Ifa also says...

Over the past weekend I interviewed 3 more Babalawos this time in Osogbo and a smaller town called Ilobu, just a few minutes north of Osogbo. Before I left with Dr. Ajibade he introduced me to two students who are going to transcribe my interviews (for a price of course), which is going to be a HUGE help to me since I can't understand most of the Yoruba, and when I get it translated afterward I'll have an audio and visual record of them! He also introduced me to Dele Babalola, who will be my field assistant while Dr. Ajibade is at a conference in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria. Fortunately for me, Dele is the son of the first Babalawo I interviewed this weekend and knows most of the Babalawos in the area, not to mention a whole lot about Ifa as well. I learned only later while talking to him, that he is not just an initiate into the society like I had thought, but that he is a full-fledged Babalawo himself as well!

So I first went with Dr. Ajibade to Ilobu where Dele's father, the Otun Awo of Ilobu, lives. This interview was a bit of a big deal, because most Ifa priests and scholars consider him to be one of the, if not the ultimate authority on Ifa because he is so old, and has travelled all over Yorubaland in his work with Ifa. His title, Otun Awo, also signifies that he is the 2nd highest priests in the society, I couldn't help but feel kinda puny and unimportant around him, and honored that he agreed to sit down and talk to me.

Besides being a big deal, Mr. Babalola was very friendly and sent one of the people in his house to go get drinks for Dr. Ajibade and I when we came in, and answered most of my questions (we didn't have time to do deal with all of them) in a very slow deliberate, and very dignified manner. I almost wanted to stop asking him questions and just listen to what he said, which caught me off guard when he was finished answering questions. There was way too much in uor interview for me to remember all of it off-hand or even to tell you but the most interesting parts were that most of the clients he has who come to him to do divination for them are Muslims, then quite a few Christians, but very few followers of traditional religion (called Olorishas). He also told me that lots of pastors who have just founded churches in other towns will come to him to ask what they should do, and how they can attract people to their churches! Apparently people from even pretty far away come to him because they don't want anyone to know they are consulting Ifa. I thought that was pretty crazy.

He also told me that the Bible, Qur'an, and Ifa corpus came from heaven (just like the Awise said) and that whenever they are in conflict or have flase teachings, that is the introduction of human creation into religion that causes all kinds of problems. According to him, this is part of the reason why in Nigeria people would understand why Muslims and Christians would be initiated into Ifa, since the consultation and divination doesn't have to be practiced as a religion, but if one wanted to become a priest or Babalawo, you would have to leave another faith for Ifa. This presented the biggest difference with the last interview, and he promised to tell me all about some Ifa mythology that would clear up a lot of my questions the next time I came to visit him.

At the end of my interviews I always give the Babalawos some money (usually about $15) and Dele and Dr. Ajibade siad they like wine and alcohol, so I gave Mr. Babalola the nicest one I could find since I really appreciated him taking the time to talk to me, and he loved it. When I produced it he said that one "Ah-ah!" that all of you who either know Nigerians or my Nigerian impersonation would recognize. He was so grateful he said abrief prayer asking Ifa to grant me success in my research and asked me if I had been initiated into Ifa or would want to. I told him that I had not, and weaseled my way out of explaining myself to him. I can't lie though, all of the Ifa people, initiates and Babalawos, have been very gracious and wise men, I just don't want to go through initiation into the society even though I have a keen interest in the tradition...

The next day I went with Dele to Osogbo to interview 2 of his fathers protégés, but in rue Nigerian fashion, Dele was about a half hour late, even after insisting that he would be 15 minutes early. It probably wasn't his fault because you never know how the roads are going to be, and what kind of bus driver you will get...

Osogbo is about a 45 minutes drive from Ife and I asked Dele all kinds of questions about his involvement in Ifa, and found out that he himself actually was initiated "under" the Odu Otua Meji (one of the 16 major divinatory signs of Ifa) when he was initiated. This was interesting because that is the Odu that is associated with Islam, and Dele told me that if he had wanted to he could now start dressing and largely acting like a Muslim if he wanted tosince that's what the sign means. He is extraodrinarily adamant that I get "the truth" about Ifa and through Ifa on my project, and I think he is enjoying being able to teach me about all of these things, and is glad that I am interested in him and Ifa instead of being dealthy afraid of it and disrespecting him and his family's occupation.

