|
The Nigerian Field Society |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Trip to Kano and Katsina Durbar Festivals September 27th - October 1st, 2008 Trip Organizer: Paulette Van Trier Report: Carolee Weber
This annual trip provided amazing memorable insights into life in Northern Nigeria. None of this would have been possible without the leadership of Paulette Van Trier, a long-time resident in Kano. Paulette’s experience, together with her connections to the palaces in Kano and Katsina, and her relationships with village people, is an essential ingredient to the success of the trip, and all participants were very grateful to her. The well planned program was at a very nice pace, with adequate time for breaks and rest in between the activities. The scheduling of this trip is always complicated as the dates for the Muslim festival of Eid-al-Fitri, which marks the end of the fast of Ramadan, cannot be set in advance. This makes booking of flights, hotels and holiday entitlements difficult. Preliminary plans to depart Lagos on October 1st had to be brought forward to September 27th; as a result of this some participants had to withdraw and others faced travel complications. In some cases these complications made the trip more expensive. Given unpredictable air travel, NFS members travelling in Nigeria might generally be advised to bring along extra cash for such contingencies. But these problems were unavoidable and Paulette and her local team should be commended for managing everything so ably.
Saturday, September 27 Saturday began with a city tour of Kano. Our first stop was at the reconstructed city wall. We saw some of the different gates to the city. We then had an interesting visit to the Kofar Mata dye pits, with opportunity to buy some indigo-dyed cloth. We then visited the Kurmi market. Our able local guide, Danjuma, divided us into groups of 4-5 people and assigned each group a local guide to take us into the market and lead us around. This was a very good tactic, putting us in small enough groups to give us freedom to shop where we wished, keeping the group together, whilst also giving us someone to help us find what we were looking for in the market and return us to the bus in time. We returned to the hotel for dinner independently.
Sunday, September 28 To allow for a prompt morning departure, Paulette had arranged for the hotel to serve us a continental breakfast buffet in the pool area each morning. We departed from the hotel around 9am in our two comfortable buses. Our first stop was the Dawakin Tofa pot making village. Paulette had a long relationship with one of the local resident potters, who was ready to give us a demonstration of her skill in forming a pot. We enjoyed her demonstration and we gathered quite a crowd of villagers who enjoyed watching us as we watched the potter. We then saw the area where they have their ovens to bake the pots and saw their large supplies of finished pots. We walked through the market area and returned to a shady spot where we watched a demonstration of their hunting ceremony. There were two men, one dressed representing the bird and one representing the hunter. They showed us the gun and bow that the hunter would use and gave us an interesting ceremonial display. We then drove down the road and visited the Aleku weavers village. After a walk through sorghum crop, we arrived at a grove where the villagers’ looms were set up and we were able to see the process of weaving their hand-woven cloth. We then had a shopping opportunity with some of their local hand-woven cloth. On our return we stopped by the road where the ground nuts were being processed. This was right along the road where piles of nuts in the shell were run through a machine which crushed the shells. Women finished the process of separating the nuts from the shells as they poured the nuts from a calabash, allowing the shells and lighter debris to blow away from the heavier nuts. We returned to the hotel for lunch and a midday break. In the afternoon we went to a Hausa museum and toured the building typical of Hausa construction with displays of historical and cultural interest. We also saw the Hall of Fame here with painting displays in a beautiful room. Our next stop was at the Camel Market, where cows and goats were for sale along with the camels. Some tour members took a turn on a brief camel ride, while we all observed with interest the animal trade and slaughter area. It was a very interesting cultural experience, though not a pretty sight – or smell!
Monday September 29th We had an early 7am departure from the hotel for the drive to Katsina. We started our trip with a light rain falling, but we left the rain behind on our journey. We had a brief rest stop beside the road shortly before getting into Katsina. The road conditions were quite good and the trip took just about two and a half hours. After driving through the busy traffic to the palace viewing area, we were ushered to our seats around 10am and waited for the Durbar ceremony to begin around 11am. The Durbar was a marvelous and amazing display and it was thoroughly enjoyed by all of our group. We then drove to the Lyafa Palace hotel in Katsina, where we were able to order drinks and eat some sandwiches which had been packed for us by the Prince Hotel. Most of the group had a nice rest on the drive back to Kano. In the evening we had a delicious Chinese dinner at the Palace Chinese Restaurant on Race Course Road in Kano.
Tuesday, September 30th We left the hotel around 9am and drove outside Kano to visit with some Fulani people at Bunkure Village. We were able to see their homes in the temporary and permanent Fulani village and learn about their lives. They were a very interesting attraction to us – and our group was an interesting sight for them. Their children seemed very interested and amazed by the children traveling in our group. We were able to meet and greet the chiefs of the villages. The villagers then had a demonstration for us of their coming-of-age ceremony with a dance by the women and they showed us how the men would fight for the right to marry one of the girls. They seemed quite amused by the idea of performing this pretend ceremony, but we appreciated having a chance to take a peek at this ritual. The women were able to visit the harem in shifts on Tuesday and Wednesday and meet Aba, the second wife of the Emir. We had an enjoyable visit with her and appreciated the opportunity to learn more about life in the palace. This visit was made possible because of Paulette’s long-time friendship with Aba which allowed us entry into the palace area. The main event of the day was the Kano Durbar. The majority of the group left the hotel around 2pm, and they went directly to the viewing area and reserved seats for those visiting the palace. The Durbar started around 4pm and was another amazing display of horsemanship, costumes and performance. It was interesting to witness and compare the differences between the Durbars of Katsina and Kano. It was dark before we returned to the hotel and, shortly after, the hotel restaurant laid on a delicious BBQ buffet provided by the hotel restaurant beside the pool. Many women enjoyed getting henna on hands and feet and also there was a music and dance performance. In addition, traders were there with final shopping opportunities for us.
Wednesday, October 1st Wednesday morning saw another opportunity for women to visit the palace and meet the Emir’s wife. And then it was time to catch our various flights back to Lagos. We will all certainly treasure our memories of these amazingly colourful Durbar pageants and of our visits to the villages. Report by Carolee Weber
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ŠThe Nigerian Field Society | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lagos Branch
