Nigeria 3: BookBuilders

While I conducted research at the National Archives and the library of the University of Ibadan, I stayed with a wonderful lady, Aunty Chris. Aunty Chris deserves a book of her own, but instead she spends her time publishing other peoples' books, through the publishing house she runs out of her home: BookBuilders. Aunty Chris came to Nigeria in the 1970s, married a Nigerian man, and began a career in publishing. After working for the University of Ibadan Press for many years, she started her own publishing company in the early 1990s, which has become one of the most successful publishing houses in Nigeria's thriving literary market.

BookBuilders, publishing house

BookBuilders is a true publishing house--in that it's a house where people publish. This is not a small operation, though, as BookBuilders employs about six editors, an office manager, and provides a great deal of business to a local printer. Combine this with three dachshunds, an Alsatian, Aunty Chris's housekeeper Aunty Gladys, and the office's housekeeper Aunty Esther, and you have the recipe for what I believe would be a great sitcom. Any showrunners or writers wanting to pitch a pilot based on this premise, just call me; I'll happily split the advance 50-50.

BookBuilders staff hard at work

Aunty Esther (L) and Aunty Gladys (R) at work.

Aunty Gladys (L) and Aunty Esther (R) at play.

The inter-office dynamics made BookBuilders the most delightful of sitcom locations, with Aunty Gladys fussing over Aunty Chris having beer at lunch, everyone in the office's real and feigned fear of the dogs, and the occasional travails of the office's solar system--installed by Aunty Chris's truly ingenious son. (The system worked marvelously, but a storm halfway through my time there knocked some panels down, so it occasionally went out. But to have reliable power was a true blessing, in a country where it is rare to have 12 hours of electricity at a time.)

Even more sitcom-like were the colorful characters coming in and out of the office: taxmen selectively assessing VAT, an architect offering the 20th revision to the drawings in her textbook, and most prominently, the famous Nigerian lawyer (and grand lady, I might add) Chief 'Folake Solanke, SAN. "Chief," as she was known in the office, was the first woman lawyer to become Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), the highest rank a lawyer can achieve--akin to being called to the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court. Moreover, she has been active in UN women's programs (she attended the landmark 1995 Beijing Conference on Women's Rights) and served as the first African president of Zonta International, a service organization for professional women along the lines of the Lions or Rotary Clubs, both of which barred women until the 1980s. BookBuilders published a new edition of her autobiography, Reaching for the Stars, during my time, and I shall have to address the events surrounding that in another post. It was a small cultural education for me.

Program for Chief Solanke's celebration; photo of her in regalia as SAN

From a research standpoint, I ended up staying in Ibadan longer than I had intended, which forced me to cut corners elsewhere in Nigeria. However, only my research project could have torn me away from the BookBuilders family. Aunty Chris was incredibly generous in hosting this unknown grad student who would sleep all hours of the day. Aunty Gladys and Aunty Esther treated me as their own son--and fed me accordingly, which I was happy to oblige. I was truly sorry to leave Ibadan because of BookBuilders, and I'm looking forward to getting back.

Aunty Esther readying some jolof rice to send with me to the airport as I leave for eastern Nigeria.

My two Aunties

***
For whenever BookBuilders the TV series comes to pass, maybe we can use as a template for the opening credits some combination of this...
...and this:

Philippines Redux 3: Community

This may be my final post from my time in the Philippines (coming only 4 months since I left--sorry about that). However, it's probably the most important for me personally. Through the graciousness of a friend-of-a-friend, I got connected with fellow Christians in my area of Manila, both in a local church (Rejoice Family Church) and the University of the Philippines' chapter of Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ). These folks welcomed me into their community during my short stay in the country, for which I am incredibly grateful, and I wanted to let you all get to know some of them.

Pastor Ojie (center) with colleagues outside Rejoice

Rejoice Family Church is pastored by my friend-of-a-friend's dad, Pastor Ojie Bumanglag (Ojie is a nickname; most people in the Philippines have nicknames!). He came to the church about five years ago and sort of 're-started' the church as 'Rejoice.' Now they are ministering to the homeless and drug addicts in the area (the church calls this ministry "the Beloved," a wonderful way to look at it) and is planting churches around Manila and in the provinces around. I had the privilege of being present for the church's fifth anniversary, pictured below. They were beginning what the church called 'the Year of Sending'!

5th anniversary celebration at Rejoice

Brother Toto (left), working with kids in the mountains.

Speaking of sending, one of my friends from the church, Brother Toto (also a nickname; I made no reference to The Wizard of Oz until just now), an incredibly sweet saint who serves as the church's choir director and children's minister. Brother Toto has faithfully checked in with me and prayed for me throughout my time since leaving the Philippines, which has been a wonderful encouragement. He is now beginning service with Servants International's ministry to the urban poor (see more at http://m.servantsasia.org/app/philippines/2163130/36/). In fact, he's beginning his orientation right now. If you would like to support his ministry, please get in touch with me and I can help connect you to Brother Toto.