I know most Muslims and Christians at least oficially think and say these kinds of things, and I couldn't help but think about what it must be like for Dele and his family to have even the people who financially support you disapprove of the tradtion that you have dedicated your life to practicing and preserving since it is largely dying out. Even though I'm not and Ifa man, or have any plans to become one, I can't imagine that his would be a very pleasant position especially when he and his Dad tell me that they are really involved in Ifa since they believe it is a gift from God that is meant to help people and ease their suffering. Seems strange, and alos familiar that someone who wants to do that has to end up suffering for it...

At any rate, the next Babalawo on the list was the Ojugbona of Osogbo, and his job traditionally was to communicate between the Kabiyesi (chief or king of the area) and the Ifa community. So he would divine for the Kabiyesi and tell him what Ifa has to say, or what the Ifa community neds/advises, and then take orders from the Kabiyesi to Ifa as well. He was extremely friendly, giving me a warm smile when I greeted him, and even slapped me on the knee while laughing after I told Dele "Mo gbo ede Yoruba-o!" (I understand Yoruba!) when he tried translating something for me.

The Ojugbona told me a lot of the same things that Mr. Babalola did, which makes sense since the former studied under the latter. Mr Latona (the Ojugbona's name) told me that he too divines mostly for Muslims and some Christians, has initiated many, and even "keeps" Ifa for many of them. Traditionally, when a person "receives" and orisha, the orisha is said to inhabit a small shrine, pot, or calabash, after several secret rites have been performed to and over it, and so it is usually called by the name of the orisha since (s)he actually lives inside it. So when the Ojugbona initiated some Muslims and Christians, he said they didn't want to take Ifa back with them since it would cause all kinds of trouble within their religious communities, so they leave Ifa with him and he performs all of the nesecary sacrifices, like "feeding" Ifa kola nuts and water when necessary. He also agreed that Babalawos should not be Muslims even though initates should be, even though there is a strange very strong relatinoship between Muhammad and Orunmila. He said to know more than that I would have to go back and ask Mr. Babalola since he didn't know. At the end of the whole interview, he agreed to take a picture with me in his full regalia, putting his hand on my shoulder and thanking me for coming by. After we left, I felt kinda bad that I had been so apprehensive about meeting Babalawos since he was one of the nicest and most welcoming people I have met here.

Dele and I were already late to meet the next Babalawo, Mr. Onifade the Amokinrun of Osogbo, the immediate subordinate of the Ojugbona, who would usually be the life of any Ifa celebration or gathering, leading or beginning chants of Odu Ifa, and invoking Ifa/Orunmila to come down to them.We ended up being even later since Dele couldn't remember exactly where he lived, and said, "and what should I say?" when I asked if we could just call him for direction. He was really embarrassed that he didn't remember how to get there. So we called Dele's little brother and eventaully found it. Mr. Onifade reminded me a bit of my Uncle Wole in that he is a very big, powerful man, with an equally powerful and distinc voice whose size is only matched by his congeniality; he (and my Uncle Wole too) are the kind of guy everyone wants to have as an Uncle. I gave him the traditional greeting like always, and he yanked me up and gave me a hug and showed us into his house. As a pleasant surprise he spoke English as well if not better than Dele so we didn't have to bother translating wich saved a lot of time and effort, not to mention making everything clerer and more straight-forward.

This interview was maybe the most informative I have had, and I couldn't possibly tell you everything, but one of the most interesting things he told me was that although he's never asked or studied it, Arabs must have been worshipping the orishas before the prophet Muhammad came, which in a way is actually true, and that everyone needs to stop hating and trying to destroy the trditional religion that God gave them (All of the Babalawos I have talked to say God, Allah, and Olodumare the Yoruba word for God, are all the same and they even say things like, "Praise God" and "God willing"). According to Yoruba cosmology, Olodumare is so great and far from human beings in their impoerfection, that people must worship and access him through the intermediaries of orishas, many of whom were actual people. He said that if Jesus and Muhammad had come to Yorubaland instead they would have been called and worshipped as orishas as well since they served that same role. That's why he doesn't try to persecute Muslims or Christians or even deride Jesus or Muhammad. He got a bit riled up as well, when he said people just don't take the time to understand what's really going on, and think traditinoalist are worshipping rocks and dirt, when they actually know God in a very serious way. While not completely unexpected, this fascinated me, because I'd never heard anyone say that, much less in such frank language.

