ktravula – a travelogue!

Browsing the archives for the Observations category.

The Church at Wusasa

Today, I want to tell you about Wusasa. I never did tell you about my visit to that little village of one square mile, three miles outside Zaria City in Kaduna state, Nigeria. I was there in July.

This set of pictures is that of the very first church in Northern Nigeria, according to sources, built by missionaries after they were evicted from the Islamic Zaria City in 1929 not just by the Emirate council, but by the British administrators who did not want to offend the indigenous Northern rulers and upset Indirect Rule.

Due to this policy, development in the region became forever stymied with Wusasa rather than Zaria producing the many firsts in indigenous breakthroughs in Northern Nigeria. The first Northern Nigerian to qualify as a medical doctor (Dr. R.A.B Dikko), the first Nigerian pharmacist (Mallam S.M.Audu), pediatrician (Professor I.S. Audu), BSc in Economics (Amb John M. Garba), among very many impressive others were born, lived in, or educated in Wusasa. Even General Yakubu Gowon (the first Northern Nigerian Head of State) was raised in the city, and the tour guide showed us his father’s house right behind the Wusasa church.

The church (St. Bartholomew’s) was built with local materials and by local architects. It has been attacked a number of times by Islamic extremists during the Northern Nigerian riots, and was even set on fire during those times. The mud materials of the building however withstood the assault, and even got stronger. Prince Charles of Britain, who had visited the church a few years ago, has reportedly been instrumental to its renovation. Now the church has a rug over all the concrete seats, and dozens of fans on its walls. But it retains much of its outward appearance as the oldest church building in Northern Nigeria, and an important one as well to the history and development of the region. Read more about it here.

Special thanks to Zainab Shelley who took me there, and a pastor of the church who gave us a detailed and guided tour on arrival.

Religion, Campus, Trouble!

Really? Not really. But if you see someone in the middle of a university campus on a cold afternoon preaching with every zeal in his body, you’re bound to have a few eyebrows raised, especially if that University is in the America. Very soon, the crowd around the said preacher will get bigger and bigger, and its members would begin to engage him in a loud debate. Trust university students never to let an opportunity for an argument go to waste. And then, as a result of that public spectacle, more and more people would come to see what the whole thing is all about. They don’t see that often.

I’d been alerted by a phone call. “Oh Kola, come! A crazy man is preaching here.” But I knew that the man wasn’t a crazy man, by the hysteria in the voice of the caller. I’ve also seen many preachers in public places (Who from Nigeria hasn’t seen one of those anyway), and I knew it highly unlikely that a crazy man would be allowed to stand for long in the middle of campus in America. Maybe it was just a healthy argument of opinions, I thought. Getting there and seeing the young man within a circle confirmed my suspicion. He was only as crazy as his decision to come to a campus filled with young fun-loving students to preach the gospel of Christ. So we all stood there, and listened to him.

But he never really made any new points, perhaps because of the hecklers who didn’t give him the chance. What he did the most was rehashing an old conservative messages of Christianity that excludes recognition to gay people, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the theory of evolution. And all I was thinking as we were joined by the many other people curious about the activity in the circle – and a few other angry hecklers that wished they had a chance to push him off – was “What what the young man was trying to prove?” “Is this the right place for this?” “Does he mind that people were there mostly for the heated debates?” If anything, does he realize how much of a lightening rod for criticism of all that is wrong with zealous proselytism as he stood there responding to every heckler in the crowd with an opinion? And then again, I wondered how possible it can be to make a case of God’s love for some special people alone over all others without sounding inappropriate.

The police eventually showed up but didn’t disperse us. They stood at a distance, watched, and later walked away, as eventually did I, wondering if there was any lesson to be learnt from the drama. It doesn’t happen often around here.

It is reported here and here in the campus newspaper.

Halloween and all that Jazz

The parade at downtown Edwardsville yesterday night was a jamboree. As early as six o’ clock in a car driving towards the venue of the annual Halloween rally, I had wondered if all of America had decided to converge here after all. The traffic was long, some roads had been closed, there were policemen at every junction, and all visible parking lots were already filled up. On roadsides were people in different costumes in family-size groups. On another side were tents and sheds, and people preparing for the parade.

I eventually made it to a safe place to park, and headed out to the road to await the start of the parade. It was cold, very cold. (You don’t have to take my word for it. I’m Nigerian. But remember that by this time last year, I’d already bought gloves.) Between six thirty and six forty-five the first group marched by. They were a band of firefighters from the city with musical instruments and a matching costume. They were followed by a bunch of school children also in costumes, and musical instruments. It soon became clear that the parade was going to follow a similar pattern. From then until about eight thirty when I have had enough, there were trains of people, cars, politicians, little children and uniformed employees who had come out to celebrate the season the way they’d done so for years.

There was plenty sweets (or candy) to go around, as any of the kids on the side of the roads watching the parade and catching them as they are flung would admit. Maybe for them, it would be enough to justify their coming out in such a cold weather. On the other hand, maybe it’s not that cold or the event would have taken place in the early fall or summer. But then, doesn’t the Mardi Gras take place in February when it’s the coldest? The other way to look at it is that this is one time during the year when whole families come out for a common purpose that is neither political nor polarizing. I saw three year olds, and I saw seventy-year olds, and a town suddenly made alive in a hopeful celebration of optimism and the fact that life always goes on.

I’m glad I went. I was a good chance to breath the fresh air of the outdoors, though I’d have preferred if it was just a little less cold.

Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum

More pictures from the little town overlooking the river.

At the Washington University in St. Louis

America has its treasures. One of them is a series of campus buildings of picture perfect quality. Actually, for a long while, the only images I had in my head of Universities were those of high rise walls and columns with a facade reminiscent of a prison or a palace. The closest to that I’ve seen so far would be Howard University with its beautiful structures, courtyards and decorated trees. And then, there was Principia College in Alton, overlooking the Mississippi river. The rest were Hollywood supplied: Mona Lisa Smile, Finding Forrester, The Scent of a Woman, and The Dead Poets Society, and a few other movies showing Ivy League campus environments.

And then I encountered the Washington University in St. Louis*, by chance I must say, during an idle moment of driving through the town. After an hour of walking through its walls and taking in the sights, I began to wonder how people who go there manage to concentrate on classwork in the sight of such beauty and serenity. I would never know, but I would keep wondering whether too much beauty is sometimes an unpardonable evil.

(*Initially mistakenly referred to as St. Louis University, the pictured structure is actually from Washington University in St. Louis. Thanks to Gerry Everding for the correction).

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