FORTUNATE TRAVELLER

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Travels in Nigeria

Non-fiction

Remembering My NYSC Experience by Adeoye Deborah Adenike

There are two categories of frustrating people: the disobedient ones who will hear but will never take heed, and the ones who do not understand. For the hundredth time, my mother shouted from the kitchen, asking if I had packed everything I would need, and I replied in the affirmative. I remember her saying that it would be better to put my stationery in my handbag, as I would need…

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Non-fiction

The Nakedness of Experience by Joseph Omoh Ndukwu

I: Morning The world here is open spaces and quiet afternoons. But it is also slow misty mornings. I sit one Sunday charging my phone and waiting for a taxi going to Saki, the first stop on a journey to Ibadan, and I take to look at this place. It is early morning. There are noisy weaver birds in a mango tree just to my right. The ground that falls…

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Non-fiction

Ilé-Ifẹ̀: A Cradle in Crumble by Isaiah Adepoju

Ilé-Ifẹ̀ begins with a boulder, then a crevice. It splinters at the lap, opens into legs, into toes, then rejoins at the hair, the nape. Ilé-Ifẹ̀ rolls and rolls in a way Ibadan doesn’t. Metallurgic: the perfect linguistic alchemy to describe Ilé-Ifẹ̀. From the adjoining road that leads to Ondo, you remember that this place now embodies the migration of the ancient people of Ilé-Ifẹ̀; that this present location of…

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Non-fiction

To Ososo Mountains II: The Music Box by Ruona Idjenughwa

I. ‘Fire-dancing’ (How do you make free spirit out of taut soul?) The music box stood on the table mat, dispelling polyphonic beats that hung heavy about the room, giving it a drowsy air. Yet, something buried deep in the rattling of the sékéré that dominated even the droning of the solo singer and the combination of percussion instruments that made the song, willed you to sail your body into…

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Non-fiction

To Ososo Mountains I: The Mountains Too Have Eyes by Ejiro Edward

Not all those who wander are lost.  – J R R Tolkien. The wind whistled into my ears, together with the music box playing Wizkid’s ‘Joro’, a song that was meant to keep alive our vibe and excitement. But everyone seemed to either be sleeping with their head inclined on the headrest in front of them or hopelessly drooling on the neck of their co-passenger. My eyes caught that of…

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Poetry

Night Gods at Feast by Kechi Nomu

I. Night Gods at FeastAfter Wendy Xu’s Several Altitudes of Not Talking a sign here reads: Sell your deadInvert the batteries. this is, of course, an error. mine or the sign maker’s. our headlights in lieu of distance, travel the length of eyes.      anoint the sheen              of a gate. we approach at this uncontrollable hour night gods at feast; local beer and pink-bodied chickens held in a spit:the world is a puzzle…

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Non-fiction

Welcome to Abuja by Uche Orjinta

Because of the course I studied in university, I had the privilege to choose where to apply for my Student Industrial Training and Internship Programme. Well, my options were not varied. So I applied to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Abuja. And so began my love/hate relationship with Nigeria’s federal capital territory. Abuja is quite a distance from Lagos by road. Initially I had my reservations but being the…

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Non-fiction

Of Love, Farts and a Pastoral Institute by Debbie Iorliam

It was with excitement that I threw some clothes into my backpack and headed for the road on a rickety bus. Even so vehicles in this part of the world are never in perfect condition. The harsh morning sun, mingled with sweaty smelling bodies, incessant and high pitched conversations sprinkled with farts that smelled like rotten eggs was an indicator that the journey would be a long one. Waved down…

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Interviews

Noo Saro-Wiwa: ‘Travel is what you make of it’

Noo Saro-Wiwa is a traveller, writer and journalist born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and raised in England. She has written book reviews and op-eds for several magazines including The Guardian newspaper, The Times Literary Supplement, The Independent, The Financial Times, La Repubblica, Prospect Magazine. Her travelogue Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria (Granta Publications) was published in 2012 to critical acclaims. The intimate account of her travels and her refreshing…

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Non-fiction

Hello Stranger by Kemi Falodun

On this raging hot Friday afternoon, I am in a rickety bus traveling along the Ile-Ife – Ibadan express way. By express, one would expect the journey to be quick and smooth. But no. It looks like a scene from Mad Max: Fury Road. The road is a combination of long stretches, and series of bends, thereby occasionally causing an angry driver to slow down as the road now reveals…

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