ktravula – a travelogue!

A World Without Borders

Well, for a start, let us all agree that this fabled world doesn’t exist anywhere except perhaps on the internet. A Nigerian on a three-hour stopover at Heathrow will not be allowed into London for fear, perhaps, that he will suddenly ditch his American visa and decide to live in the fruitful fields of England forever, eating clover, beans and mangel-wurzels. A Turkish citizen hoping to visit any European capital will usually need a shengen visa or should just not make an effort. It all makes sense, doesn’t it? A few years ago, all anyone needed to visit Kenya from any part of Africa was a passport. Then after 1998 embassy bombings by a few radical thugs, everyone needed a visa, including neighbouring Ugandans.

The concept of national borders is fascinating, and mostly annoying. Take for example the problem of driving from Lagos to Dakar, a stretch that will be similar to one from Minneapolis to St. Louis just as soon as we can ignore the useless police checkpoints along the borders of the “countries” along the way. Once upon a time, West Africa was just west Africa, with contiguous autonomous kingdoms and no fake borders manned by corrupt men in khaki uniforms. Now, the Yorubas are not just Yorubas. They are Nigerians, Beninoise and Togolese, and this doesn’t prevent them from the harassment of faux obstacles placed on a road leading from one part of the continent to the other.

The last time we had the Ambassador of Kenya to the United States on campus, I asked him why it is taking African politicians so long to realize that artificial obstacles at national borders created more problem than it solved, he gave a platitude. And then I switched on the news and heard that even the United States is now considering building a wall – yes you heard right – a wall between itself and Mexico, this time to prevent the problem of illegal migration. Yet, all migrations are legal, as we all know, as the basis of human civilization, and change. Is there a point to my rant on this post? I doubt it, but I’ve spent some time pondering the idea of human migration for a while now. I think my most recent motivation is the discovery of an interesting fact that humans – no matter where they find themselves – would always prefer migration at some point in their life, than staying in the same spot. Yes, that applies to Americans too.

A World Without Borders was published on September 2nd, 2011, with the tags , , , , under the Observations, Opinion category. There are currently 2 comments on this article so far.

On Dangerous Revolutionaries

There is a curious pattern of dangerous behaviour  now coming out of the Libyan revolt against the government of Moamar Gaddafi. In this frightening CNN report, rebel soldiers looking to exact revenge on the dying regime have found a perfect victim demographic: black sub-saharan African (in this case Nigerians) who are in the country en route to Spain or Italy for a better life.

There is enough to debate about the presence of Nigerian citizens residing legally or illegally in a war-torn country (and the Nigerian government has a duty to protect them as well, to the best of its ability), but a so-called revolution aimed at liberating a country from tyranny should not turn itself into one – at least not so soon – at the expense of foreigners. The fact that they are targeted for their skin colours – as the report states – makes it even more alarming, and worrisome.

In post-Apatheid South Africa a few years ago, a similar thing happened where foreigners (also mostly Nigerians) became a target of xenophobic behaviour by citizens looking for scapegoats in a poor economy. It didn’t matter that just years before then, most of those other African countries had provided asylum for the freedom fighters running away from the oppressive Apatheid government. A similarly disgusting thing happened right after the Egyptian revolution succeeded, when Gael Ghonim – the acclaimed IT mastermind of the whole movement tweeted this. (At least he didn’t have a gun to someone’s head.)

A pattern has emerged here that should be roundly condemned.

On Dangerous Revolutionaries was published on September 1st, 2011, with the tags , , , , , , under the News, Observations, Opinion, Soliloquy category. There are currently 2 comments on this article so far.

Traveling Guest Posts

Visiting Port Harcourt by Funmi

I was in Port Harcourt city twice this summer. If you were born in Port Harcourt or have lived there at all, you understand that there is only one way we eat bole (roasted plantain). This food originated in the West amongst the Yorubas but is eaten there with ekpa (groundnuts). In the south, however, fish is first coated with palm oil and pepper, and  roasted alongside the plantains. Then a special sauce is prepared and the entire meal is covered in this sauce. In PH city, bole is a meal. I had missed bole and fish (as well as isi-ewu, ekpang kukwo, native soup and isam (periwinkles)) and I enjoyed all these while I was there. (More here).

