*Brief programming note: this will be the last post for Nigeria (at least exclusively; I will probably have some posts late in the year comparing the different places I've been this year).
While staying in Enugu, in May, I made a couple of trips to the nearby town of Nsukka. Nsukka is the home of the University of Nigeria, which Nnamdi Azikiwe worked for nearly twenty years to establish. A bit like Thomas Jefferson, who insisted that founding the University of Virginia was his greatest accomplishment, Azikiwe felt that the University of Nigeria was his most important contribution to Nigeria. Azikiwe, unusually for his generation, had studied in the United States rather than in Great Britain, and always wanted to bring an American-style university to Nigeria, in contrast to the British-based universities established during the colonial era (such as the University of Ibadan and the University of Lagos, which began as branches of University College London and King's College London, respectively).
Before Nigeria became independent, Azikiwe served as the Premier (prime minister) of Eastern Nigeria, and he spearheaded the creation of the University, purchasing land in the small town of Nsukka, a place near and dear to his heart. (Azikiwe had received an alleged* assassination threat while backing an anti-British strike in Lagos in 1945, and had fled to eastern Nigeria, sheltering in the small village of Nsukka. The town held a place in his heart ever since.) [*"Alleged" because his political opponents claim he created this threat out of whole cloth.] With the help of the Ford Foundation and Michigan State University, Azikiwe and the newly independent Nigerian government opened the University of Nigeria for the 1964 academic year.
I wanted to see UNN (for "University of Nigeria, Nsukka") in part because of Azikiwe's long association with it, but also because I guessed the university would have materials related to his career. I connected with a librarian at UNN's Nnamdi Azikiwe Library over the internet, and Mr. Vincent Ekwelem served as an incredibly gracious host. (Mr. Ekwelem even took me to the campus health clinic when I got a case of food poisoning--an experience I'd rather not repeat, but which was a truly wonderful case study of generosity: it reminded me of the Good Samaritan.)
Mr. Ekwelem also provided a crucial connection, to Azikiwe's widow, Professor Uche Azikiwe, who has just retired as a professor of education from UNN. Azikiwe had built his home in Nsukka (called "Onuiyi Haven") and lived there from the 1960s until his death in 1996. Professor Azikiwe graciously allowed me to use Azikiwe's papers, which sadly only cover from around the 1970s. Azikiwe had assiduously kept all of his papers, and even built a library on his estate to house them all, but during the Biafra War, Nigerian Federal forces burned the entire library. Thankfully, some of Azikiwe's papers remain, but I can only imagine the incredible wealth of African and Nigerian history which was lost in 1967 with the burning of that library. This serves as yet another reminder that the academic study of history is not divorced from the unfolding of history itself: after all, historians can only reconstruct what we can access in the physical documents which survive, or in the minds of people who survive to tell their tales.
Mr. Ekwelem also graciously welcomed me into a very interesting space: the UNN Senior Staff Club. Although meant for, well, senior staff, I was welcomed at the club nearly every night of my visit to Nsukka. The club had lots of couches around TVs, usually showing the Champions League finals (in which I cheered for Mr. Ekwelem's beloved Real Madrid), as well as a set of couches circled around a small podium with a wooden throne. There, the president of the club sat each night, and would shout out the "business" of the club, which usually consisted of the mobilization of "soldiers" (bottles of beer) for the members. Members who addressed the club would stand and recite a formula, "Honored president of the club; Life members of the club; Esteemed members of the club; I present these [x] soldiers for..." whatever purpose they had. Since it was election time for the campus' staff and student councils, many people came to the club to offer "soldiers" in pursuit of votes! It was a truly unique experience, and I look forward to returning to the club--not for its soldiers, but for the wonderful barbecued kebabs they served there, in the Hausa style. (I always chuckled to myself too, because the couches at the club looked a lot like the seats in the SPECTRE meeting in Thunderball. Somehow I managed to forget to photograph the club, so you'll have to take my word for it.)
I could not have been more warmly welcomed in Nsukka, either by the University, and especially Mr. Ekwelem, or by Professor Azikiwe at Onuiyi Haven. Nsukka holds a very special place in my heart, and I look forward to returning! I felt my idea of hospitality evolve just by being in Nsukka (and really, in all of Nigeria), and I hope to bring that level of hospitality back with me when I return to the USA next year.
While staying in Enugu, in May, I made a couple of trips to the nearby town of Nsukka. Nsukka is the home of the University of Nigeria, which Nnamdi Azikiwe worked for nearly twenty years to establish. A bit like Thomas Jefferson, who insisted that founding the University of Virginia was his greatest accomplishment, Azikiwe felt that the University of Nigeria was his most important contribution to Nigeria. Azikiwe, unusually for his generation, had studied in the United States rather than in Great Britain, and always wanted to bring an American-style university to Nigeria, in contrast to the British-based universities established during the colonial era (such as the University of Ibadan and the University of Lagos, which began as branches of University College London and King's College London, respectively).
 |
| Nnamdi Azikiwe Library at UNN |
Before Nigeria became independent, Azikiwe served as the Premier (prime minister) of Eastern Nigeria, and he spearheaded the creation of the University, purchasing land in the small town of Nsukka, a place near and dear to his heart. (Azikiwe had received an alleged* assassination threat while backing an anti-British strike in Lagos in 1945, and had fled to eastern Nigeria, sheltering in the small village of Nsukka. The town held a place in his heart ever since.) [*"Alleged" because his political opponents claim he created this threat out of whole cloth.] With the help of the Ford Foundation and Michigan State University, Azikiwe and the newly independent Nigerian government opened the University of Nigeria for the 1964 academic year.
 |
| Mr. Ekwelem |
 |
| Onuiyi Haven |
Mr. Ekwelem also graciously welcomed me into a very interesting space: the UNN Senior Staff Club. Although meant for, well, senior staff, I was welcomed at the club nearly every night of my visit to Nsukka. The club had lots of couches around TVs, usually showing the Champions League finals (in which I cheered for Mr. Ekwelem's beloved Real Madrid), as well as a set of couches circled around a small podium with a wooden throne. There, the president of the club sat each night, and would shout out the "business" of the club, which usually consisted of the mobilization of "soldiers" (bottles of beer) for the members. Members who addressed the club would stand and recite a formula, "Honored president of the club; Life members of the club; Esteemed members of the club; I present these [x] soldiers for..." whatever purpose they had. Since it was election time for the campus' staff and student councils, many people came to the club to offer "soldiers" in pursuit of votes! It was a truly unique experience, and I look forward to returning to the club--not for its soldiers, but for the wonderful barbecued kebabs they served there, in the Hausa style. (I always chuckled to myself too, because the couches at the club looked a lot like the seats in the SPECTRE meeting in Thunderball. Somehow I managed to forget to photograph the club, so you'll have to take my word for it.)
I could not have been more warmly welcomed in Nsukka, either by the University, and especially Mr. Ekwelem, or by Professor Azikiwe at Onuiyi Haven. Nsukka holds a very special place in my heart, and I look forward to returning! I felt my idea of hospitality evolve just by being in Nsukka (and really, in all of Nigeria), and I hope to bring that level of hospitality back with me when I return to the USA next year.
***
For my video today, I thought I would offer what amused me so at the UNN Staff Club--its similarity to a set-up in the James Bond film Thunderball (1965), and the room in which the evil organization SPECTRE meets.
And in case you ever wondered how such rooms actually get built:
No comments:
Post a Comment