Many times, I have thought we people are like rivers. We carry on our own waters; we are constantly moving and pushing streams from the past, from remote areas of the self, encountering other streams until we join with the immense ocean. In Portuguese, there is an expression, “many waters have passed under the bridge” referring that a river has already brought many things and is like a measure of time but especially of events. Well, in my journey to the heart of Africa, that expression makes full sense, even if I have been here only for a few weeks.
The introduction about rivers is not only an excuse to connect my inner journey with external events. It´s also explained because Nigeria comes from Niger, and this word, in turn, means river of rivers. Full Stop. Can you imagine something deeper and stronger than referring to some place, or to a context, as being the river that receives and joins all the other ones? As an inner ocean that advances over the land to eventually encounter another bigger ocean? River of rivers we are, as we contain all the experiences of ourselves and from the people that surround us. We merge and receive their waters, their past, their hope, advancing over a land full of curves, to eventually encounter an irresoluble ocean: death. River of rivers that transport human sediments and sculpt memories, organic matter of time that goes under many bridges.
It is impossible to tell all the water, the rivers that made part of this journey. But let me tell you some of the most important ones. I will begin with the political stream of this river, then the anthropological/cultural river, followed by a rude attempt to draw the human and personal stream that receives others and becomes a river of rivers that keeps going and going, a person in constant evolution and change. Even mountains cannot block my waters, but as I go down with gravity, as time passes on, eventually, who knows where I will end?
The political river
Nigeria is, as other countries that I have visited, a Frankenstein. It is an abstraction invented by the colonizer British over a land full of history, cultures, and languages. Speaking about rivers, the second oldest embarkation of all human history, a kanoon to navigate rivers that is about 8 thousand years old was found in northern Nigeria. From ancient times (very ancient because human occupation in the African continent was earlier than in Europe and the Americas), there has been a big contrast between the north and the south. The north is drier, and more connected with the Sahel and peoples that eventually became farmers, enabling the advent of important civilizations that occupied lands with other modern countries in Western Africa (like the Mali, Songhai, Fula, and Sokoto Caliphate). These regions were later Islamized by their contact with northern African peoples like the Tuaregs and other incursions across the Sahara.
Meanwhile, the southern region, in turn, is characterized by dense tropical forests, big rivers, few lands to practice extensive agriculture, and the Atlantic Ocean on the southern coast. This region was more related to central African cultures and produced authentic African kingdoms like Oyo, Edo, Benin, the Confederation of Ara peoples, and many others that I don´t remember. If I write all those names is not to demonstrate that I like history; it is to remember these cultures as many people think African regions lack civilization or history. Also, it is an attempt to show that the waters of this big river came from remote times, as far as the human adventure. I was lucky to see some of the artifacts and reminiscent tools of some of those cultures in the National Museum of Nigeria in Lagos, although the collection is very incipient and only shows basic aspects of those peoples (I mean, it is more like an exhibition of the Folklore of the country instead of an anthropological or historical museum, and more resources and financial aid is needed to promote culture here).
All the same, nowadays Nigeria can be divided into three interesting main cultures and languages (yet, many are left behind and I indicate to consult specialized texts to see the almost 300 languages and ethnic groups that inhabit here. It’s the second-richest country in terms of languages! Only after Papua New Guinea) (Btw, Guinea is maybe related to Niguer or Niger; to "river"). (Don’t worry dear navigator, we are still rowing in the same water of waters together). Letting behind those digressions, as I was saying, Nigeria has three main political and cultural groups: Hausa in the north, Yoruba in the Southwest, and Igbo in the Southeast.
