Heading to Nigeria

Well the adventure begins. We are a family of four Jess, Harvey, Emma (5), and Addie (2), and we are heading to Nigeria in about two weeks...the countdown is on. We are traveling to Yola, Nigeria where Harvey will begin an assistant professorship at the American University of Nigeria in the Department of Natural and Environmental Sciences. We are leaving (for now) our lovely home in New Hampshire to pursue this opportunity, and though sad, we welcome the adventure.

We know many people think this is crazy and perhaps reckless, and in some regards it may be. However, where it counts, this journey is not as crazy at it may seem...let us give some background.

Nigeria..."Yikes!" would be a polite response from many of our friends and family (more expletives and colorful language would likely be a more accurate response). This is understandable. Our knowledge of Nigeria is based largely upon email scams, what (little) we hear of rebel activity in the Niger Delta, and more recently clashes in Jos, Nigeria. While these are causes for concern, we need to put them into perspective and relate them to where we are going to be, and our situation. So lets start by looking at some maps:

Nigeria is a Sub-Saharan African country located it what typically referred to as west Africa. It it stretches from the Gulf of Guinea north to Niger, and is bordered on the west by Benin and to the east by Cameroon. It is approximately twice the size of California and its population is nearly 160 million. These details and more can be found on good ol' wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigeria.

Lets talk about our situation in Nigeria...

We will be in the town of Yola in the state of Adamawa, which is considered to be in Northeastern Nigeria. We have highlighted it on the map with a green star. You can get a birds-eye view on google Earth, but if you type in Yola, Nigeria in the search box, it will mislead you, you need to search for Jimeta, Nigeria (the town to the north, which is commonly considered to be joined or inseparable from Yola) Basic details concerning Yola are here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yola,_Nigeria. Yola is a rural town located on the Benue river, closely bordering the country of Cameroon. The history of this town is quite interesting, and has been at the crossroads of muslim and christian influence for many years and the religions have coexisted in Yola peacefully, unlike some other regions. Though Yola is considered Northern Nigeria, it does not fall into the region of Nigeria that is mainly islamic and adheres to sharia law.

Above is a map with the states adhering to sharia highlighted in green, and Adamawa state highlighted in purple (Emma's favorite color). This being said it should be understood that Northern Nigeria (or the states, caliphates, etc... that existed before the berlin conference drawing the borders for african colonies) have been muslim for hundreds of years, and the sharia law has been interpreted in various ways. I will not go into detail about sharia law as I have not educated myself on the topic enough at this time. All I know is that it will not be the law of the land where we will be living. So hopefully that gives some perspective of our location.

Now, I have hightlighted some other areas that many people are concerned. I will start with the Niger Delta (red circle in the south on the above map), the oil producing region. If anyone has read anything about Nigeria (other than an email scam) it was likely about rebel activity and kidnappings in the delta region. Typically these more hostile activities have been carried out by an organization with the acronym MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta). It is important to note that there are also many other organizations fighting for the rights of the people of the Niger Delta peacefully. The problems in the Niger Delta are many, but many of the grievances revolve around the environmental degradation that has resulted from the oil industry and the lack of benefit for the region from the oil wealth. The story of the petroleum industry in Nigeria is fascinating and troubling. I recommend reading Where Vultures Feast by Ike Okonta and Oronto Douglas, to give some perspective on the situation. I am also eagerly awaiting the release of the documentary Sweet Crude (trailer below):

The Niger Delta region does have many issues that are of concern, but we will not be in or near this region. It is hard to explain, but small distances in Africa are huge buffers and issues in one region often do not affect areas further away.

Another area that we have highlighted is Jos (Blue circle in the middle of the country). Many have likely heard of clashes between christians and muslims in this plateau region. You can read accounts of these on the BBC website. Again, we cannot stress enough that we are quite removed from this area and the conflict in Jos has a history the goes beyond christian and muslim tensions. Here is an interview discussing the topic (Patrick Ukata is with American University and the AU of Nigeria):

Other areas that we have highlighted (in yellow) are the commercial (and former admin. capitol) capitol, Lagos and the admin. capitol since 1991 Abuja. People often worry about these towns (as in any big city) because of the elevated risks for theft and other criminal activities. As of now we have no plans to be in either of these bustling towns other than for transit to Yola and for short business related trips without the girls.

A couple of other links that will be of interest are of course the website for the American University of Nigeria. There are also some videos about AUN on YouTube:

Other sites that we have found helpful are blogs. One is called Nomads and Housewives, and though it is no longer updated, it does give you a sense for the area. The other is called This Nigerian Life.

We have started this blog in hopes of keeping in touch with friends and family as well as sharing our adventures with any who are interested. This first post was meant to give some background information, and though some of the information is scary, we will have taken precautions to be as safe as possible. We hope that over time and through our posts we all learn about Nigeria and hopefully we will develop a better understanding for this complex nation.