The Rugged Road by Theresa Wallach
Author:Theresa Wallach
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Panther Publishing Limited
Maiduguri
In the distance, a cheerful sight of the British flag came into view, flying over the Embassy which resembled an old English country mansion. After three days of riding in wide apart wheel ruts and along the central ridge, we reached the Government building. The Ambassador and staff, used to the administration of gathering facts about travellers in the region, heard from Kano that we were coming. They made us welcome and invited us to stay at their residence. We enjoyed the comforts of home, the first real bathroom since Algiers, and lay down to sleep, safe and sound, in beds under mosquito nets, almost too soft and comfortable! Then in the morning, like a pair of softies, we breakfasted in bed.
In the official workshop our little craft looked so tiny among the monster trucks made to withstand austere conditions, yet they too were continually being repaired. A mechanic serviced the Panther engine and did some carpentry to hold the trailer together, while we used some free time. With apologies from His and Her Excellency for having to attend a civic function that evening, they instructed the servants to care for us in their absence and invited us to stay another day or so.
That evening, domestic house-boy servants dressed in blue sashed, white duty uniforms, served a multi-course evening meal. We sat under ceiling fans at a luxuriously laid dining table all to ourselves, then we relaxed on the veranda in easy-chairs, sipped liqueur and entertained ourselves chatting about the disparities in the lives of people we had come across.
At times like this my twin emotions of Conscience and Vagabond were again in conflict. “Yes,” said the Vagabond spirit in me, “stay another day or so before leaving Nigeria, go to the bank for currency to enter Chad; replenish our supplies; go to the post office, look around and see with our own eyes the slave market.” The Conscience spirit within me, said, “It was more important to go on to Cape Town”. A triangle, whether emotional or otherwise was according to ancient Greeks, the symbol of equilibrium, balance and harmony. The Reality spirit was a practical genie and component to my emotional triangle and this time agreed with my Vagabond emotion and turned our dilemma to stay a while longer.
The only land approach to little known Nigeria used to be from Egypt, by boat up the River Nile to reach the Ibo people. The Ibo, like anyone else, express themselves by their works of art. Only a few white people had been to where the Ibo people live in the French West Africa colony of Dahomey, to the west of Nigeria, now known as Benin. In the old glass case of my father’s museum back home, were a few pieces of metalwork made long ago by the metal smiths of Benin, an artistry that has almost vanished. In the market place I caught a glimpse of a woman wearing a necklace that looked familiar and the most beautiful, simply because she had it on.
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