At the end I took a picture with him and Dele as well, and even a few of the pots he had in his sitting room that contained Ifa and belonged to Muslims from all over... Then as an added bonus, they told me one of their friends was having a celebration because he had just moved up the ranks in Ifa society, and they brought me along. at first it looked like most other Nigerian celebrations I've been too, big tents in the road, everyone sitting down, drinking, and eating, women in big colorful geles (head dresses), talking-drum players, people running around trying to sell all kinds of stuff, etc. BUT soon after we got there, after saying hi to about 20 people since everyone knew Dele and Mr Onifade (who undersandibly is well known and liked) Dele grabbed my hand and told me to go see the Masquerade, which is literally a costume with an elaborate mask that covers the face of the person wearing it, but is actually meant to be the embodiment of a spirit or orisha. Dele told me to take a picture with my camera quickly (notice the un-split infinitive Dad!) because people were shoving and beating each other out of the way with sticks to get to it. I got a pretty good picture with some Ifa men saying prayers and putting Ifa powder on it to ward of any evil and misfortune that might otherwise occur. It was at this point that I remembered why some people were so afraid and antagonistic to traditional religion, because I can't lie I was pretty afraid of the Masquerade and did not argue when Dele said we should get out of the way.

After a little while longer Mr. Onifade took me to another "bus" to Ife, which is really just a rickety van that squishes between 10-20 people in it. On the way he told me that he had just been called by one lady from the US who had been to all kinds of doctors to try to treat all of these seemingly unrelated helth issues she had been having before coming to him, and after he consulted Ifa and prescribed a treatment and prayer for her, she's all better. I have no idea how it worked, but Mr. Onifade said that happens to him a few times every day, especially with people from the US now because so many people are loosing jobs or are afraid of them, which had never occured to me but made sense. I just wonder how your average American hears about or decides to get in touch with an Ifa priest in Yorubaland. I guess that's the modern global village for you.

At any rate this post has been almost as long as my day in Osogbo, so I'm going to go review my interviews again, so bye for now, but remember to e-mail me and questions or thoughts because I'm sure I haven't fully explained all kinds of things
~Deji

Ifa Says...

As you probably know, I've been studying Arabic and Islam along with African languages and culture for the past few years, and for my sr thesis I decided to write about the seemingly curious relationship between Islam and this traditional Yoruba divination form called Ifa. If you'd like a more detailed description of what Ifa is and how it works, please just send me an e-mail, but for now, Ifa Divination is used as a method for the priests of Orunmila, an incredibly wise Yoruba deity, to find out why people are having trouble in their lives and prescribe solutions. I and lots of other people have found Ifa fascinating since it is a very intricate and powerful tradition that is still very much alive and requires an incredible amount of training and knowledge (much of it secret) on the part of the Babalawos (Orunmila's priests who do the actualy divination). At any rate, I was particularly interested because one of my professors said that many of these Babalawos are simultaneously practicing Muslims, and the Ifa corpus (a group of poems, stories, and other largely oral material that the Babalawos use) has a fair amount to say about Islam as well. So my project this summer, and hopefully my thesis for the next school year, is exploring and hopefully explaining how these priests are able to practice Ifa and Islam together, and what Ifa's stance on Islam is. So with the help of Uncle Harvey, I went right to the source!

Fortunately for me, Dr. Ajibade is a vigorous student and professor of Yoruba culture and language, and has really taught me the meaning of the saying "a gentleman and a scholar." He immediately asked me what I wanted to do and how he could help. Within a few minutes he made a list of Babalawos I could interview and said he would take me to one the next day and then to another one about an hour or more away this coming Saturday. He also said he would translate for me and find someone to transcribe my interviews since they are all being recorded. The man is really amazing and almost single-handedly put my research in motion!

Another professor I met here at Obafemi Awolowo is Aunty Remi's good friend Uche, who also happens to teach French! I've had a lot of fun practicing French with him and lamenting how our proficiency in the language seems to slowly seep away like an atrophying muscle when stuck in a completely anglophone environment. He really likes my "parisian" accent and wants me to come talk to his students to prove that Nigerians can and should speak French and that the West African accent isn't the only one out there. He lives right by the Sonaiyas house and is trying to finish his Masters, and then hopefully leave the country to work on a PhD since acadmeic resources are so scant in quantity and quality here. He's told me several times that he wants to just escape the madness here and go to Senegal or Benin where people are more sane and he can really soak up the French language and Francophone culture. I really hope he gets the chance, because he's very bright and like those other famous francophiles like Cesaire and Senghor he has an almost irrepresible passion for the language.

