Vehicle Decorations: 1961 Photograph from the Harrison Forman Collection

I know, I know, I have once again neglected the blog. What can I say? Well, I can apologise: So, yes, I am sorry. – I have stumbled across a few interesting things in the meantime but I haven't get got around to writing about them. Here, is a first attempt to do just that, sharing a photograph with you that I found thanks to the industrious Kehinde Thompson at the Nigeria Nostalgia Project (Facebook, TumblR, Twitter) - which is a really great group to follow if you're interested in anything regarding Nigerian history!

The photograph is part of at the University of Wisconsin's Digital Photo Archive, in particular the Harrison Forman Collection. There's a number of beautiful and interesting photographs in the collection that are accessible from the comfort of your local library or home office. - Including this wonderful photograph, depicting a bright blue mammy wagon with an inscription in white on its left side, 'Asaba Do Exelsior.' The photograph was taken in 1961, documenting early developments of vehicle decoration.

(Nigeria, Street Scene in Igbo Village, 1961, AGSL Digital Photo Archive - Africa, acc. 18/12/2017)

The photograph – and, in fact, others in this particular collection – has been subject to heated debate among members of the Facebook group (see here for the original photograph and here for a second photograph taken at the same location) . It's titled 'Nigeria, Street Scene in Igbo Village' but many commentators seem rather convinced – on the basis of the fashion of passers-by that the scene was actually recorded in southwestern Nigeria, prompting a debate. Suggestions included Benin and Ilorin in the Southwest but also Asaba, Onitsha and Sapele in the Southeast. I wouldn't want to weigh into this debate – I do not know these regions well nor the fashions of the time and places suggested. But, do note that the vehicle's inscription refers to Asaba, a south-eastern town in today's Delta State.

I am, anyway, much more interested in some of the recollections of life and transport at the time that the photograph prompted. Here's a particularly beautiful comment by Olabunmu Sadiq:

'This looks like the southwest version called "boolekaja" translated "come down and fight". The conductors were always rude and riotous and would always crave for a fight, inviting any stubborn passenger to come down and fight.

The seats were made of long benches, double sitter in the middle where passengers back each other, while single seaters were directly behind the driver, and the other behind the front passenger seat.

The conductor or drive wold most often want to park the passengers like sardines which the passengers most often want[ed] to resist. The driver would should "e sun" meaning "compact yourself" and at the second prompting without compliance, the driver would step sharply on the break and the momentum would shift the passengers forward involuntarily.

Very interesting era in our transportation history.'

(17/12/2017, Re: 'Street Scene in Igbo Village 1961, Harrison Forman Collection, American Geographical Society Library © UWM Libraries' [Facebook Comment]. Retrieved: Nigerian Nostalgia Project, acc. 18/12/2017).

'He was nicknamed Gary Cooper' (A.O. Uzokwe 2003 Surviving Biafra)

There's another reference to the movies – and possibly Westerns – penetrating popular culture in Nigeria. This time the reference is to Western actor Gary Cooper (1901-61) in a biography of the Nigerian Civil War/Biafra War by Alfred Obiora Uzokwe (2003).

'Boom, Phuff.' - An Anecdote from Rex Niven's Nigerian Kaleidoscope

I admit that I currently lack the inspiration for a blog post worth your time, dear reader. I am currently struggling to organise my thoughts and put together an argument to the satisfaction of my collaborator in the lorry art project. And, while I suggested I'd use this blog to organise my thoughts I find that I am not quite at that stage right now. So, in the meantime I keep flicking through various books including, still, colonial and postcolonial memoirs. That may be part of the problem, you say? However, I usually do find it helpful to read widely – even if there is little direct relation to what I am working on at any one point. And, indeed, I do keep stumbling upon potentially useful paragraphs and views while I do that. 

