on the 28th, while she returns home.
People ask me, “How do you prepare for a trip like this?” Actually, that’s literary license, nobody asks me that. But the question allows me to admit that I do shamefully little. I know some folks immerse themselves in history, politics, culture of the countries they travel to. I’m lucky if I read a book or two, often a novel, this time Half of a Yellow Sun. On this trip, there’s been a fair amount of preparation in talking to the four friends we’re traveling with, of which more later. The information I’ve presented below is material that I’ve stolen and edited from a very few sources, mainly Wikipedia. I hope it provides some useful background, but if it’s too much, just skim or skip around.
General
People ask me, “How do you prepare for a trip like this?” Actually, that’s literary license, nobody asks me that. But the question allows me to admit that I do shamefully little. I know some folks immerse themselves in history, politics, culture of the countries they travel to. I’m lucky if I read a book or two, often a novel, this time Half of a Yellow Sun. On this trip, there’s been a fair amount of preparation in talking to the four friends we’re traveling with, of which more later. The information I’ve presented below is material that I’ve stolen and edited from a very few sources, mainly Wikipedia. I hope it provides some useful background, but if it’s too much, just skim or skip around.
General
Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in the north. Its coast in the south lies on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean. There are over 250 ethnic groups in Nigeria of which the three largest ethnic groups are the Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. The country is larger in area than Texas.
The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country. This name was coined by Flora Shaw, who later married Lord Lugard, a British colonial administrator, in the late 19th century. Nigeria was formed as a result of the amalgamation by Lord Lugard of the northern and southern British protectorates around the Niger River. The British colonized Nigeria in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, setting up administrative structures and law while recognizing traditional chiefs through a system known as indirect rule. Nigeria became independent in 1960 and became a Republic in 1963. Several years later, between 1967-1970, it had a civil war as Biafra tried to establish independence. Military governments, through coups, have alternated with democratically elected governments.
Known as “the Giant of Africa”, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and the seventh most populous country in the world. Nigeria is roughly divided in half between Christians, who mostly live in the South and central parts of the country, and Muslims, concentrated mostly in the north. The country is also approximately half rural and half urban. A minority of the population practice traditional and local religions, including the Igbo and Yoruba religions. Its oil reserves have brought great revenues to the country. It is listed among the “Next Eleven” economies. Nigeria is a member of both the Commonwealth of Nations, and the African Union. Since 1986, it has been a member of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
Demographics
One out of every six Africans is Nigerian. Presently, Even conservative estimates conclude that more than 20% of the world’s black population lives in Nigeria.
According to the United Nations, Nigeria has been undergoing explosive population growth and one of the highest growth and fertility rates in the world. By their projections, Nigeria is one of eight countries expected to account collectively for half of the world’s total population increase from 2005–2050. By 2100 the UN estimates that the Nigerian population will be between 505 million and 1.03 billion people (middle estimate: 730 million). In 1950, Nigeria had only 33 million people. Present estimates of population range rather widely, but may exceed 165 million.
Nigeria’s largest city is Lagos. Lagos has grown from about 300,000 in 1950 to an estimated 15 million today (some sources put this number considerably lower), and the Nigerian government estimates that city will have expanded to 25 million residents by 2015.
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Independence
On 1 October 1960, Nigeria gained its independence from the United Kingdom. Nigeria’s government was a coalition of conservative parties: the Nigerian People’s Congress (NPC), a party dominated by Northerners and those of the Islamic faith; and the Igbo and Christian-dominated National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) led by Nnamdi Azikiwe, who became Nigeria’s second Governor-General in 1960 and President in 1963. Forming the opposition was the comparatively liberal Action Group (AG), which was largely dominated by the Yoruba and led by Obafemi Awolowo. The cultural and political differences among Nigeria’s dominant ethnic groups: the Hausa (‘Northerners’), Igbo (‘Easterners’) and Yoruba (‘Westerners’), were sharp.
Civil War
The disequilibrium and perceived corruption of the electoral and political process led in 1966 to first of several back-to-back military coups.