Just yesterday I got back from conducting my very first interview here in Ife with one of the friends of Dr. Ajibade. We left at about 8:30am and after carefully navigating the tumultuous waves of broken pavement that constitute Nigerian roads we finally got to the house Babalawo, called the Awise of Modakeke. He was really big and kind of reminded me of a bear, to be honest, but he was quite friendly and had a very commanding presence. I could tell as soon as we sat down with him that the guy had all kinds of knowledge and power stored up in his head. It was strange how it hit me, but it was very apparent from the beginning. I gave him the traditional greeting called "dobale" which has now become an abbreviated prostration, and said "Ekaaro sir." He seemed pretty happy that I could greet him in Yoruba and got a bit of a kick out of the fact that I could introduce myself and tell him where my family came from, where I live, and why I am "Oyinbo" or "white" since anything outside of or lighter than the general Nigerian skintone gets put into this category.

Our interview took about an hour with me asking Dr. Ajibade a question and he in turn phrasing it in Yoruba for the Awise. I was surprised that part of the time I could actually understand the responses even though I certainly didn't know what words were being said, but I would always wait for Dr. Ajibade to translate so I wouldn't miss anything and because the interview is getting recorded. I learned more than I ever could have from reading books back at school in that 1 hour, and most significantly for me, I learned that at least this Babalawo says Ifa and Islam really aren't different. According to him they have been almost one religion since God, or Olodumare in Yoruba, sent them both down from heaven. He told me very matter-of-factly that Orunmila the god himself was a Muslim, that his own grandfather (also a Babalawo) was a Muslim, and that Orunmila told God to send a long-bearded servant he had named "Afa" down to earth with the Qur'an to put people on earth back in order. The overall message of the interview, among lots of other smaller points and another interview of Ifa and Islam origin mythology that will come later, was that Ifa and Islam are completely compatible and have been intertwined if not one practically since the dawn of time even though most Muslims will vehemently reject this idea. Those who do, the Awise said, "lack true understanding". Interestingly enough the Awise himself is not a Muslim, and while we were leaving, Dr. Ajibade and I ran into a priest of the god of iron and war, Ogun (the same Ogun in my last name), who happens to be a Christian. So don't accpect any statistics about how many people follow different religions in Nigeria at face value!

This interview was absolutely perfect for my thesis and if I could get even just a few more like this I would probably have all that I need, but Dr. Ajibade and I will to to milk it for all we can get. The more the better! So everyday, after getting up at 6-6:30 and praying and eating breakfast with Uncle Funso, I go to campus and visit either Uche or Dr. Ajibade to talk about/work on my project and by about noon or shortly after I come to Uncel Funso's department where I steal their internet and work in their conference room. Until they kick me out that is... There's almost always power here, and since the internet is free while I can "borrow" the conference room I should be able to get at my e-mail periodically so feel free to get in touch with me!

Hope you're all well
~Deji

PS I just bought myself a little treat of a bottle of "ground nut," which is really just peanuts in a glass bottle. I'm not sure why that's how they are sold, but they are so good I couldn't pass up the opportunity to "chop small"

Birthplace of Yorubaland

I left Ibadan at about 6am with Uncle Seun to go to Ile-Ife which according to Yoruba creation mythology is the place where Olodumare, or God, sent down Oduduwa to create the earth, which was orignally just sand that a chicken spread out all around the world, and Obatala, the creation divinity, began making people here and became the patron Orisha, or god, of the town. I'm going to Ife because it is also the home of Ifa Divination, which as you may already know, is the subject of my research. Needless to say I was a bit tired on the road, but I was surprised at first that it was so well maintained, until about half an hour in when all of the pot-holes reappeared and we had to slow down considerably. Uncle Seun and I talked about how Nigeria is a really blessed country because we don't really have to work hard for much of anything to feed any immediate needs. My father always said that if you planted a pig's ear in the ground in Nigeria, a month later you would find several pigs where you planted it. He's absolutely right, EVERYTHING grows here and because there plenty of sunlight and rain, you don't even have to cultivate it. And just as we were lamenting how great everything was, we noticed that the side of the "highway" we were on was turning into a swamp. When I say swamp, I don't mean the recent rains had flooded the road, I mean there was stagnant water there with pond scum and other plants growing out of it, and a good 100 yard section of the highway was completely submerged in an actualy swamp. So much for everything being so great...

