Obamania?

I have an "Obama '08" pin on my handbag here in Nigeria and it attracts quite a lot of attention.  Comments people make about the pin--and about the candidate and the race--aren't what you might expect from Nigerians.  That is, you might expect blanket support for a presidential candidate who is the son of a Kenyan man but public opinion, as far as I've gathered, is more nuanced than that.

Here are some of the Obama comments I've heard from Nigerians:

• I didn't decide to support him until the superdelegates started to side with him.
• I'm supporting him but I hope he has enough experience to lead your country.
• I am a Hillary supporter!  But now that there's only one choice, I'll support Obama.
• I'll support anyone who's not a Republican.
• I want your pin so I can be Obama's champion in Nigeria!  He has so much intelligence and energy.
• I love the man!

To be honest, while comments are mixed, I have yet to find a Nigerian who is not supporting Obama.  On another note, I just saw this week's New Yorker cover illustration.  I'll be careful to listen for Nigerians' reaction to the magazine's very tasteless picture.

Enugu Weekend Pt. 2

Again, sorry these pictures are out of order (I'm having trouble using this website), but here you have:

At the end of the trip, Chris, Dahlia, and Leehe heading to the plane to Lagos

SIPA in Enugu:  Chris, me, Chinonso, Dahlia, and Leehe

After Sunday's church service, Chinonso's brother Chinemelu (wearing the green robe) makes his way through the crowd

Back at Chinonso's family's house, a group of his relatives dances in celebration

Other relatives watch the festivities from inside the house

The entrance to Chinonso's family's residence, which the entire extended family uses for big celebrations.  A poster celebrating Chinemelu's ordainment, written in English and Igbo, hangs outside the house.

On the road outside Chinonso's family's house, the day after the celebration

Enugu Weekend Pt. 1

This past Saturday the SIPA students in Lagos--Leehe, Chris, Dahlia and I--took a trip to Enugu, one of the major cities in Eastern Nigeria.  The family of our friend Chinonso (a recent SIPA graduate) was celebrating the ordainment of Nonso's brother Chinemelu.  The weekend was wonderful, so thanks again to Nonso's family for their incredible hospitality.  Here are a few pictures from Enugu (sorry they're out of order).  

The night of our arrival in Enugu--after a ten-hour bus ride--Chinonso and his brother Ike joke around.  Ike, at left, is a graduate of Yale Law School and he practices in New York.  All weekend long, family members wore coordinating outfits, hence their matching shirts. 

The DJ's tent outside Nonso's family's house

Nonso's family on the day of Rev. Chinemelu's first church service

The service was attended by at least a thousand people from the family's village.  Wherever we went, we were surrounded by kids!  We were probably the first white people they had ever seen.

Philanthropy

A 2005 cover article of The Economist made the argument that cell phones are more effective than computers in stimulating the economy in developing countries.  Whereas computers are expensive, require a lot of upkeep, and can be used only by people with a certain level of education, cell phones are relatively cheap and accessible to everyone.

Yesterday I attended a press release for a book published by FATE Foundation in conjunction with MTN Foundation.  (MTN is one of the major cell phone networks in Nigeria and the MTN Foundation is in charge of MTN’s CSR work.)  Before attending the event I expected the book to be a boring business manual, but it turned out to be something far more interesting.

FATE Foundation and MTN Foundation have seized the idea that cell phones can promote capital accumulation.  The book they produced is a how-to manual for low-income Nigerians to create their own “call centers.”  Call centers, found all over Nigeria, are places where someone who owns a cell phone charges a fee to someone who wants to make or receive a call on the phone.  That way, people who can’t afford phones can talk for cheap, people who can afford phones can make money, and communication between people is made a lot easier.  The book is free to the public.

I like the above picture for a few reasons:  It shows FATE Foundation’s managing director, at left, talking business with two of the foundation’s board members; it shows two posters that highlight two of MTN Foundation’s goals:  providing shelter and helping women; and at left, it shows what looks like a model of a call center but is actually a cake!  I didn’t believe it was a cake until I ate some of it myself.

The Nigerian press were all over yesterday's event.  I'm checking newspapers for photos and if I can, i'll upload some of them later.

Saturday

Last Saturday night Chris Thurlow and I were invited to a cocktail party at the Bacchus Club in Lagos.  The event turned out to be a networking opportunity for Nigerian young professionals, not the kick-back party we expected it to be, but I'm glad I went anyway.  

Our coworker Michael (pictured third from left) proposed to his girlfriend (standing next to him) that night.  In front of everyone at the party, he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him... and she said yes.  Congrats to both of them!

Freedom!

My day-to-day can make me stir-crazy:  I wake up in a big house surrounded by tall walls and barbed wire, I am driven out of the gate and to work by a driver, I sit in the office, get back in the car, and return to the walled-in house.  On a normal day, then, I see three things:  the inside of the house, the inside of the car, and the inside of the office.  The only green I get is the small patch of grass alongside the house while I play Frisbee at night with my host siblings.

Yesterday, however, I broke free!  With the infamous Chris Thurlow, my SIPA classmate and fellow intern at FATE Foundation, I walked through the gates of the house, trudged through mud-puddles and past cars spitting fumes in our faces, to the popular Lagos hangout Alpha Beach. 

And we went jogging!  We got sunburnt!  We bought trinkets!  We were harassed by little kids!  Ah, it felt good.

Seriously, it was great to get a little variety and a little fresh air.  And parts of the beach were quite gorgeous.  It’s great to know that this place--the perfect antidote to daily traffic--is only a short walk from where I’m living for the summer.  

Above I’ve attached a few pictures of the beach and below are some pictures of a small church next to the ocean.  The pastor was very excited to have his picture taken and shared with others.  

Hustlers

In a conversation last week about the population of Lagos, I heard the same thing that I’ve heard and read before:  “People come to Lagos from all over Nigeria to make a living,” my Nigerian co-worker said.  “Some people come here and they work and work until they die.  Some people come here and they work and work and they never make it.  That’s the thing – Lagos is about the struggle to make it.”

An article published in 2006 in the New Yorker gives a similar assessment of Lagos:

Newcomers to the city are not greeted with the words “Welcome to Lagos.” They are told, “This is Lagos”—an ominous statement of fact. Olisa Izeobi, a worker in one of the sawmills along the lagoon, said, “We understand this as ‘Nobody will care for you, and you have to struggle to survive.’ ”

If this city is impressive for one reason, it is because everyone here is a hustler.  On Thursday, when I had been in Lagos for two weeks, I paused to count how many beggars I had seen since my arrival.  I could think of only four—four beggars in two weeks in the world’s sixth largest city—and each was physically handicapped.  Had they not been in wheelchairs, they would have joined the street hustle like their counterparts, I’m sure.

The New Yorker article continues:

The hustle never stops in Lagos… at stoplights and on highways, crowds of boys as young as eight hawk everything from cell phones to fire extinguishers. Begging is rare. In many African cities, there is an oppressive atmosphere of people lying about in the middle of the day, of idleness sinking into despair. In Lagos, everyone is a striver.

And it’s not just the poorest of the poor who embody the hustle.  I see it among the enterprising, emerging middle class every day at FATE Foundation, where I am working for the summer.  FATE Foundation trains hundreds of young Nigerians how to start and grow their own businesses each year.  The foundation is steadily expanding in Lagos and to other cities in Nigeria as well.

When I told a SIPA classmate that I would be returning to Lagos this summer, she told me her impression of the city:  not that it is chaotic, but that it has a palpable urgency, a "kill or be killed" competitive spirit.  On the street and at work, this is what I see every day.