New Yam Festival

This last Sunday was a busy day. Chris's family were celebrating the New Yam festival and had invited me to come and celebrate with them before Chris and I went of the the Femi Kuti concert (see below).

So, what's a New Yam Festival you ask?

Here's a little info:

New Yam Festival (a.k.a. Iri-ji ) - One of the biggest festivals celebrated by the Igbos. Chris and his family are Igbo a tribe from the East in Enugu (one of the tribes that tried to secede in the civil war). The festival is celebrated in August of each year. This day symbolizes the conclusion of a work/harvest cycle and the beginning of another. There is abundant food for not just the harvesters but also for friends and well-wishers. A variety of festivities mark the eating of new yam, including cultural dances etc.

On the last night before the festival, yams of the old year are gotten rid of by those who still have them. This is because it is believed that the New Year must begin with tasty, fresh yams instead of the old dried-up crops of the previous year.

Before the festival starts, the yams are offered to gods and ancestors first before distributing them to the villagers. The ritual is performed either by the oldest man in the community or by the king. They eat the first yam because it is believed that their position gives them the privilege of being intermediaries between their communities and the gods of the land. The rituals involved in the new yam eating are meant to express the community's appreciation to the gods for making the harvest of their yams possible. Chris's father is the king of their village, so the tradition is still upheld with all the Eze clan members in Lagos. I, apparently, was the guest of honour. (thanks for not telling me that before I got there Chris....) Unfortunately George was offshore on a rig at the time.

At the new yam festival, only dishes of yam are served since the festival is symbolic of the abundance of the produce. So much of it is cooked that, no matter how heavily the family eats or how many friends and relatives they invite, there is always much food left over at the end of the day.

We had a dish of pounded yam and egusi soup. Now I have to admit that pounded yam (yam that's been boiled and then mashed in a big mortar & pestle) normally tastes like cardboard. But this stuff was GOOD!! Extremely filling mind you (it's like eating play-doh) so it wasn't the best start before a whole lot of dancing.. but hey.

Stella (Chris's sister) did all the cooking, whilst Christopher, (Chris's younger brother) did the pounding.
The yam pounder

mmm... Egusi soup (made from ground melon seeds, smoked fish, a few peppers and a little non-descript meat)

Everyone had way too much to eat but in usual style had a great time. Chris mum, Uke, is in purple

Chris enjoying a meal


Christopher and his girlfriend and me wondering what I just ate...

Always a showman, Christopher steals some of mums food

No knife and fork around here. I'm still not sure if any of this was the right cure the the hangover I was wrestling with from the previous evenings round 7 World Catch-phrase championships. (I can never remember who wins though...) Not my most photogenic day.

A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL THE EZE FAMILY FOR INCLUDING US IN THEIR CELEBRATION

Femi Kuti @ The Shrine

Well, what can I say... THE MAN of Afrobeat music, son of Fela Kuti, Femi Kuti - AKA the Nigerian James Brown - is back in Lagos!

When he's not touring the globe, Femi plays at the Afrika Shrine - a club his old man set up back when He was the man in lagos (he died 10 years ago of AIDS unfortunately)... But since then the Shrine has become an icon of anti-establishment music, sung mainly in pidgin for the everyday Nigerians to have a voice and stand up against the various military dictators and corrupt politicians that have had a go at running this place since independence. You can check Femi at at myspace here.

The shrine itself is just that - a huge open sided barn the size of three or for tennis courts, with a high roof and pictures of prominent black civil rights activists all over the walls.

If you come to the Shrine, you're there for a good time - not a long time. So, whilst there is a bar up the back, there's a bunch of stalls outside that sell spirits by the bottle and all sort of interesting stuff. The result being lots of loud young men getting rather excited and a thick haze of "india hemp" (as the locals call it) smoke. Seriously, the haze in these photos ain't just because it's dark... Personally, I'm happy to stick with warmish bottles of the local brew Star which tastes more like formaldehyde than beer, but it's better than nothing.