Hausa people are descendants of the Islamic peoples and caliphates in the north. They produce most of the agricultural products in the country and recently became sadly famous by Boko Haram, a jihadist caliphate that follows an extremist Wahhabism approach in Sunni Islam and is considered by the government and Western powers as a terrorist group that self-proclaims connections with the Islamic States (ISIS and now DAESH). Some years ago, this group kidnapped many young girls from schools and asked for ransom from the government. Currently, other groups regarded as bandits adopted the same strategy and kidnapped people, especially students and people from villages, to ask for ransom from authorities without necessarily following a political ideology, religious belief, and so on. It is because, since the independence of the country, the State has never been capillary present to the whole society, and many lands and policies remain virtually in the hands of para-state and criminal groups. In this context, many organizations, like Boko Haram, strived to grow in a movement that goes back to the times of the Sokoto Caliphate, applying sharia rule (the “Islamic Law”) upon many territories in the north. Even nowadays, by the Constitution, there is no laicism and Sharia Rule is accepted only in some northern regions. But if you think that northern people are marginalized, think twice. Their ruling class had also access to the elites and power of the Nigerian State, even in colonial times and before the independence of this country in 1960. I will retake this point later.
Yoruba are mainly present in the Southwest, in cities like Lagos. Lagos was one of the most important cities (it was named by the Portuguese who remained on the coast to trade goods for slaves with inner land kingdoms, in order to sell them in plantations in the Americas), and also the center of the British colonization. Yoruba ethnic group has been one of the most present in slavery countries like Brazil and the United States. Their past religion was polytheist and named Orishas the deities or spiritual figures that have power over different aspects of life and death. These elements are very present, for example, in modern Brazilian African religion, as well as in some aspects of cuisine, words, dressing, and of course ethnicity. The Yoruba are also associated with Benin (the Kingdom, not the modern country) which was present in a land close to Lagos. This kingdom had advanced administration and social organization and was destroyed (yes, the walls of the city were demolished and the temples and bronze statues were sacked by the British troops sent by Lagos. Nowadays, visitors to the British Museum will have better access to these artifacts than me or any other person who goes to the National Museum in Lagos). Since the independence, Yoruba have also been at the center of power and Representative houses, and most of the presidents and military leaders (there have been many coups and the military ruled from the middle 80s to 1999) were either Hausa or Yoruba.
The Igbo, in turn, historically have been formed by smaller communities and local governments instead of powerful kingdoms as in other regions. For example, in some areas, decisions were made in villages through consensus after long deliberations. This made the British appoint indirect leaders as those procedures were considered long and tedious. It is very well known that the British used the tactic of divide and conquer. For example, instigations and conflict were deliberatively promoted to obtain political supremacy. Whereas the British fostered radical Islamism in the north, and the Hausa were appointed as leaders or indirect administrators by London as these were credited as ‘natural warriors’ and most prepared to deal with war and conflicts, the southern regions, including Igboland, received a western education and the propagation of Christianity. Fostering “savage warriors” in the north, and acculturating the southern people with Western education and institution was the formula adopted by the British to deal with these peoples (Nigeria was indeed two colonies, a northern protectorate and a southern colony, and was unified as a single colony and country only before the Second World War) (This same tactic of promoting a warrior culture and giving them access to the colonial administration whereas subjecting and acculturating other peoples was also applied in India). The result is that Igbo people felt that they were underrepresented and a group of women promoted the Women’s War in the 30s against the colonialists to abolish the system of appointed leaders. Seen as artificial and authoritarian in more horizontal communities, the rebellion led to the massacre of these women but turned out with the revision and end of these appointments. Nevertheless, after the independence in 1960, the Igbos did not gain most of the political positions and deputies in the institutions. This led to a civil war as the Igbo military responded with a coup, and years later, the Southern region proclaimed the independence of the rest of Nigeria. The short-living Republic of Biafra was the Igbo attempt to proclaim a self-governed country. However, backed by the United States and the Soviet Union, and by commercial companies that were interested in the oil discovered in the southern region (Nigeria is the biggest producer of oil in Africa), Biafra surrendered to the Nigerian army a few years later in the 70s (by the way, if you buy in a supermarket, for sure some of the product are financed or belong to Unilever group, a company of food that was boosted by the oligopoly of commodities like palm oil, chocolate, and other goods during the colonial time. Guess in which country? Yes, Nigeria. Even when you buy trivial things in your grocery store, there is a footprint of geopolitics and the history of this country in your food).
