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Ogidi21-23 March 2003The trip to Ogidi for seeing life in the village and, more importantly, Paulette and Wil Van Trier’s and John Sheehan’s chieftancy, included a total of 16 NFS members from Lagos: Paulette & Wil, John, Guy & Birgit Philips, Philip Broyon, Morris, Vera & Nicholas (age 6!) Harper, Elsa Bishop, Bolaji Adenubi, Riccardo Rocca, Tioma Aseeva, Chief Dominic Ekesi and Bob Griffith plus our gracious and attentive host, Nike. John Sheehan was the coordinator for this trip (and everything ran like clockwork). A truly international group – 16 people 8 nationalities - Nigerian, Belgian, Russian, British, US, Jamaican, Italian and Swiss.
Departure from Lagos to Abuja was on Albarka Airlines, leaving at 10:00 AM (Nigerian time) for the +/- hour flight. MOST everyone was there on time, but traffic caught a few out (good thing you are a Chief, Dominic). Comfortable (enough) flight on a 727. We were met in Abuja by our Nigerian Travel Development Corporation 20 seater bus for the 3 ½ hour drive to Ogidi and were on our way shortly before noon. No seat belts on the bus, other than one for the driver, not a good idea, given the number of wrecks we saw on the side of the road. The road from Abuja to Lokoja was very good and not too heavily trafficed. Everything was VERY dry, being the end of the summer. Even for someone like myself, a first timer with NFS, there wasn’t a whole lot to see as we rolled thru the reddish brown hilly countryside and villages along the way. After leaving Abuja Federal Territory and entering Kogi state, we crossed the Niger outside of Lakoja and turned west on the road to Kabba. On this part of the trip there were more hills, we seemed to be climbing a bit and the hills changed to a number of conical volcanic remnants. By and large the road was good, but some bits of the road felt like being home in Lagos. Shortly outside of the town of Kabba, we turned left at Nike’s sign onto a graded dirt road for the 10 km drive into Ogidi.  After squeezing the bus down a narrow lane, in Ogidi, we arrived at Nike’s ‘resort’, her workshops and multi-building, multi-room hotel resting at the foot of the mountain. Coming off the bus, we were immediately ‘attacked’ by the Ogidians, a fierce battle, as you can see! We all then had a great, if late, lunch in the upstairs dining room, decorated by an array of the fine cloth woven in Nike’s workshops. By the time we finished, we were hopelessly behind a busy schedule, but carried on anyway. We toured thru the workshops, seeing some of the high quality weaving, carving, metalwork and batik (or the Nigerian equivalent), which used a paste from casaba instead of wax and the traditional patterns are hand painted on using a chicken feather prior to dyeing of the cloth. I had the many patterns explained to me (drums, mirror, fans, lizards, etc). Following this, we headed for a walk thru the town. We had an audience with the King of Ogidi, abeautiful old man who received us all very graciously in his house, sitting on his brightly coloured throne.  We also passed the several wells, many houses, the main mosque and Catholic church. As we wandered, we collected more and more of the village kids. While heading to the GSM reception ‘spot’ by the manse, we came upon a ‘rare Nigerian child tree’, which was very luckily in ‘full bloom’, full of kids. Riccardo and I managed to find the fountain of youth as we climbed the tree as well! We were encouraged to greater glory by the singing and dancing to chants of ‘Ericardo’ and ‘Babu’ by the enthusiastic crowd. We then carried on to Nike’s uncle’s estate under the steep face of the mountain, toured the HUGE house and saw some climbers ascend the steep face in bare feet. We all then headed back to Nike’s. Morris had, unfortunately, fallen ill – fever and headache (fears of malaria, but he came good on Saturday with the help of some medicine and rest), so had been unable to join us for the village wanderings. Nick had kept up with all of the adults to this point, but by this time of the day his attention and his legs and dealing with an entourage of Ogidi kids literally in his face for hours and he had had about enough. I hoisted him on my shoulders for the walk back. With Nick on my shoulders we were even more of an attraction and I walk pretty fast, so soon was ahead of the rest of our group. So, by the time we got back to Nike’s there was a string of kids like the Pied Piper leading all the children of the village away!  