The Nigerian Fashion Police

Alright... I knew Nigeria and Africa in general was a more formal society which is why I dragged along something along the lines of 6 button up shirts and business casual shoes and pants. It's a big step up from the chacos and baseball cap I usually wear, but seriously what gives? I've been here for a little over a month and I've already been accosted twice by the Nigerian fashion police, and both times I've had my shirt tucked in!

The first time I can laugh it off as some random foreign country weirdo. My female colleague and I were walking along the street, when some woman started giving her a stern talking to about how she needed to go shopping for me and buy a long muslim robe to wear. And the lady wasn't even muslim herself. Personally, I think it would cause more trouble if I were to dress like I was muslim, but then go off and do non-muslim things like get a beer. Yeah whatever. I don't listen to the crazies in Berkeley, why should I start anyplace else in the world?

It's been a bit on the warmer side in Zaria, so I tried to go swimming at the pool. Apparently, the lifeguards felt that my American swimsuit was "obscene" and they wanted me to wear a Nigerian suit instead. I would post a photo of the Nigerian men splashing around in their swimsuits, but I'd be afraid of this blog getting flagged for obscenity or something. Let's just say that if I took along my 8th grade bright red Sam Brannan gym shorts (circa 1987) along with me, I wouldn't have any arguments with the lifeguards. How my typical American suit covering much more body surface area then the nuthuggers they like here could be more obscene is beyond me...

Signs like this are very prominent at the entrance of the University and hospital grounds. There's a strong community pressure to conform to decent standards. Apparently the guy on the left is "indecent" for having braided hair, which only the women here have. Good thing I took out those cornrows, it would have been a double-whammy for sure.


The other amusing fashion thing in Nigeria, is this trend for short ties. A lot of the male doctors wear these ties that are only half torso. If only I saved those clip-on ties from middle school... I'll get a photo and post it.

"Illiteracy, poverty, and ignorance"

That was the response of one of the villagers who we went to interview for a household survey that I was sent to Nigeria to help with. We had asked him why he thought maternal mortality rates were so high in the area, and he couldn't have been more right (And yeah, talk about going a long way to get a lecture on the fundamental determinants of health. So much for my pricey graduate school education, hah!).

In Nigeria overall, unfortunately, about 100 out of 100,000 women who give birth end up dying. In the US, this rate is about 10. In the northern region, this number balloons to an absurd 1000. Reasons for this vary, but women have no rights, they end up getting married as young as 12 or 13, and most give birth in the village instead of a hospital facility. Family planning is considered by many to be a bad word. So what to do?

That's one of the aspects of the project that I like. There aren't any quick and easy fixes, and any solutions will have to be developed with the communities and the Nigerian medical students and researchers that are leading this project. But the villager was right, illiteracy, poverty, and ignorance all have to be addressed to make any progress.

The more serious side of Nigerian villages...

While the sounds of children of laughing and playing are really common in the village, life isn't quite that simple or easy. Working in the fields all day and preparing meals for up to 2 dozen people is demanding work.

After taking bucket showers for the past week, I can definitely vouch for the the luxury of running water. Seems like there's always a neverending march with buckets and pots to the well for water.


In addition to water, I can't imagine having to cook by fire every single day. That's a lot of firewood to be gathered for every meal.

Religion plays a HUGE part in the lives of most Nigerians, not just those living in the villages. The following man and boy are memorizing the Koran outside the village mosque.

The plastic kettles are also common among muslim communities. After praying, one is expected to wash.

Some villages are Christian... Boy eating a mango with the New Testament.

I just happened to be in the right place at the right time for these shots.

Baby on back

One in the light, another in the shadows

Sound with photos

So on this trip, I actually took a long a pocket digital voice recorder. I've been playing around with merging sound clips with photographs, and I tried to upload it to Youtube. Let me know if it works...



The girl on the left in photographs is named Asmanu, she sells sugar in Tsiligiri village, just 10 minutes outside the main town of Zaria. Unfortunately, I didn't get the names of the others.

Apparently, the girls are telling each other that I'm there to give them injections since the only visitors their village typically gets are the immunization people, hah! Not this summer. They definitely made me laugh though, glad they weren't camera shy.

The lighter side of Nigerian villages...

This past week I've had the opportunity to go out to the field and join the medical students on their surveys of villagers. Of course I don't speak Hausa, so I'm not much use other than to provide entertainment to everyone and their second cousins in the village. I hope the children are teaching me the right greeting words, 'cause everyone seems to find it hillarious everytime I try to ask how their day is. At any rate, it did give me plenty of time to take photos!

Future mothers to be (more on this later)...


And like Bangladesh, there's no shortage of hams here! Yet again, feeling like the pied piper with my camera.



If I were an anthropologist, I'd probably study children's games. Everything that kids were playing were all similar to other places and what kids play in the US. I guess there's only so many things you can do outside. This looked a lot like jumping jacks to me.



In the heat of the afternoon sun, the men would come back after working in the village to hang out and take a nap.


The mango tree served as the informal village/town square and meeting/resting place.