Even nowadays, politics can be greatly explained in this country by those three main groups. Tensions are a present event nowadays. I was in Nsukka and Enugu, Igbo regions, and the resentment is driven especially against security forces that come from other parts of Nigeria and establish checkpoints, and demand commissions (a kind of bribery) from drivers in exchange for protection against bandits in remote areas where the state is weakly present. Indeed, corruption and police brutality are very present and explain many of the social issues in this country. I will explain this better in the next river.
The Cultural River
I did not intend to talk about this and repeat a cliché, but corruption is by far the biggest issue in Nigeria. And it is not me who says that, it comes from the mouth of every people who I talked to. Why corruption is endemic or is it like a disease in this country? It is because Nigeria is still a pre-modern country? Or because it lacks institutions and consolidated democracy?
Well, this touch in the work and classes I gave in two universities here. The first one is the University of Nigeria in Nsukka, Igbo land. The second is the University of Lagos, in Yoruba land. Nsukka is a semi-rural area where the campus is huge and the university was created to promote the development of the interior of the country. It has many departments and faculties. Lagos University, in turn, is located in one of the biggest cities in the world and Africa. Amidst the lake (which gave the name “Lagos” or lagoons/lakes), a slum called Makoko where people live in improvised “houses” above the water, and highways and markets. Contrasting scenarios where different people were concerned about the same issue: corruption.
In Nsukka I spoke about corruption as a social phenomenon. To an audience of lecturers and professors, I tried to dissect corruption as a socially constructed phenomenon that depends on the consensus of costumes and values. That is, corruption is related not only to ethics but also to morals and it’s a dispute of narratives, values, and power. To prove that, I have shown different dimensions to understand corruption: Law, Economics, Political Science, and Political Culture. From different angles, corruption was interpreted as, respectively, the break of norms and laws, the self-benefit or maximization of the self-interest vis-à-vis other competitors, the prevalence of one political actor despite the public interest, and a contingent consensus of values and non-written norms that cut across space and time (corruption in one era can be considered non-corruption in the present, or vice-versa, not to mention the differences between countries and cultures).
Well, I focused on the last dimension since I was in a new country, especially in a country where corruption is considered endemic. Again, why corruption is endemic, or is like a disease in this country? It is because Nigeria is still a pre-modern country? Or because it lacks institutions and consolidated democracy? These were just some of the questions. I cited some scholars who would answer ‘yes’. They believe that corruption is more present, or more perceived, in countries of modernization or rapid acceleration from one paradigm to another. From a rural society to an urban one, or from a pre-modern country to a modern economy. Despite many countries experiencing this, like the UK and the US in previous centuries during the first industrial revolutions, and even the Asian Tigers in the last century, this is not a universal law. The problem with this assumption is that it considers dichotomies as ideal lines to analyze corruption. That is, there is a huge gray zone between rural and urban, pre-modern and modern where corruption habits and even in those extremes (i.e. in a consolidated modern country) corruption can abound. At the same time, those analyses consider that history is linear and all the countries should follow a path towards modernization in the Western style. That is, they don´t consider that there could be more paths for development beyond the traditional modernization of markets and institutions that attend to the indicators of democracy and anticorruption of certain think tanks and international organizations, like Freedom for Democracy backed by international investors.