The young folks at Rejoice introduced me to
good etiquette: before you eat, you have to pray, and take a picture.

The young people at Rejoice also took me in, introducing me to some Philippine delicacies, including halo-halo, the great Philippine dessert (and metaphor for the country?). Halo-halo means 'mix-mix' in Tagalog, so the dessert includes ice cream, shaved ice, milk, jellies, sweet beans, and anything else you can think of. It's good. In the picture here, they introduced me to kare-kare, a stew made with a really thick peanut sauce. Not quite peanut butter, but getting there. Don't knock it until you try it--it's delicious!

The Markists.

At the University of the Philippines, I enjoyed joining the Campus Crusade branch's Wednesday prayer meetings, as well as going out on campus to share the Gospel. Since I had not been involved with Campus Crusade before, one of their leaders trained me with their materials, and we became good friends, partly because of our common name: Mark! His name, however, is Mark Lenin--his father was a communist and wanted to name him Marx Lenin, but the nurse refused, and wrote Mark Lenin on the birth certificate. (Both Mark Lenin and I describe ourselves as Markists.) Mark was and continues to be a very good friend, and I caught him at the tail end of his involvement in campus ministry, as he has now moved on to working with young professionals.






This kind of community is helpful from a practical standpoint: no matter where one goes in the world, there are likely fellow believers in Christ ready and willing to welcome you into their families. But at its heart it teaches a spiritual truth, which the book of Hebrews expresses as follows:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2, ESV)

This is the Christian church at its best: a cloud of witnesses, past and present, motivating one another on to run with endurance, unified not by language or culture or skin or even how exactly we practice our faith, but "looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith." As people, Christians are no better than others, and as a historian I can attest to the many failings of Christians in the past and present. But still we keep going, keep running with endurance, with the transcendent, spiritual strength of God's Holy Spirit empowering us and the great cloud of witnesses encouraging us.

***

And now for something completely different: some workout ideas!

Nigeria 2: ABBA and Awo

While working in the Special Collections at the University of Ibadan, a fellow researcher told me about a library in the nearby town of Ikenne. This library, housed at the compound of the late politician Obafemi Awolowo (1909-1987), contained Awolowo's papers from the 1930s until his death. Awolowo, or "Awo," was the fierce rival of the man I am studying (Nnamdi Azikiwe--more on him in future posts), and an extremely capable politician. A hero among the Yoruba people, Awolowo secured his place in western Nigeria's memory when he served as the western region's premier from 1954 to 1959, implementing universal primary education, universal health care, and significant housing schemes. The neighborhood where I stayed in Ibadan had been built under his administration in the 1950s, and the houses still stood tall. More importantly, the legacy of health care and literacy among the Yoruba people, and the entire population of western Nigeria, helped make it the strongest economic area of the country for most of the past 60 years.

I enjoyed the opportunity to visit his home, which is well maintained, and I was pleased to find his papers in good order (if not terribly well secured). It is a rich collection which helped my research and will help many others.

Sopolu Library at Awo's compound (named for his grandfather)

Mausoleum containing Awo's remains.

Small museum on Awo's compound; sadly it remains closed most of the year.

Just as pleasant as the library itself was my trip to and from Ikenne. The drive from Ibadan only took about an hour each way, and the roads were pretty good except for a few bumpy patches. But I wouldn't have been able to navigate any of it on my own; thankfully I had a great driver recommended by one of my faculty mentors and Aunty Chris, my host. Mr. Taiwo was a delight, but like many young Nigerians, he is struggling to get by despite an incredible work ethic. (That is something you should know about Nigerians: they are always working, or 'hustling' as they put it.) But in an oil-dependent economy, when the price of oil goes down, everybody goes down. I was glad I could provide at least some business to Taiwo.

I realize now I don't have a picture of Taiwo!

Much to my delight and bemusement, Taiwo loves the Swedish band ABBA. So we listened to ABBA's greatest hits to and from Ikenne, as Taiwo belted out the words to "Mamma Mia!," "Fernando," "Dancing Queen," and "Waterloo" all the way there and back again. (I first encountered this same album when I studied abroad in France, and my host mom would play it in the car as we drove around the Normand countryside. I vividly remember telling her what the English lyrics to "Waterloo" meant, at which she was mildly indignant.)

I've encountered it too many times to count, but throughout this journey I continue to find myself surprised at just how common much of global popular culture is, especially from Europe and the United States, from the omnipresence of the English Premier League and hip-hop to the Anglican liturgy and, yes, ABBA. So if you are ever parachuted into the middle of Nigeria, chances are that even if you couldn't speak to someone through a common language, you could communicate through some piece of popular culture. If all else fails, try ABBA.

***
Today's clip comes from a strange little Youtube phenomenon, which posits that you can add Dire Straits' 1985 hit "Walk of Life" to any movie's ending to enhance (ruin) it. My favorite is from that great American romantic comedy, The Silence of the Lambs.