Treasure From the Basement
As I clear old files from the basement file cabinets and shelves, I keep finding fascinating bits!
“Open the door” is figurative. We came through a gate like this on the right.
Recently I came across a letter from my cousin-in-law Atu Onyemelukwe. He wrote it in May 1992!
He had reminded me a few years ago that he was the one who “opened the door” for us on my very first visit to Clem’s hometown Nanka at Christmas time 1963. I had come with Clem’s cousin Isaiah and sister Monica.
Atu was nine. He recognized the sound of Isaiah’s VW and ran out to meet us.
At the time I didn’t know that I would marry Clem, but others apparently guessed! Having a foreign woman taken to the ancestral home was significant. I met Ejike, the patriarch of the family.
In Atu’s 1992 letter he says, “In the eyes of a rural child, I saw a beautiful white lady who should be Clement’s wife.” I surprised him then with a “smattering of Igbo language.”
Ejike’s house at the center of the compound was similar to this.
He continues, “As I grew up and increased in wisdom and knowledge, I have never ceased to be amazed at . . . your uncanny and almost wizardly cultural adaptability.”
When he wrote he said he was “still searching” for a wife. He married a couple of years after that. Sadly his wife and baby died in childbirth. He has married again and has five lovely children.
He has learned to play a small electric organ. I’ll look through music I’ve accumulated and see if I can find a few pieces to take to him next time I go.
I know I have pictures of Atu. But I have no idea where.
I haven’t got to picture-sorting yet. Maybe over Mother’s Day when our daughter is here! Kelvin and Ikem can watch sports, Kenechi and Mary can play Scrabble with me while we look through pics!
Polio Vaccinations in Nigeria
The week of April 22nd to 28th was declared African Vaccination Week. The Executive Director of Nigeria’s National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib, stressed the importance of cooperation throughout the country for mass immunisation in Nigeria.
He said, “I have no doubt that with our very encouraging record of not having a single case of Wild Polio Virus (WPV) in any part of the country in the past three years, we all shall soon celebrate a polio-free Nigeria of our dreams.”
The report in Nigeria’s Premium Times online said that the Officer in Charge, World Health Organisation or WHO in Nigeria, is “working with the Nigerian government to ensure that no child is left behind” during the vaccination effort.
But reaching all the children is unrealistic. Many in the northeast are in displaced persons’ camps. There are remote villages in other parts of the north and central regions. And some parents, like those in the US with the measles vaccine, do not want their children vaccinated.
Nigerian Population and Women’s Reproductive Rights
According to Cable.ng online news, the 2019 state of the world population report from United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) declared that Nigeria’s population has now reached 201 million people.
https://www.thecable.ng/just-in-nigerias-population-hits-201m
The report states that only 51% of Nigerian women of child-bearing age have access to contraceptives or the ability to make decisions “on sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights.” The average has remained at 51% from 2007 to 2018.
There’s a tiny bit of good news: “The fertility rate among Nigerian women has dropped from 6.4 in 1969 to 5.3 in 2019.”
Aid and government health agencies say that fewer children lead to greater economic opportunity and lower health risks for women. Girls are more likely to get educated if there are fewer siblings to compete for school fees.
Cultural factors are at work. Many Nigerian men believe they have the right to control their wives’ reproductive activity. It is difficult, if not impossible, for a woman to contradict her husband’s wishes.
Until women have the power to make their own decisions, it is unlikely the situation will improve. Or maybe a miracle will happen and men will wake up and realize their families would be better off with fewer births. But I’m not holding my breath!
China’s Belt and Road, Part II
In my last post, I expressed some concern about China’s Belt and Road initiative. I had read that it was imposing too much debt on some African countries.
There’s a thoughtful response to this concern in The New York Times of April 26th. It was written by Deborah Brautigam, an expert on China-Africa relations at Johns Hopkins University.
Her research institute has studied more than 1000 Chinese loans made between 2000 and 2017. She cites research from others as well and concludes, “a number of us academics who have studied China’s practices in detail have found scant evidence of a pattern indicating that Chinese banks, acting at the government’s behest, are deliberately over-lending or funding loss-making projects to secure strategic advantages for China.”
All right, I’ll stop worrying for now!
May 1 is Workers’ Day, a Nigerian National Holiday
In the US we celebrate Labor Day in September, but in Nigeria it’s on May 1 and called Workers’ Day, as it is in many other countries. In fact, we’re the exception!
So take a break for a few minutes from work or other activities to enjoy May 1st, a public holiday in Nigeria! And enjoy some high life music.