Indeed, having strong anticorruption mechanisms and controlled corruption is fundamental for healthy institutions and a fair market. However, this is even more difficult in a country that is just 60 years old, and that passed half of that time under heavy military regimes that were either rotten from the top or opaque. Political culture also helps to understand that, in a country where almost all economy is informal, corruption is very attached to mega-competition to survive and strive in every social sphere to make a basic living (Nigerian people are hard-working, the markets are open and people sell and work from sunrise to almost midnight, whereas in the cities the commercial activities never stop. The cliché that southern people or countries work less is totally wrong and does not consider the quality of salaries and incomes in work conditions). In a society where each one tends to maximize its benefit (i.e. in traffic jams where each centimeter in the streets is disputed by old vehicles and modern land cruisers), someone does not expect consistent help from institutions and many civil society organizations, and as the improvised and precarious market is perhaps the only alternative to go on, the “homo economicus” (the utilitarian person that seeks profits) appears with greater magnitude and manifests itself in breaking norms, reinterpreting norms, or arranging the norms and costumes to the own benefit.
It is perhaps the purest version of rational choice theory (a stream in political science that analyzes behavior, benefits, and losses between actors or players, rather than the role of institutions and public policies to understand society). It is the entrepreneur culture at its maximum potential. The driver who took me from Enugu to the University in Nsukka, for example, was a cab driver, seller of agricultural products, investor in clothing manufacturing, and so on. Almost everybody has different partial jobs and most of them spend hours in traffic in the case of Lagos. The economy is strictly controlled from the top down, i.e. the government does not allow withdrawal of more than 20K nairas (about 20 euros or dollars) per day per person. And it´s difficult to make international movements and transfers to the country. It’s like the economy is directed from above, but the bottom reality is the informal market and parallel economy everywhere. A walk in the popular markets in downtown Lagos, or my incursion in Yaba market to exchange foreign currency in an informal market where jewelry and other expensive items were sold like in a bazaar of dystopic films, like Blade Runner or the City of God film, composed a scene in which the rail tracks concentrated vendors, peasants, beggars, old vehicles and masses of people trying to bargain and offer products. Those who simply think of abolishing the market need to come to these places and think about what to do with the issue of the informal economy. If your answer is to increase the state, think twice again. How to increase the presence of the state when the very activities of a territory prescind from the state or do not necessarily contribute to its expansions? It’s like the snake biting its own tail. How to increase public services and deliver better policies where the seeds or fundamental notions to build the public are compromised from scratch?
Another issue between public and private life that deserves more attention is family and religion. As the public is coopted by the informal economy as well as by everyday and precarious entrepreneurship, even Christian churches have found a fertile terrain to expand and occupy the imagination about progress, work, and even family. Like in many other countries, churches that help to build social ties and join members coexist side by side with the ones that help to raise money for the owners and interpret family in a very traditional way. As far as I was informed, for example, sexual minorities are not allowed by law in this country. On the other hand, families are numerous in their offspring and Nigeria will become one of the most populated countries in the world by the end of the current century. Added to the previous dimensions (the homo economicus, low public interest, a political culture rooted in religion and neo-colonization), families became the immediate source to maintain power. Clans, dynasties and clientelism abound as it is necessary “to put the relatives and friends” in the best positions and give them favors or gifts.
The gift in this culture is something beautiful but at the same time terrible. It makes people connect easily with strangers and establish initial social ties. It makes people help one another in hard circumstances, especially in the form of charity in Islamic and Christian approaches. But, at this time, the gift has become something very utilitarian, as people ask for gifts especially in the form of money and as a common transaction in all circumstances. As many of those petitions are ignored, even the gift petition is banalized. And the gift itself contributes to a normalized attempt of bargaining some benefit to the person or the close friends and family. The gift is, thus, expected in every circumstance, even in public positions, politicians, public leaders, company managers, and those that attain a considerable degree of authority or prestige. Some people told me that even some professors ask for gifts from some students to accelerate their progress or pass them in exams. And maybe the most recognized case is the mentioned case of security forces, who ask for gifts from drivers in exchange for protection and as a form to allow them to pass or transit. I don’t have the data, but millions and millions of Nairas have deviated to the pockets of these officials as a product of bribery on roads (I myself witnessed these checkpoints and blocked roads and some drivers told me that is better to give the gift in advance if you are returning the same way, just to avoid problems. Others told me that this is not a big issue, since the gifts are citizens’ aid to improve the precarious conditions of police officers, as they need money to buy water or refreshments under the scorching sun and after working hours a day). The question then is: it is bribery to ask for a gift or it depends on the way it is asked? Maybe a bribe that is asked as a gift is not bribery but if imposed or demanded then it becomes bribery.