So anyway, I been to this place last year once and it was so much fun I jumped at another opportunity - this time taking Rachel and Sarah for their first taste the Shrine. Femi, the showman that he is, has a stack of half a dozen different saxes and trumpets etc up the front of the stage for himself (plus a two tier Hammond organ) so you'd think he'd just do it all himself. But hey, why bother when you've got a twenty-piece backing band including dancers!!



As all these photos were shot in low light (and through a thick fog) there's a little blur. Particularly when everyone's gyrating at light speed up on stage, and running around the dance floor like people possessed. Some the results were interesting... (weird ghost dancers...)




Anyway, as usual in this place, there comes a time when stuff gets just a little too crazy and it's time to leave. A great night, and if Femi Kuti is ever in town DEFINITELY check him out (he'd just finished lulapalooza before coming back to Lagos this time). I must appologise to Mas - this time I didn't go dancing... sorry-o, too much pounded yam for belly

How stuff's been goin' and what-not...

It's been a while between posts... apologies
I hope all is well with everyone

As usual, all sorts of stuff has been going on around here, so I thought I'd give you all a bunch of general news and pics etc.

Firstly, the junior high school at Ikaare village has been completed. Well, when I say completed, the roof is on and the walls have been rendered so the kids can move in - they'll start school on 17th Sept. At the moment we've run out of funds to continue - there's no doors or windows, no ceiling etc but the wet season will be over in a month or so, so there's it's good enough to at least start lessons in. I'm just grateful to the local contractors who worked on credit for the last month to get it finished before the kids come back. I finally paid them last Thursday so now everyone's waiting to start up again soon.


The cement render's still wet in these photos (kind of hard to get anything done during the wet season, but they managed) The classrooms are huge and will easily handle a class of 50 or so... This building is probably the best built thing in the village. I was summoned by the local king a while back when I was out there supervising the finishing touches and he was most grateful for our work. Whilst the kings these days don't have a huge amount of legal power, they're still the figureheads of the community and can make life hard if they want. For that reason, I'd stayed away from the guy for as long as possible (at least until we'd finished). But in the end, we sat down one morning in his palace (ie the front room of his house with a nice big throne at one end with couches all around it) and had a couple of beers and talked about fishing. He wasn't interested in getting involved and was just thankful that someone actually gave a crap about his village. Nice guy. When the time comes to have a proper opening for the building, he'll be there with a fancy robe on to tell the locals what a great thing this is - should be an interesting day (though I'd say it won't be until early 2008 as we're still short of naira for the moment...)



The classrooms do look a little dark at the moment, but when we get some cash to do a little painting they'll come up really well.. Also the village has recently been connected to mains power so we should be able to get some lights in at some stage. The village has had power poles and lines for almost ten years now, but they were never connected to the mainland (most likely they were just forgotten in favor of more prominent places [ie local landowners who can afford to bribe the power holding company]). Anyway, now every house has an extension cord running out the window spliced directly on to the main overhead wires!! Not really the best way to do it, but there's no meters or anything so everyone's trying to make the most of it before the power authority sends someone out and it's all over...



George has been spending a fair bit of time offshore recently, so when she was home for a few days last weekend, we headed out of Lagos up to Ibadan just north of here, for a relaxing weekend at IITA. We'd forgotten, of course, that the last Friday of each month sees a three day prayer-a-thon called a revival at one of the prayer grounds along the highway north of Lagos. So with over a million devoted folk descending on the Mountain of Fire and Miracles (catchy name...) prayer ground, the usual two hour journey extended out to closer to five or six hours - I stopped counting after a while. Thankfully we had a 4WD which allowed for some rather creative route finding...

The sign says it all...

This photo was taken just the other day when there was no revival on, but not surprisingly, they can fit a good million or so folk in here for a good old fashioned revival every month!! The local Pentecostal preachers are quite full on to say the least. The recent article shows how far they'll go to "save" a few souls: AP - Christianity Vs. the Old Gods of Nigeria

Despite the traffic chaos it was great to get out of town and do nothing. It had been raining heavily for the last week so there wasn't much we could do. George and I had a walk and a hit of tennis and Mike and Sarah went fishing in the lake nearby and managed to catch a decent sized fish!!