The violence against the Igbo increased their desire for autonomy. By May 1967, the Eastern Region voted to declare independence as a state called the Republic of Biafra, under the leadership of Lt Colonel Emeka Ojukwu. The Nigerian Civil War began as the Nigerian (Western and Northern) side attacked Biafra (South-eastern) on 6 July 1967 at Garkem. The 30 month war, with a long siege of Biafra and its isolation from trade and supplies, ended in January 1970. Estimates of the number of dead in the former Eastern Region are between 1 and 3 million people, from warfare, disease, and starvation, during the 30-month civil war.
Military Juntas
During the oil boom of the 1970s, Nigeria joined OPEC, and the huge revenue generated made the economy richer, although the military administration did nothing to improve the standard of living of the population, or to help the small and medium businesses, or even invest in the infrastructure. As oil revenues fueled the rise of federal subventions to states, the federal government became the centre of political struggle and the threshold of power in the country. As oil production and revenue rose, the Nigerian government created a dangerous situation as it became increasingly dependent on oil revenues and the international commodity markets for budgetary and economic concerns; it did not build economic stability. That spelled doom to federalism in Nigeria.
Beginning in 1979, Nigerians participated in a brief return to democracy when Olusegun Obasanjo transferred power to the civilian regime of Shehu Shagari. The Shagari government became viewed as corrupt and incompetent by virtually all sectors of Nigerian society. The military coup of Muhammadu Buhari shortly after the regime’s fraudulent re-election in 1984 was generally viewed as a positive development by most of the population. Buhari promised major reforms, but his government fared little better than its predecessor. His regime was overthrown by another military coup in 1985.
The new head of state, Ibrahim Babangida, declared himself president and commander in chief of the armed forces and the ruling Supreme Military Council. He set 1990 as the official deadline for a return to democratic governance. After Babangida survived an abortive coup, he pushed back the promised return to democracy to 1992. Free and fair elections were finally held on 12 June 1993, showing a presidential victory for Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola. Babangida chose to annul the elections, leading to mass civilian violent protests which effectively shut down the country for weeks. This forced Babangida to keep his promise to relinquish office to a civilian-run government, but not before appointing Ernest Shonekan as head of the interim government. Babangida’s regime has been considered the most corrupt, and responsible for creating a culture of corruption in Nigeria.
Shonekan’s caretaker regime was overwhelmed in late 1993 by the military coup of General Sani Abacha. Abacha oversaw brutal rule using violence on a wide scale to suppress the continuing civilian unrest. He shifted money to offshore accounts in various western European banks and voided coup plots by bribing army generals. Several hundred million dollars in accounts traced to him were discovered in 1999. The regime came to an end in 1998 when the dictator was found dead amid questionable circumstances. His successor, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, adopted a new constitution on 5 May 1999, which provided for multiparty elections .
Democratization
Nigeria regained democracy in 1999 when it elected Olusegun Obasanjo, the former military head of state, as the new President of Nigeria ending almost 33 years of military rule (from 1966 until 1999) excluding the short-lived second republic (between 1979 and 1983) by military dictators who seized power in coups d’état and counter-coups during the Nigerian military juntas of 1966–1979 and 1983–1998. Although the elections which brought Obasanjo to power in 1999 and again in 2003 were condemned as unfree and unfair, Nigeria has shown marked improvements in attempts to tackle government corruption and to hasten development.
Ethnic violence over the oil producing Niger Delta region and inadequate infrastructures are some of the issues in the country. Umaru Yar’Adua of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) came into power in the general election of 2007 – an election that was witnessed and condemned by the international community as being severely flawed.
Yar’Adua died while in office on 5 May 2010. Dr. Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in as Yar’Adua’s replacement on 6 May 2010, becoming Nigeria’s 14th Head of State, while his vice, a former Kaduna state governor, Namadi Sambo, an architect, was chosen on 18 May 2010, by the National Assembly following President Goodluck Jonathan’s nomination for Sambo to be his Vice President. (It figures, when I finally get a Nigerian name I can pronounce, he makes what sounds like a first name his last name, so I remain confused. Good luck, indeed.)
Economy
Nigeria is the 12th largest producer of petroleum in the world and the 8th largest exporter, and has the 10th largest proven reserves. The country joined OPEC in 1971. Petroleum plays a large role in the Nigerian economy, accounting for 40% of GDP and 80% of Government earnings. However, agitation for better resource control in the Niger Delta, its main oil producing region, has led to disruptions in oil production and prevents the country from exporting at 100% capacity.
