Raphia Toy Areoplanes, Cars and Lorries
I don’t really get around to posting a log on the blog anymore – and I realised with a shock that my last post dates from the beginning of the year! That tells you all you’d ever want to know about what happens to my annual New Years resolutions. Oh, well. What can I say, if I’m pressed for time, I’d rather share things I stumble upon on Facebook – shoutout to the Nigerian Nostalgia Project! – and Twitter where I do not need to research and write a little something to offer you some analysis and context. Still, this little find lends itself to blogging:
In the good old spirit of thinking and writing about decorated cars and lorries, its interesting to find another reference to toy cars, lorries and, indeed, aeroplanes in mid-20th century Nigeria. This one is, curiously, found in a (colonial) government publication listing the ‘Colony’s Effort’ during World War II – a surprisingly fascinating publication. I mean, did you now that British airforce parachutes were, among others, made from Nigerian silk (p. 12), that Nigeria raphia bristles were ‘used by the artillery for scouring gun-barrels’ (p. 18) or that two ‘enterprising ladies’ set up the Windcheater Fund in Nigeria; buying Nigerian skins to be ‘made into leather jerkins or windcheaters, and [sending] thouands of them to seaman’ (p. 19)? Anyway, here’s what the report has to say about toy aeroplanes, cars and lorries:
‘An amusing side industry from the [raphia] palm is the making of small models of motor-cars, motor-lorries and aeroplanes, which are made by the children and sold on the markets. The workmanship of these is very crude, but the ingenuity and skill are great and some of the details are very clever.’
Note that these toys were made by children probably still learning their craft and that there seems to have been a local market for them; suggesting a wide(r)spread childhood fascination with automobiles.
The publication does not, unfortunately, include a photograph of one of these models. So, if anyone still reads this blog and knows where I may find one: Do let me know, pls.!
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