An Aside: Western Clubs in Germany

I have joined a non-fiction writing class to get feedback on my writing, mostly stylistically rather than content wise. And, it's proven to be helpful to have a bunch of native speakers point out when I inadvertently slipped into what we call Denglish – broken English, the German version.

The wonderful Susanna Forrest who runs the group also pointed me to a helpful volume on 'stylish' academic writing by Helen Sword. Last week I tried out one of Sword's advices. She suggested that academic writers include anecdotes into their articles that make the subject more relatable and/or illuminate the author's relationship with the subject. I included a throwaway remark about Western clubs in my native Germany. And, the more I thought about it the more I feel that it’s the intellectually honest thing to do.

'[H]undred miles an hour ... only speed a self-respecting Nigerian considers worthy of him' - Theodore Dalrymple on his Travels in West Africa

I can't focus today. So, I have abandoned the more academic literature I was to read today and, instead, settled down with a travelogue. This one was written by Anthony Daniels under his alias Theodore Dalrymple (no relation of that other travel writer, William Dalrymple, as far as I can gather), a doctor, psychiatrist and journalist. After two years of working in Tanzania, Dalrymple decided to cross Africa from Zanzibar to Mali by public transport, by bus, lorry, train, boat and canoe. His account lacks the historical and analytical depths of William Dalrymple's From the Holy Mountain, another travelogue I have recently read and enjoyed. Nevertheless, the book contains some gems – and, indeed, some rather lovely accounts of busses and lorries.

Cowboy Snippets: Biodun Olamosu (2000) Crisis of Education in Nigeria

Another day, another mug of tea - and another reference to cowboys in Nigeria.

Now, in recent months I've read plenty of literature that discusses the impact of Hollywood and Italian Westerns and their notoriously ambiguous heroe, 'the Cowboy,' in Nigeria. I have recently found a reference to these films in an interesting context, Biodun Olamosu's (2000) book Crisis of Education in Nigeria. Olamosu shares with many other Nigerian commentators that I have come across a disdain for cowboy movies and in particular their alleged subversive effects on Nigerian youths. – I say 'alleged' because I am instinctively doubtful of argument that claim to identify singular causes of what may be described as anti-social or disorderly behaviour or, indeed, crime among young people, in fact, among any social group. And, this response is even more pronounced if the blame is almost exclusively put on any one medium (video games, music, films, books – over here it's currently fashionable to blame the Qur'an-, social media), foreign or otherwise. I can't help it. From where I stand that looks like a suspiciously convenient argument to absolve oneself and one's own society of all blame and to instead scapegoat someone or something else. Preferably something that wasn't around when 'we' were their age so that we can conviently blame 'today's youths.'

Ken Saro-Wiwa's (1985) Sozaboy: 'I can buy my own lorry and then I will be big man like any lawyer or doctor'

I am currently reading/re-reading some classics of Nigerian literature in the search for references to lorries, lorry art and possibly cowboys. – I have to confess that I enjoy plenty of them better the second time around now that I am reading at my own pace rather than to the schedule of a university course. The latest I have read was Ken Saro-Wiwa's Sozaboy (and, for once, I actually do like the German translation I accidentally ordered). The book's strangely topical with the anniversary of Biafra last week, the pro-Biafra rallies in recent months and the proclamations of certain self-proclaimed (and promptly and widely disowned) northern youth leaders. For my own purpose, however, the fact that the novel's protagonist, the eponymous Sozaboy, starts out as an apprentice driver is of greater interest at the moment. This was one of the details that didn't mean much to me back at university but that get me excited now.

'Of all of my memories of ... Nigeria the most lasting is that of the endless roads' (Robert Collis 1970)

I stumbled across this book with a wonderful chapter on roads and driving in Nigeria, Robert Collis' (1970) Nigeria in Conflict.[1] Collis worked as Head of the Paediatric Department at the Medical School in Ibadan and Professor of Paediatrics in Lagos. In many ways it is just another account of Nigeria by an expatriate working there in the late 1950s. However, it is well written. – There is for example a rather incriminating account of a conversation he had with an English businessman operating in Nigeria in the chapter on corruption:

'One simply can't get anywhere … without bribing one's way right down the line. These Nigerians are sharks!'