A quick splash bath (dry season, limited water and no NEPA power to run the pump anyway) and we were ready for dinner under the stars…wonderful to be away from Lagos…relatively dry and a light breeze, idyllic! The only trick was that the outside table setting was on more than a BIT of a slope. Dinner started the ‘beginners’ course to Nigerian food (read LOTS of ways to serve yams!), which would continue over the rest of the trip. Pounded yam (kind of like heavy mashed potatoes (good on its own, better when eaten with Egusi, a spicy spinach), fried yam (like thick home fries) or boiled yam (for breakfast, with a tomato and vege sauce). A fried bean paste was also a common starch, very tasty. The surprise meat dish was turkey! Apparently local chickens are pretty tough, but turkeys are available and bridge the fowl gap (one house we went thru kept them inside!). So much for Ben Franklin’s wanting the turkey as the American bird, its already been taken (and eaten)! As we ate, the ‘lower 40’ half of Nike’s resort had a TV/video providing entertainment for folks in Ogidi. Following dinner, we had an impromptu performance by Nike’s talented Nigerian dancers and any of the villagers that were nearby (a constant, but welcome presence). Even the Ogidi grannies can still move more parts of their bodies than I ever dreamed of! Much percussion, movement and laughter (especially at the suggestive dancing from the grannies and the young men). An even busier day was planned for Saturday, so bedtime was reasonably early. NEPA was a forlorn hope for having moving ceiling fans in the rooms, but flywire on the cross ventilation windows and a cool breeze made for a comfortable sleep – fresh air, no aircon noise and no tooting of horns made up for the rooster crowing and the muezzin’s prayers (at a distance) at a very early hour.  Nike allowed for no layabouts and Saturday started with a 7 AM ascent of the mountain (though a second wave of our group was coming up as we went down). Great view from the top of the village and the farming in the area (yam, cashew, cotton, pepper, tomato). The cool breeze was even better. All climbers made the top, even Nick! A pond in a crevasse just below the top had to be approached quietly, as it (reportedly) had crocodiles in it, but it seemed like it would be a very hungry croc to me, unless it could exist on the green algal mat on the pond. At the very least, you did NOT want to jump in to prove or disprove the story! ‘requirement’ when we reached the top was to inscribe our name on the granite…obviously this was not a ‘first ascent’! Back down for brekkie at 8:00 (Nigerian time) on an even WORSE slope hill than dinner the nite before.  The chieftain ceremonies started to get underway around 9:30. It started off with several groups of women, all dressed in white and singing and dancing, coming to Nike’s to greet the chiefs-to-be. All of us were supposed to be dressed in white as well for the ceremony, so there was some scrambling about for appropriate clothes. The chiefs-to-be had their white robes and tall red hats. We finally were ready to head off in the bus for the King’s Palace (to avoid getting all the white clothes unnecessarily dirty to start with). We were greeted by a LONG reception line of current chiefs and then we were seated under an awning. More singing and dancing to entertain us, including a troop of young girls with bright orange dresses, painted faces and feathers in their hair. The new chiefs were taken into the King’s Palace and received the secret handshake, secret whistle and password (I have no idea what happened inside) and after some minutes, out they came with their staffs (double chiefs get two!) and beaded necklaces & medals with their new titles on them.  Congratulations were given by the seated existing chiefs and a short parade with the crowd followed. When all three chiefs were thoroughly sung and danced in by the crowd, a wander thru the village then followed, for those who missed out on attending the formalities. Full length robes and large felt hats and hours in the mid-day sun worked the new chiefs pretty hard and we ultimately arrived back at Nike’s around 11:30 for a collapse and lunch.  The Kogi state deputy governor and his entourage paid a courtesy visit after lunch and Will got a chance to explain the NFS to him. There was to be an afternoon gathering in the village, but the politicians (elections coming up) had full control of the event by the time we arrived. Not wishing to have our new chiefs or NFS associated with a political party, this part of the day was given a pass. I stuck around for a bit, but it was pure, endless, political speeches, so my stay was short. I did get a glimpse of a masked, decorated ‘medicine man’, but he was gone before I could take a photo. The ‘masquarade’ also made an appearance both at the rally and back at Nike’s. Talk about hot and hard work, dancing under a haystack!  