This remits to my final point in the presentation that I spoke especially in the first university; that corruption again is a contingent social operation that depends on a historical and not fixed (constructed) social consensus about the norms. In Nigeria, bribery perhaps is not the same as in other countries like Finland or Japan. It is because social norms about the gift and what is considered wrong can be very different (see the case of the checkpoints on roads above). So, more interesting than defining corruption as relative moralism, it is more important to locate corruption between the mismatch between the norms/ethics and the practice/morals. The norms and ethics are more fixed or universal because they are based on virtuous people and strict obedience or guidance to fixed norms. Whereas, practice and morals are more mutable and fuller of paradoxes, contrasts, and even more contingent interpretations. It is between the excellence of norms (A) and the necessity of everyday life (practice) (B) that corruption can be understood in one place.
If A and B coincide every time or most of the time, then we can speak of a society in which corruption is under control or has fewer chances to emerge. If A and B coincide partial times, but people break A because of exceptional circumstances attached to the necessities of life (like speeding above the norm because somebody is injured and needs to go to the hospital), there is a break of the norms, there is corruption, but we can speak of a tolerated or healthy corruption. In this case, it is hoped that people break rules and norms as they are not perfect, society needs a scenario of real people instead of aiming at the ideal and unrealistic aspiration of ever-virtuous people. That is because this scenario is considered as healthy. In contrast, if there is a major mismatch between A and B, and B demands to break the rules all the time (because of many circumstances that make impossible or very hard the daily necessities), then breaking norms (A) and corruption becomes endemic and something banalized. Yet, this is unhealthy corruption, as it overrides the possibility to match or approximate virtue and excellence as the aspiration to people, in real life or practice every day. In this case, A becomes a distant horizon that is lost each day until it becomes a fainted remembrance.
As I didn’t want to bring a closed theory or impose a Western view about corruption to this country (like the indexes of democracy created by international investors, as commented above), I accepted the comments and reviews of the listeners. To my surprise, most of them criticized their own country, especially for the lack of A or for the low implementation or adaptation of norms. In my view, A should be created according to the culture and politics of each place. However, even some professors considered A as Western development, and economic development, and mentioned that Nigeria should thrive on the path towards modernization as European countries. I replied that this model is far from being ideal and that even nowadays in this region some scholars are considering degrowth or less development as goals in the Northern globe. However, it does not mean that southern countries should automatically practice these trends, as even de-growth theorists believe that former colonies still need to grow and continue developing their economies to cover many deficits in services, policies, and quality of life (to increase indirectly B to match A). On the contrary, to my surprise, one student in Lagos said that he believed that the current democracy was not made for African countries, and that maybe the models of Russia and China were ideal for accelerating development in the Global South. I tried to reply that autocracies appear as easy solutions when democracy is in decline. Indeed, in rich countries democracy is declining and around the world, it has been contested by the people, especially after the rise of the far-right and neo-authoritarian leaders, from Trump to Bolsonaro, Orban, and Milei. Besides, I agree the current model of democracy was developed centuries ago in a few northern countries and was imposed in African countries like Nigeria. Thus, it is normal to see the traditional model of democracy as an alien system in these lands. Despite that, I invited him and other students to think of democracy as a not-finished program that can be improved with existent mechanisms from current democracy, and with new insights from deliberative, participatory, and molecular democracy. This also invites, of course, to readdress the issue of capitalism and democracy, ruling class and democracy, and social change and democracy, as these dimensions are complex and, ultimately, even in all those changes corruption can continue to strive. So, that’s because is important to think in small terms, create habits, and reforms, and promote apparently innocuous measures that have big impacts in the long term to change political culture and foster ethics (like rescuing or creating a notion of public interest, respect, equality, freedom of opportunities and treatment, etc) as these tiny actions need to be taught ever and ever again. To destroy is easy and this can be done in a hundred ways and very quickly. To construct, in turn, requires time and can be done not in so many ways, as the true ethical action is immanent and not utilitarian. I don’t want to fall again into the idea of perfect people and virtuous actions, but this is not a matter of yes or no. It is a matter of degree. Despite we will never be perfect angels, dammit, let’s demonize the people who are more evil than us and who think less about the public, whereas we can do more good to our fellow citizens even if we still are not like them or are imperfect political animals.