'Isn't it worse for you who imagine yourself a Christian gentleman … to be giving bribes than it is for these dishonest chaps to accept them?' I asked.

'Look,' he said angrily, ' if I didn't the Americans would.'

(Collis 1970: 184)

Regarding (American) Country Music in Nigeria

The other week my writing class finished and we all had to present a short piece of writing. Mine was the introduction of what I hope will eventually become an article based on the research I did into cowboys in Nigeria and my ideas about how to approach their illustrations in lorry art.[1] One of the questions I received as feedback regarded the influence of country music in Nigeria. I was already aware that there was a country music scene. I know of at least one dedicated radio station that continues to operate out of Jos and have read about Nigerian musicians recording their own version of US country music. Anyway, as life tends to go … This lunch break over a cup of tea I was idly flicking through some books and articles and stumbled across these nice references to the genre and its history in Nigeria. Since I need a reason to procrastinate a little longer I thought I'd share them with you.

On 'Portraits' of Usman dan Fodio again

Last year I mentioned here a number of alleged photographs of Usman dan Fodio and drawings that purportedly portrayed the Shehu that I had encountered as illustrations in newspapers and elsewhere. I wondered whether such a portrait – either a photograph taken in dan Fodio's lifetime or a portrait at least sketched after meeting the man himself – could actually exist. 

I suppose, I found it hard to imagine that any of the sheikh's contemporary disciples would have produced such a drawing, let alone had access to a camera to take a photograph. I still do. Just consider his admonition of the customs of the Hausa-dynasties that his jihad dethroned.

'One of the ways of their governments is their … wearing whatever clothes they wish, whether religiously permitted or forbidden […], and living in decorated palaces, whether religiously permitted or forbidden and spreading soft (decorated) carpets as they wish, whether religiously permitted or forbidden …'

(Kitab al-Farq, transl. by Hiskett 1960: 567)

Lagos Street Art: Picturing Donald Trump

I was on fieldwork in Nigeria in 2008 when Barack Obama was elected and I remember that his inauguration was highly anticipated. Many people I spoke to hoped that as the son of a Kenyan man he would take a special interest in Africa while others feared that he might be assassinated before officially taking office. So, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the recent elections were once again followed closely in Nigeria and that Donald Trump – as potential saviour or threat, depending on one's political leanings featured prominently in recent public imaginations. There were pro-Trump rallies in the Southeast by those once again asking for the independence of Biafra, while the Daily Trust warned that relations with the US would be unstable for the period of Trump's presidency … and, then, there are Nigeria's artists, of course, who reflect on contemporary developments in the US.

So, I just leave you with this photograph of an artist in Lagos producing a portrait of Donald Trump that I stumbled across on Twitter this morning. I'll refrain from further commentary. Except, let me highlight that Trump here is shown wearing military uniform rather than the suits that he is more commonly seen in. Any significance to that? I don't know. You tell me.

Lorry Art Snippets: Biblical Scene 2007

Haven't posted any for a while, so here's another lovely photograph of the tailgate of a painted lorry. I found this one on a blog, Stardust's Shadow. The photo was taken on travels through West Africa in 2007, apparently on the road between Benin City and Ile-Ife. 

Martin Bennett (1999): Mammy-Wagons, Kaduna-Lagos Road

The other day I stumbled across this beautiful little poem by Martin Bennet, a British poet and translator who is, if I am not mistaken, now based in Rome, Italy (link leads to another of his poems but with a short bio). This poem comes from a collection that is informed by his time in Nigeria and was published in 1999 by Wasafiri. 