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Cheesy Berlin by Temitayo

It is important to mention that Germany has adopted many meals from its settlers. Many of the dishes were brought by the Russians, the Arabs, Asians and of course Africans. There were restaurants that specialised in this. I ate Spaghetti, prawns, soup and nuts at Asian Cosiate. I came home with the sticks I could not use. I had chicken and chips at McDonalds. Not much different from what you would get at KFC. I ate falafel, vegetarian food at an Arab food spot, where I met an Arab who had stayed in Berlin for less than two years but spoke fluent German. Food was loads cheaper, with 10 euros, I was well fed. Food was a way to celebrate difference. It created that cultural potpourri; each meal, an encounter with a culture. Different smells, unique tastes, different people. (Read more here)

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The Festival of Nations in St. Louis

On Saturday there were 40 different nationalities grilling, stewing and stirring ethnic treasures in booths that lined a promenade through the eastern end of the park. The choices ranged from bratwurst to Turkish borek, a pillowy pastry stuffed with spinach and feta.

The Paces had already sampled several sweet Malaysian drinks including rose milk; tried a thick slice of himbasha bread; indulged in Bosnian food; and had heard buzz about Eritrean food, piled high on thin, spongy rounds of injera bread.

Under a shady tree, Kyle and Jean Schenkewitz of St. Louis must have heard the buzz. They were already sampling several Eritrean delicacies, including stewed spinach, spiced lentils and a hearty tomato beef stew. The couple were aware that St. Louis has had an influx of immigrants resettling from Eritrea, a country in the horn of Africa. Both said they are fascinated by how other cultures get their protein from beans, noting that America is one of the few countries that primarily depends on meat. (Read more: here)

Traveling Guest Posts was published on August 28th, 2011, with the tags , , , , , , under the Uncategorized category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

Bombing UN HQs

You know you are a despicable scum when the target of your assault is a building filled with innocent humanitarian workers of an organization known for the pursuit of peace and global justice.

That said, maybe it will be time to ask for more CCTV units in Nigeria’s big cities, especially now in the North where the new extremists – like little children seeing a toy for the first time – are playing checkers with car bombs and innocent lives. At times like this, one wonders what other solution can be prescribed without losing one more civil liberty just like the sadists hope.

Hearts go out to the victims.

Bombing UN HQs was published on August 26th, 2011, with the tags , , , , under the Opinion, Soliloquy category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

Transition

The 60s in Nigeria was perhaps as tumultuous as it was in the US, but only for different reasons. While Nigeria was dealing with its value and governance problems, this one was dealing with race, drug and gang issues. I still hear it spoken of with a tone that suggests an underlying dread of the heaviness of the times, although much of what I glean from reading Lewis Black’s irreverent autobiography Nothing Sacred is that much of those who lived in that decade went through it only through the aid of consciousness-blurring drugs and culture. Much of what I know of the Nigerian equivalent however are still in and around the nation’s politics today, but mostly calcified in Wole Soyinka’s memoirs The Man Died, and (most especially) Ibadan, the Penkelemes Years.

I thought back to an episode tonight on the drive back home from school through the open night surrounding the university town. The young writer – then a professor at one of Nigeria’s new universities – had been kicked out of his campus residence, so he moved his company of thespians into one of the abandoned government buildings at Eleiyele. He simply colonized it, without authorization and without paying rent to anyone, and they lived there for months until the government – responding also, not simply according to principle, but in a political retaliation for the man’s already rebellious reputation in the political terrain – sent in policemen to route them out. It sounded like some really fun times.

What got me thinking about all this, of course, is me wondering what it would be like to do the same here and now, in a country like this, and in this economy. An empty building. A terrible economy. A hungry young professor and a restless entourage of a young colleagues, friends and hangers-on hunting for deer and geese at night and living – for as long as the adventure lasts – in a socialist utopia that actually exists nowhere else. I like the kind of mental tickling I get from thinking about scenarios like this. And then I get to blog about it. 🙂

Transition was published on August 24th, 2011, with the tags , , , , , under the Uncategorized category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.