We don’t need to follow the easy receipt of more virtuous and perfect people to save our countries in the name of anticorruption because this can create monsters. People who appear as entitled to override institutions, public services, and so on could become authoritarian in the name of anti-corruption crusades to defeat this disease. Indeed, let’s not fall into these easy promises. We don’t want a messiah or polished and ideal people, we want normal people who don’t want to combat cancer like medics or soldiers. Rather, we want people who can create better-extended norms and virtues (A) and better conditions to live (B) so these can be matched again, even in imperfect realities.
Human and personal river
On my way to Nigeria, I left behind many lovely friends and the cold weather. In transit, I was lucky to find a piano at the airport. My own piano is very simple and some keys are failing. So, every time I have a chance to play on a good old piano is like encountering a sonorous jewel, where I can play musical streams: Dripping notes, aquatic harmonics, and improvise in scales that move like deep waters or fast rivers. It was my last connection with the old continent. Since then, my fourth summer this year started (I have been lucky pursuing the sun this year and hacking the seasons or the weather around the world, in January I was in the southern hemisphere in Brazil enjoying some days of summer at home in the Americas, some months Later, you can check my stories in the warm ocean and majestic islands of the Philippines in Asia. In August, European Summer, I traveled to Southern Spain and the Mediterranean coast having unforgettable experiences, and now December is the time of the African Harmattan, not the hottest season but still, very warm like summer).
It was like traversing a portal toward a tropical place, full of forest and rivers. Houses and streets and forests. Enugu, my place of arrival is like a very big town in the green land. It is different from the dry savannah I saw on the plane in Ethiopia and central Africa. It was so hot that my body was released from all those heavy clothes from colder places. I took a cab to Nsukka, one hour to the north, passing by many security controls on the roads and a heavy military presence. It seems that the Igbo have been protesting in some villages and also bandits are present in the territory, especially at night and kill soldiers. In Nsukka, the scholar’s village I was hosted is under construction, so my place was not prepared for my arrival. No toilet paper, water, supermarkets and basic stores around. The campus was so big and many places are still being constructed or reformed. During the week I stayed there, blackouts or no electricity were common as well as the lack of running water (I needed to pick some buckets and fill them across the village), and no internet connection. The only places that had those services were some buildings and labs on the main campus, but I needed to walk a considerable distance to reach them.
Nevertheless, I adapted very quickly as the lack of those services was part of the experience: a new African normality. But I discovered that no, in other places of Africa, those services are not running out and the government warns in advance if they cut electricity or water. In the end, the normality became indignation. I complained about this, especially after I saw two young students writing an article in the middle of darkness in the yard of the village, sending the corrections to an international journal as the deadline was close. This broke my heart and since then I have spoken with every manager or responsible I met, that better conditions must be met for students and researchers in that area. It was not acceptable to normalize those conditions. Some students agreed but just knocked their heads, others said that when people complain a lot, sometimes the authorities target the rebels and harm them. Maybe they were resigned to that environment but they greeted me and supported my anger. Probably my complaints will not produce substantial change, as blackouts, corruption and hard conditions are inevitable in a hard land like this. Yet, I wanted to try with respect to the people and friends I met there. Many of them are researchers from other African countries and conducting fascinating projects.