Life Magazine (1963) provides glimpses on 'movie culture' in Nigeria

An hour ago the postman rang and delivered my first acquisition of the new year – a 1963 edition of the US-American magazine Life that I have been unable to locate at the local libraries. So, thanks to Abebooks and a Canadian trader here was my first good surprise of the year (after hearing that another of my heroes, John Berger died yesterday).

Why do I tell you about an old edition of an American lifestyle magazine, you ask?

Well, this is a special edition devoted to the movies - 'A Moving Mirror of Modern Times,' as the editorial has it – and its scope extends beyond the usual suspects in North America and Europe. Some of the reporting about the movies and their reception in the 'rest' of the world may feel patronising to contemporary readers but it provides some glimpses nevertheless. And, some of them on cinema culture and in particular the role of the United States Information Agency in Nigeria. I'll get back to this issue of Life Magazine at some point in more detail, but for now I'll leave you with two photographs that I quickly (and therefore badly, i.e. forgive the quality) reproduce here (I'll get better scans next time I go to the library). 

Cowboy Snippets: Igoni Barret's childhood reading experiences

Igoni Barret was featured in the Guardian (UK) earlier this year and recalled his childhood reading experiences:

'For many years I only read whatever I found at home: my mother’s romance and detective and cowboy novels, and the motley books my absent father had left behind. Even the few books I borrowed from friends’ houses (and sometimes stole, like ER Braithwaite’s To Sir, With Love – sorry, Remi) usually belonged to their parents.'

(Guardian UK, 13 January 2016, my emphasis)

D.Ch.E. Ugwuegbu (1977): The Stop Sign is for the Other Guy

The other day I stumbled across a study of Nigerian drivers that had been published by a member of the Psychology Department of the University of Ibadan, Denis Chimaeze E. Ugwuegbu. It was published in the Journal of Applied Psychology (Vol. 62, Issue 5, 574-77) in 1977 (The side I linked to links through to the journey but the article is behind a paywall).Today I finally got my hands on the hard copy.

I generally don't have much patience for psychological studies – I don't quite know how to properly read the statistical analyses that they present – but I liked the title of this one: 'The Stop Sign is for the Other Guy.' I know, I know. This makes me sound incredibly superficial. In this case, however, the headline kept its promise and I found some well put observations that will probably make it into the working paper on cowboys on Nigerian roads that I must have mentioned before.

Upcoming Publication: Fragile Legacies

The next year looks to be an interesting one for the kinds of publications that I take an interest in. I already mentioned Kenda Mutongi's book on the Matatus of Nairobi (to be published June 2017) and now I just stumbled across another interesting book to be released in 2017. It doesn't seem to be advertised on the publisher's page (or at least, Amazon lists Giles as the publishers) yet but here is its description from Amazon (yes, I know the company is evil but … it's so useful now that I don't live in a major city).

Fragile Legacies: The Photographs of Solomon Osagie Alonge

29. August 2017, by Amy J. Staples (Autor), Flora S. Kaplan (Autor)

Fragile Legacies showcases the fascinating photographs of Chief Solomon Osagie Alonge (1911-1994), Nigeria's premier twentieth-century photographer and the first official photographer to the Royal Court of the Kingdom of Benin. Alonge's historic photographs document the rituals, pageantry, and regalia of the Benin Court for over a half-century, and provide rare insight into the history of Nigeria from an insider's perspective. With important contributions by leading Nigerian writers, this volume examines the transformations of colonialism in Africa, and more specifically Nigeria, within the context of global capitalism in the early to mid-twentieth century.

As far as I can tell Tam Fiofori is one of the contributors – yes, the Tam Fiofori I repeatedly quoted here back in the day of Next Magazine and its art and culture columns. Other contributors are Jide Adenyi-Jones, Daniel Inneh (former minister of Edo State), Kokunre Agbontaen-Eghafona, and George Osodi.

The editors (or at least, I assume that's why they are mentioned above), Amy J. Staples and Flora S. Kaplan are based at the National Museum of African Art and the New York University respectively.

If that doesn't sound promising!