I am staying with Aunty Remi and Uncle Funso Sonaiya, my father's very good friends, in Ife, and as luck would have it they are both professors at Obafemi Awolowo University, arguably the premier institution in the world for the study of Yoruba culture and certainly Ifa Divination. At any rate, we arrive at the university at about 8 am, and the place is absolutely beautiful! The university boasts that it hasa the most beautiful campus in Africa and I think they might be right. They have more acres and acres of land as far as the eye can see covered in beautiful trees and hills, and since it's a sub-saharan African University, it of course has to have buildings that have undergone a bit of neglect, but are still beautiful all the same. It took us maybe 5 minutes to drive from the gate to the Sonaiyas house, which is also on campus thankfully, and after a brief visit, Uncle Seun was off and Aunty Remi gave me a quick tour of campus. She introduced me to several professors that she knows, fortunately for me she teaches French!, and in particular one Professor Ajibade who does a lot of work very similar to my project. The only thing that surprised me more than the beauty of the school, was the fact that they had electricity almost all the time! I had gotten pretty good at hooking up every electronic appliance that I have to the same outlet when power comes, but there's no need here! The Sonaiyas even have a power inverter, so when there's no power, there's still power! I really lucked out.

Aunty Remi took me through the rest of the city, it's much much smaller than I had imagined, on her way to a tailor, and then we went back home because she had to go to a French villiage in Badagry (Eastern Nigeria), and then on to Germany and France. I hope that can once and for all dispell the myth that no Nigerians speak French... I settled my thigns in and talked with Uncle Funso about the rampant greed and corruption in Nigeria, what else..., over dinner and we tried to come up with a good explanation for why it has come about since that's the first step in fixing it. Unfortunately we don't have any real answers, but when we do I'll let you know. For now I'm going to do some more work on my research questions and pass out. I promise to outline my project some more in the next post

On Saturday morning I had fun joking with Ma Gbeji, Uncle D, Awa, and Aunty Bimbo, who informed me that I would later get initiated into Ma Gbeji's Jallof Rice and Puff-Puff (my favorite food as many of you may know). Before I would do any of that though, I went to visit my Grandfather's very good friends the Odukoyas who live just around the corner. The Odukoyas and my grandparents were so close, in fact, we call them our "other granndparents" and Mr. Odukoya calls my Grandfather his brother.

I had a great visit with them, talking abuot how Mr Odukoya's 80th birthday celebration was, these birthday celebrations that take place on the decade are massive ordeals that are usually as large if not larger than weddings that we have in the States. Even though he's over 80 Mr. Odukoya still looks not a day over 60 and moves around like it too. We sat around and looked at his birthday pictures with his family, talked about how it's such a shame that almost all Nigerian politicians are stealing all the money that should be going back to the Nigerian people, especially no when there hasn't been electricity in Ibadan for about a month. Usually power is intermittent at best, but a month is a long time for anyone in a city to go without power, particularly when that means there is no water power either. Mr and Mrs Odukoya kept thanking God that they have such good traditional family ties (with their own children and my Aunts and Uncles) because they are the ones who support them because the pensions they were supposed to be receiving stopped coming a long time ago.

Then we made a fairly easy transition to reading the newspapers which were all reporting the most recent blantant bout of political theft. The Governor of Ogun State was caught using his cook's banking account to embezzle 400 Million Naira (well over $2 Million) and all of his other servants were coming forward to say that if he tried to pin the whole thing on the cook they would come forward with their own cases. So you can imagine how much money this one Governor has stolen over the years, not to mention all of the other governors, mayors, senators, etc. It's really a shame that in a country with so many smart, generous, and hard-working people, an exceedingly small, and inversely proportionately greedy group of people are truly ruining life for everyone else. The Odukoyas stuffed me full of food, and after a while, Uncle D came by for the second time (they sent him away the first time he came to get me) and brought me back to my grandparent's house.