Abdi came from Ethiopia to research nanotechnology, Meka astrophysics and cosmic rays, Samba is from Gambia and contributes to energetic transition and regulation, Paul is from Zambia and produces models to understand neutron stars. Like them, there are many other students whose work depends on a droll solar panel to dodge electricity and other basic services shortages to continue running a computer 24/7 and ensure the quality of their projects. Never so many ought so much to a few gadgets that keep alive their dreams even in precarious conditions. A few meters away, a group of young artists try to follow the path of the acknowledged Group of Nsukka, a vanguard who developed their crafts and sculptures in this region and impressed the world in the ‘80s and '90s. Amidst one of the continental hotspots for a skilled generation located in a semi-rural area, learning and researching is not only a striving for knowledge but a way to escape the grinding machine of poverty and lack of opportunities in an overlooked ‘Mad Max’ land. These young ‘punk’ scientists taught me a lot and made me rediscover that doing research is a form of knowing, and to know is a form of loving, and loving is a form of reinventing ourselves and the world. Anger with such an unequal planet, my respect for them and for the promotion of science and arts, of any kind. Long live the public and transformative education around the world!
My last days in Nsukka were market by assisting with some PhD defenses and Master thesis, giving lectures and networking with colleagues. On the last day, I dressed in traditional clothing (very stylish!) and attended a social event from a high-ranked academic staff association. It was a mix of social events, religious praying, some music and dancing, and academic/administrative discussion. Even the vice-chancellor, the rector, was there. They served local food (very spiced) and invited me to dance in the middle of a circle, to the eyes of everybody. I was kind of shy but decided to improvise with the afrobeat playing. As I like dancing, what was initially considered a mock or a “ridiculous oyiba (white person) trying to move the body” soon became like a “pal, I have the beats in my blood and can shake my body like you all, and music is my country!”. After my short improvisation, everybody was excited and congratulated me. It also happened because I said the motto of the association in their local language (Igbo). It was oxytocin everywhere, big smiles and hugs. These people are really the kings or inventors of joy and groovy. After the event, I was deeply touched when one person said: “Now you are one of our own”. I felt like despite being far away from my culture, and my friends, I was in a cozy and receptive environment despite not understanding anything of their conversations in Igbo and still not knowing the social codes they manage. Music is my country, and so are people!
After those episodes, I traveled south to Lagos, the biggest city in the country and the second largest in Africa (after El Cairo, in Egypt). Thanks to contacts between the universities, I stayed in a hotel close to the campus of the University of Lagos. And rapidly I hung out with some professors who were kind and opened their schedules to my visit. Because of this, I could give another lecture to students about different perspectives on democracy. They helped to move around the city giving me other contacts. But the problem is that I ran out of cash and my international card was not accepted in the hotels and ATM machines. With no money, I asked to help to international banks and other hotels but there was no solution. I wondered, how can a big country like this be so disconnected from the international financial system. Even the hotels did not have IBAN or swift codes for transfers. Luckily a good friend in the Basque country made me a quick transfer and I got some foreign cash. But now the problem was to exchange it.
As a modest quantity of dollars or euros is an astronomic amount in nairas, the local currency, nobody would be able to exchange that quantity. I needed to go to a parallel market close to a railway station full of vendors, and homeless people, and in the middle of it, beneath the surface and after passing galleries overcrowded where potential pickpockets and people pushing other ones to walk (yes, it was literally a mass of people and I reminded of the lessons of contemporary contact dance to let me move across that mass), I got into a small office where Muslim traders sold jewels. These “sheiks” of the black market hidden in the middle of the urban jungle had those amounts of cash that allowed me to continue my journey by paying my debts at hotels and people (the hotel was literally warning me every day to solve my debt and luckily one of their staff escorted me to that market as otherwise it would be impossible to reach that hidden place).