The rain, however is causing the usual wahalla for anyone even remotely close to a river...

The major cattle market on the river border with ogun state which feeds most of Lagos also got it's feet wet - luckily there's always higher ground to move to as this happens every year... The local papers have this to say: farmers, concern over incessant flooding

The only folk who aren't really effected by the flooding that happens every wet season, which soaks everyone and destroys most of the roads, are the folk who live in the stilt village at Adogbo which is in the main Lagos lagoon on the mainland shore (the NFS has some info here)


There's always a thin cloud of smoke over the stilt village as most places don't have power and so use wood and charcoal for cooking and burning rubbish


Most of the people living there are fishermen, many from Benin and other parts of west Africa so french is spoken a lot and there's even french speaking schools for the kids.


In other parts of Lagos, however, the new government seems to be doing something about "cleaning up" the city. Whilst in theory this may sound like a great idea - and let me tell you Lagos needs it - the actual practice of bulldozing slums and areas of informal trade to make way for folk with money (whilst not always offering any options for the slum dwelling folk) to me doesn't really sound like a great idea.

Anyway, the state govt is certainly trying to clear out a lot of the stuff under bridges etc which apparently is where all the robbers hide around here (give me a break...) but anyway.

The "Lekki Arts Centre" - one of the art markets at the second roundabout on the lekki expwy was also dozed a week or so ago to make way fro something or other. For some reason beyond me, they came in one day and destroyed the place while the stall holders still had all their stock in there - the whole place being trashed in a matter of hours. I didn't take any pics, but was in the neighbourhood the next day and all I can say is that they did a great job of f$%king the entire area, everyone was just sitting around wonder what to do next. Here's an article about it: Shouldn't the Rule of Law Adorn a Human Face? unbelievable...

Also the name of progress, the fruit & veg market where I get my veggies every couple of days has been dozed to try and fix up the bar beach part of Victoria Island. In the last year or so, the poor bloody market has been moved here and there to doge roadworks and angry landlords etc god knows how many times - and these guys PAY the local govt taxes etc to be ABLE to have a market - go figure. Anyway, you get used to going there one day, then the next day you have to drive up and down to see where they've moved.

Here's some pics from Saturday of what's left (before they set fire to it all...)

Adios Katharine...

It seems recently that people are leaving Lagos for bigger and brighter things...

Katharine has done enough hostage chasing around here for a life time and is off to Nairobi to cover East Africa. At least now she won't get a call every time she goes out that something else has gone wrong, only to start an article with... blah blah has cut a quarter from Nigeria's daily oil-production capacity of 2.5 million barrels a day...etc

Anyway, we're definitely going to miss you Katharine and we'll be sure to drop in on you in Nairobi now that you've got your own place. See ya soon.

This is a really good summation of how things are at the moment - thanks K

Nigeria's New Leader Faces Uncertainties

By KATHARINE HOURELD Associated Press Writer

12:52 PM EDT, August 5, 2007 ABUJA, Nigeria

In his first two months in office, Nigeria's shy, aristocratic new president has faced a nationwide strike, violence in the country's oil region and accusations that he's too timid for the job.

But these challenges pale compared with the country's corruption, decayed infrastructure and poverty. This nation of 140 million expects a lot of President Umaru Yar'Adua.

"These big men always have big talk," grumbled Raymond Olanre as he hawked newspapers on a potholed road. Yar'Adua "says he will give us water and light, but that is just what the previous (president) said."

Electricity and clean running water are just some of the basics that Africa's largest oil exporter has failed to deliver to its citizens. Yar'Adua has made some stabs at reform, but many Nigerians fear he won't be able to stand up to his strong-willed predecessor, Olusegun Obasanjo, and remake his country.