Nigeria has one of the fastest growing telecommunications markets in the world, major emerging market operators (like MTN, Etisalat, Zain and Globacom) basing their largest and most profitable centres in the country.
The country has a highly developed financial services sector, with a mix of local and international banks, asset management companies, brokerage houses, insurance companies and brokers, private equity funds and investment banks.
Nigeria also has a wide array of underexploited mineral resources which include natural gas, coal, bauxite, tantalite, gold, tin, iron ore, limestone, niobium, lead and zinc. Despite huge deposits of these natural resources, the mining industry in Nigeria is still in its infancy.
Before the oil boom, agriculture used to be the principal foreign exchange earner of Nigeria. At one time, Nigeria was the world’s largest exporter of groundnuts, cocoa, and palm oil and a significant producer of coconuts, citrus fruits, maize, pearl millet, cassava, yams and sugar cane. About 60% of Nigerians work in the agricultural sector, and Nigeria has vast areas of underutilized arable land.
Health and Education
Health, health care, and general living conditions in Nigeria are poor. Life expectancy is 47 years (average male/female) and just over half the population has access to potable water and appropriate sanitation. Nigeria suffers from periodic outbreaks of cholera, malaria, and sleeping sickness. It is the only country in Africa to have never eradicated polio, which it periodically exports to other African countries. A 2004 vaccination drive, spearheaded by the W.H.O. to combat polio and malaria, met with some opposition in the north, but polio was cut 98% between 2009 and 2010.
Education is in a state of neglect. After the 1970s oil boom, tertiary education was improved so that it would reach every subregion of Nigeria. Education (base tuition only) is provided free by the government, but the attendance rate for secondary education is only 29% (32% for males, 27% for females). The education system has been described as “dysfunctional” largely because of decaying institutional infrastructure. 68% of the population is literate, and the rate for men (75.7%) is higher than that for women (60.6%).
May 3
Early breakfast on the roof, before setting forth for the airport. On the bus I read the spoof blog that I wrote of what really happened on our trip, which is very well received by the group. We have three hours at the airport, which I spend talking to Doug, Isabella and Michael, and looking at the fabulous photos that Doug took on two prior trips to Cuba, which he has on his iPad. Some reflections on the trip.
Cuba was great, and I’d definitely consider a return trip. It would be nice to be able to do that other than in a group (even though our group was very good and fun), but that doesn’t seem likely in the near term. As expected, I enjoyed being with some more than others in our group, but there were no real problem people.
On the cultural side, it would have been nice to have had more contact with people. There was not the level of give and take that I’d expected with Cuban photographers, and I did not get a sense of anyone opening up to discuss the Cuban political system. The American embargo has has a big impact on Cuba, and there’s resentment for that and for the imprisonment of the Cuban Five, but there was no apparent hostility towards us, as Americans. People were very friendly and we got a sense of Cuban food, dance and music. (Okay, here’s a bit of Cuban music trivia, courtesy of my friend and loyal British follower, Pat Hemmens. The well-know song Guantanamera is based on a poem of Jose Marti, the Cuban revolutionary hero after whom the Havana airport is named.)
Certain stops we made were particularly interesting–Korda’s daughter’s house, Josie’s house, the apartment building, the horse whispering and the Santarian church. The evening at the Tropicana was quite an experience and the music and dance we saw everywhere were fun. But best was just wandering around the streets and photographing.
Both Havana and Trinidad are appealing cities in different ways. Havana is being restored, albeit very slowly, to some of its former grandeur. The charm of Trinidad is being preserved because of it having been designated a UNESCO site. Of course, there is much of Cuba that we did not see.
Cuba is definitely changing. The ability to own businesses spear-headed by Raul Castro is huge. This gives people hope of earning some money that will allow them to live better. One does not get any of the sense of a people beaten down by their government, as we did in Myanmar. It would be interesting to come back in a few years to see what changes have occurred, and so that Carol can see Cuba. Maybe by then Florida won’t be a key electoral swing state, so that the US can establish some semblance of a sensible relationship with Cuba. Or perhaps some candidate will show a little courage. But I’m not holding my breath.
Thanks for following, and for your comments. Next stop: Nigeria in August.
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