Having all those issues settled, I went with a young local lecturer to explore Lagos in an improvised way. The only programmed place was the national museum (that I commented on above) to observe how Nigerians tell their own history and culture. From there, we just ride in circular and improvised routes exploring the marine bay, the financial district full of contrast side by side with poor people working across rail tracks and with illegal deposits of garbage around those places. Since the traffic is heavy and takes years to move in some crowded streets in this metropolis, we decided to leave our cab in the middle of a bridge and continue walking. It was like, at abandoning the vehicle, the stress of the riders and noise become a melody for relaxing and a meditating symphony of chaos as you walk again as a pedestrian; alienated from all that madness produced just to advance some meters per minute in a one thousand metal casted machine. Even the sunset becomes different and you don’t care about the pollution, the motorbikes, and the noise of the boats even on the surface of the water beneath the bridge.
Following that mood, we went to the central area of the city. A square where lots of markets are located and is virtually impossible to drive there, as crowded streets are common even till late in the night. We arrived when it was dark. My friend told me to return to our place. But I said that I wanted to keep walking some time across those chaotic streets with stranger faces staring at me as If I was a ghost appearing from another dimension, appearing from the shadows and only visible by the lights of the cars as the street lights were turned off. Moving like in a cinema room, carefully to not fall in holes or trip against obstacles, we advanced some quarters until we reached a Mosque. I felt like I was in a movie, like “Lost in Translation” scenes in Tokyo, or like in those hidden territories of cities in Blade Runner. By this day, the suspended particles from the desert called Hamadan created a foggy atmosphere, and my feelings of being in a ghost land seeing spectrums facing me, and becoming a phantom in the opera of the chaos were maybe one of the highest points of the journey. From there, we returned to our place using improvised transportation, a shared old sedan to leave downtown and the island. We stopped on a highway and picked up a motorbike (three adult people in a small bike) to reach a bus station. Then we took a keke, a small yellow minibus with other passengers to go to a mechanical office in the north of the city. That neighborhood was also a continuity of the experience downtown, as people were still working and selling products, food, fuel, and everything. Indeed, Lagos is a city that never sleeps and I think Nigerians are hardworking, my goodness! Even entire families were at the entrance of their improvised and precarious homes selling food or whatever product. In the mechanical office, we picked up a car that dropped me off in my place. From there, a continuous return, a fall back into reality, leaving the spectral dimension. Turn to go back again to Enugu, and from there to Ethiopia and Europe.
Impossible to summarize these days. I am forgetting many things and places I also met or went to. How to coalesce an ever-broader journey full of forking paths? How to tell those moments that will not be again in memory? How to make honor to the people I met, new friendships (Nigerians, and Africans in general, are very friendly and open as I received help in all the places I have been), and relationships that last digitally but probably will not be reconnected again face to face? How to process this journey and the echoes of the places, aromas, worries, happiness, dissatisfaction, and satisfaction in simultaneous and concatenate moments? Will I dream again with these scenarios and spectral labyrinths one night? I have dreamed about my life in Bilbao during the first days I came here. Probably the opposite will happen on my way back. Who knows? Ghosts never tell you when they appear, as rivers don’t tell when they merge their waters with other ones, or when they finally reach the ocean. In a Brazilian poem, it is said that even the huge and majestic Amazon, another river of rivers, at the moment that is about to meet the immense Atlantic, takes a deep breath and trembles before it enters and leaves its waters in the ocean.
I have been immersed in the depths of the heat, with the scorching sun, in the bottom of the nights, with colors that vibrate, skin that sweats, and from the middle of the labyrinth of transient lives that one sees in the megalopolis of the global south. Souths with meat, with flavor and noise, where you find a stream that takes you, brings you, returns you, touches you, palpitates; a path that no one knows where it begins and where it takes you in the next curves...
To the river of life that encompassed waters (from tiny drips to Olympic pools) from all staff, professors, students, friends, and people that helped me or I met along the way. Special thanks to Prof. Ossinem, Ezebiye, Hillary, and Adams. To Abdi and Meka who helped me and still will become champions of physics research in Africa. And to Samba, who through hospitality and a kind personality also helped me in my most difficult days in Nsukka.