Had the rest of the mid-day off, but time enough to be convinced that I needed to buy a piece of the beautiful handmade cloth, which also carried with it the ‘honour’ of buying the two grannies that sold it to me a beer each. Late afternoon took us on a tour of some of the houses in the village, led by one of the elder chiefs (who proved to be an energetic tour guide!) The ‘standard’ house had a centre hallway with a few bedrooms or a parlor, in the big ones, off of the central hallway. The entryways were all gated to keep out the small goats that had free run of the village. Construction was mud brick and plaster for the older homes and cinder block and plaster for the newer ones. At the back was an atrium for the kitchen area, with a separate area for the fire for cooking. Every one had at least one yam mortar and pestle and a granite block and stone for grinding peppers. The yam bowls were of various designs and sizes. The granite grinding blocks were all hollowed out a good bit, from design and years of use. The ‘shower’/loo was out the back of the house and privacy seemed to be whatever you could make of it, even to the point of having to bring your own towel/curtain to close off the entryway. The one thing that really caught me by surprise was a basket full of BRIGHT pink young chickens. They had been dyed pink, apparently, because the hawks that are in the area wouldn’t recognise a pink chicken as a potential meal – clever, but how they came to settle on pink was a question I did not ask. By and large, the homes we saw (and we saw a good number) were all clean and uncrowded. We were also fortunate to have come upon a traditional engagement party, which we watched for a bit. The bride and groom were seated in special chairs and were being entertained as gifts were brought in. Everyone was being well fed and taken care of. Around dark we headed home.  The day was still young, however. Some local palm wine had been provided for our enjoyment (in a 4 litre Texaco motor oil container) for us…a milky coloured, freshly brewed, fermented drink – not bad. Very close to Nepalese chang. Our dinner table had now returned to something approximating flat, although the folks on the downside were seated considerably lower than those on the upside. You learned quickly that it paid to be early for meals so you had the choice of good seating!  The last event of the day was a dance demonstration by Nike’s dance troop for us and Ogidians who were present (a good size crowd). I am told the troop have (at least) one dance from each of the 36 states of Nigeria in their repertoire. A large and very talented percussion section provided a very musical background. The energy of the dancers over the two hours of performance was amazing – very professional. We all found out about the energy bit by experience because the dancers dragged us out from time to time and keeping up with them for only a few minutes was hard work. The dancers and drummers were rewarded from time to time by ‘raining’ money on them. This is done by onlookers who would walk up and place 20 or 50 Naira notes on foreheads of the performers (when you could catch them being still). By 11:30 WE were exhausted and of course, the dancers relaxed after the show by…dancing. By whatever stroke of luck there was, the power actually stayed on all night, so ceiling fan cooling was most appreciated. Father John was invited to participate in Mass at the church, so yet another aspect of village life was on the cards for Sunday AM. I am not a Catholic, but the order of the service was as I would have expected. It was carried out in a more evangelical style – drums, bells, organ, choir and dancing in place accompanied the music whenever it came. The whole of the service was doubled by being interpreted in Yoruba and English, but some parts of Father John’s sermon got a LOT more crowd response in his English than in the Yoruba translation! A very colourful service, with folks dressed in their ‘Sunday best’. One of the (several) collections had eight ladies dancing up the aisle with yams and pineapples balanced on their heads. The 2 ½ hour service did not seem anywhere near that long.  We departed on time (given leaving at 1:00 meant 1:30 departure, well planned, John!) for the ride back to Abuja. As there was a fuel shortage on and our bus driver did not make the trip to Kabba to top up before we left, we had to do some hunting for petrol (at a somewhat reasonable price, even if NTDC paid, not us). We did find a station with a short queue outside Lakoja, so outside of some time lost, an uneventful ride back. Timing worked ‘perfectly’, almost too much…so we basically walked off the bus and straight onto the plane. We flew back on a 737 on Bellview Airlines. They had assigned seating, but as this was hand done, you can imagine the chaos. Everyone found a seat eventually and we came back to Lagos at 7:00, right on time. All in, a fantastic trip.
Bob Griffith (Australia)
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Lagos Branch