Back at the house I walked around all of the rooms there, remembering the other tiems I've visited and looked at some of the old pictures of my Father and his siblings, and visited my grandparent's old rooms. It was great, but kinda of sad to see where the used to live and remember the time we spent with them there konwing that they're both now gone. In jsut a short while Aunty Bimbo called me to come make Puff-Puff and Chin-Chin with Ma Gbeji, which made me feel a lot better about my own cooking methods at the end, because mine isn't all that different from hers, except I don't make it in an iron pot over firewood... Everyone had a good time "chopping" (eating) Puff-Puff, which I forgot to mention is really sweet deep-friend dough, and everyone had an even better time laughing at how little I am able to eat.

I ate far too much, even though that was less than eveyone else, so I passed out early so I could see Uncle Seun when he came in early the next morning.

Ibadan and Beyond

After a good time in Lagos, Aunty Bimbo told me that we have to go to Ibadan for the weekend, and that leaving early on Friday morning was mandatory since the Lagos-Ibandan expressway is in such a poor state and the great church "Mountain of Fire" have their camp/retreat/great conquest on saturday and completely block the road. If we went any later than Friday morning we might spend the night on the road! Aunty loves going to Ibadan, and says sometimes when she gets fed up with working in her store she'll just go to Ibadan for the weekend, which can very easliy turn into a whole week or more. Uncle Seun likes to say that what God has joined together, Ibadan wants to break apart since he doesn't like to go nearly as much as Aunty Bimbo does because everyone and his brother comes out of the woodwork to ask him for help in something or another.

Our plan of action was to go to Abeokuta to visit my Uncle Segun and Aunty Funmi briefly on the way to Ibadan, so we packed up the car with Uncle D and Awa, Aunty Bimbo's house help, and we hit the road. I had a good time "jisting" (that is just relaxing and conversating, or maybe even "chewing the fat" if I may) with Aunty Bimbo in the car about what we'll do in the US, how Nigerians are absurd, and my favorite, her threatening to give Uncle D a "dirty slap from the back" for his "Jaames Bond" driving. Since we left early enough we were able to more or less avoid go-slow on our way to Abeokuta and reached it just before noon.

It was great to see Uncle Segun and Aunty Funmi again, and we had a good time talking about what was new in life, and then we went to go see Aunty Funmi's office. When we got there, everyone asked me if I was Brazilian and laughed really hard when I greeted them in Yoruba, and interjected into their conversations about me and answered their questions. It took me a while to explain to one lady that I did not have a wife even though I am a full 20 years old because my Yoruba is so limited, but I didn't stick around long enough for her to make any suggestions for me...

Next we went to Olumo Rock, a historic site for which Abeokuta is named. Over a century and a half ago, the people who settled in the area fled up a hill to this massive rock to hide away while an inter-tribal war was being carried out, and they didn't come out from under the rock until the fighting was all over. The rock was considered a deity, and every year to this day the traditinoal leader of the city and the high priest make sacrifices to it. I went some years ago with my whole family, but the place has since been turned into a tourist attaction with elevators and guides and the whole 9 yards. They really did a nice job with the place. After some picture taking, the view of the city from the top of the rock is breathtaking, I went with Aunty Funmi to the market to go price for Adire, haggle for some traditinoal cloth that originated in Abeokuta. By the time we had found some cloth that we liked at a price to match, it was well-after time to leave for Ibadan, so I met up with Aunty Bimbo and we were off again.

I really enjoyed driving outside of the city because the Nigerian landscape is beautiful and I was really taken by how much closer the sky looks than it does in the US. After a while I realized that it is probably because there's nothing blocking the skyline and you can always see the clouds on the horizon in any direction. While looking out the window at the landscpae, buying fresh pineapple from people on the side of the road, Aunty and I had fun singing along to P-Square and Ty Bello CDs my cousins left in the car until it started raining. In Nigeria when it reains, which is all the time, the roads become even more abominable. Needless to say our quite pace was turned into a slow drag. By the time we got into Ibadan itself we were hardly moving at all because the roads were so bad, and the drivers were even worse. At one point Aunty Bimbo got so mad at one driver who was driving on the wrong side of the road and wouldn't move out of the way to let us go, she told Uncle D to get out of the car and she parked it in front of the guy and told him she would teach him the lesson of his life until he let us go. After he huffed and puffed, while Aunty just stared him down, the guy's life was indeed changed, as he got out of the way for us to pass.