Obasanjo plucked the former state governor from obscurity and made him the governing party's presidential candidate last year. Yar'Adua's landslide victory in April's elections was condemned by domestic and international observers, who charged widespread voter intimidation and vote-rigging.

Under Obasanjo, Nigeria had eight tumultuous years of democracy, the longest such period since independence from Britain in 1960. But corruption and poverty remained rife.
Olanre, for example, earns about $2 a day -- not much, but still more than most. He is 22, in a country where average life expectancy is 43.

There are signs that Yar'Adua, a reclusive former chemistry teacher from a royal Muslim family, is preparing for real change, says Jibrin Ibrahim of the Center for Democracy and Development, a Nigerian think tank. It will take a year for his true colors to emerge, and meanwhile, with a cabinet of competing factions, "he is still not totally in charge," Ibrahim said.

Every step forward so far has left Nigerians clamoring for more.
In a surprise move, Yar'Adua publicly declared his assets -- the first Nigerian president to do so -- and urged his officials to do the same. None has so far.

Yar'Adua reversed the contentious sale of two of the country's broken down refineries to a shadowy consortium headed by Obasanjo's allies, a deal hurried through in the dying days of the outgoing regime. Incompetent management, sabotage and neglect had already shut the country's four major refineries, forcing Nigeria to import refined petroleum.

And this month, four former governors were charged with stealing state money, with more arrests promised by the country's anti-corruption watchdog. But none held office in the three major oil-producing states of the southern Niger River delta, whose governors receive billions of dollars in oil revenues annually but have failed to provide electricity, water, schools or clinics. Each was a major donor to the ruling party, however.

"People in the delta will not take Yar'Adua seriously until we see some of our own governors being brought to book," said Damke Pueba of Stakeholders Democracy Network, an advocacy group in the main southern oil center, Port Harcourt.

"He's still using the same Obasanjo approach," she said, referring to the previous president's policy of charging political enemies with corruption while allowing major party donors a free hand. "Some (officials) are sacred cows, others are sacrificial lambs."

In the meantime, a string of bombings and kidnappings that sharply escalated from December 2005 has cut a quarter from Nigeria's daily oil-production capacity of 2.5 million barrels a day.

Rich areas of Lagos, the commercial capital, get a few hours of electricity a day, strangling small businesses and driving away investment in a country where millions are unemployed. Poorer neighborhoods go without power for days, even weeks.

The new administration has two members of the opposition, seven women, and a finance minister seen by many as a reformist. But Yar'Adua has also retained many faces from the outgoing regime, which worries those looking for a radical change of direction.

"He is very cautious, to the point of being faulted," said Charles Dokubo of the Nigerian Institute for International Affairs. "Nigerians want (Yar'Adua) to prove to them that he does not need a back-seat driver."

Ishahayi farm

I tell you the teachers out at ishahayi never cease to amaze me. I was out there to give all the teachers their bi-monthly "donation" (as teachers they don't get paid, so the School Foundation there gives them a stipend to help out - $100AUD a month mind you, but no-one complains)

Anyway, when I was paying the teachers, Aki, the grade 6 teacher comes in all sweaty and smiling telling me he's just started a "farm". This I had to see. As the the kids were about to go on holidays for a couple of months, the kids were clearing around the school building to get rid of snakes - and lo and behold they ended up with a nice little patch of land along the side of the school next to the new well. Why not start a farm? So aki got the older boys planting cassava, which they can grow from cuttings. Cassava normally takes about a year to get big enough for the root (the big starchy bit you eat) to be a decent meal.

When I asked him what his plans were, he smiled confidently and said that they would sell the cassava and buy school books or press it and grind it to a powder to make garri (a local starchy staple) for the children to eat. Great work. Like I said, those guys always impress me... amazing

One of the standard teachers implements around
here is a good stick, Aki is no exception


After dividing up old cassava plants by "cutlass"
(machete) you can just plant the cuttings




The younger kids got to sit around and watch as the older kids
did all the work, just in case there were any snakes in the bush.