We finally arrived at my late grandparent's house in Ibadan at about 10 pm and I greeted the people who keep the house for us (Ma Gbeji and her family), we ate some rice and then passed out so we'd be ready for more activity tomorrow.

My latest adventure, besides struggling with the intense humidity here, was travelluing through more go-slow with Uncle D, Uncle Seun's driver, to visit Aunty-the-Great-One, or my Great Aunt who also lives in Lagos. First we droped off Aunty Bimbo (Uncle Seun's EXTREMELY business savy wife) at her shop where she sells clothes, and then we slowly made out way through the absurdly overcrowded Lagos streets to Aunty-the-Great-One's house.

On the way I talked with Uncle D about what makes a good footballer(soccer player) how we love Ronalsinho and Jay-Jay Okocha, arguably the best soccer player to ever come out of Nigeria. When we arrived Aunty sat me down and joked with me about how Damini is always travelling, and updated me on how Lagos State finally has an honest Governor, Fasola, who actually gets things done anddoesn't just "chop" (steal money). She also informed me that the Niogerian power company formerly called NEPA that only provisdes power about 3 hours in the day, is now called PHNC or as she likes to call it, "Please Hold Candle Now." I heard all kinds of stories about how education should work, how Aunty has recently put a bunch of young "idiots" who wanted to tear down the gate on her garden in their place once and for all, and for about an hour how ridiculous all of the religious violence in Nigeria and the world at large is, esecially in regards to Christian-Muslim tensions. After a brief photoshoot, and giving Aunty the scarf Damini got for her in Turkey (which she adored) it was back through go-slow to the house.

When we got back, I told Uncle D I would do some football tricks with him and I played a bit with Suleyman, the doorman at my uncle's house. Suleyman is Hausa, fomr the north of the country, and doesn't speak much english or yoruba, so I tried speaking Arabic to him, only to find out that he is more comfortable in French! So Madame Kennedy, no matter where I go, the French you taught me always serves me well! Suleyman and Uncle D loved my tricks, andSuleyman started calling me "magnet" because the ball was stuck to my feet when he tried to take it from me. We also went out to play with another Hausa guy Suleyman knows name Ibrahim across the street, who, as it happens, also speaks french but no English. After all the exitement of the day, I'm heading back home to eat some more really spicy food that has cleared up the remnants of the allergies I brough with me. It's been soo long since I've had real pepa! Make I go chop-o!! And maybe watch some cheesy Nigerian movies on Africa magic today too!

Ekaabo

I started my journey at about 4am with a really nice guy from Algeria diving me to the train station in Morges Switzerland after a brief visit with my family. I flew through Frankfurt and when I sat down at the terminal I was welcomed by the irrepressible eau naturel of Nigerian body odour. If you know Nigerians you'll know what I'm talking about. It was a kinda of nice way of getting welcomed back, although the unwhitting German lady who sat down next to my friend emmitting these wafting scents displayed on her face that she was nowhere nearly as pleased by it as I was. In fact she got up and moved!

When I got into Lagos, after sitting next to one lady who barked orders at the flight attendant and refused to check the 4 bags she had bought at duty-free in the airport, I was surprised to find that my Nigerian phone was no longer working. Taht meant I couldn't flash (what Nigerians call calling someone quickly and then hanging up so you don't have to get charged for actually calling that person) my Uncle Seun to let him know that I had arrived. Fortunately for me, after I got my bags, I met a fellow Arsenal fan who lent my his phone, so it all worked out.

On the way back I had a great chat with my Uncle about ManU's demise in the Champion's League, how everything is in the US, poliotics, the deplorable state of the roads in Nigeria since we were stuck in "Go-Slow" or the ever-present traffic jams. During the trip back to my uncle's apartment, we gave Damini the nickname "Fulani man" because he likes to travel from place to place and is never in one country for too long and Fulanis are nomadic cattle herders who roam the area on the southern border of the Sahara Desert. The nickname has stuck so Damini, get ready to answer to that one...

Since you can buy almost anything on the highways in Lagos, my Uncle was kind enough to buy a new SIM card for me and some credit for my pay-as you go phone, but we got another not-so-pleasant welcome to Nigeria surprise; The 1,500 Naira (about $10US which is a considerable anmount of money) credit code we bought from the small boy on the side of the road was stolen and thus didn't work when we put it in. So many scammers...

Well that's it for now, I'll write some more later since I'm almost out of credit at the internet cafe
~Deji