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Post date: Aug 11, 2014 3:23:11 PM
12 December 1964, Saturday evening
Here we are in Wamba, a village on the southern flank of the Jos Plateau. We are two days from Onitsha. Jonny found a girl to squire around the Eastern Region which put us back four days starting and, for all we know, Ken is still in Lagos getting his wiring straightened. He wired us to go ahead.
14 December 1964
Now near Jos, where we spent a day looking around and fixing equipment. No word from Ken [Cramer]. We got free room and board at the District Officer’s house in Wamba and are doing nearly the same here. Tomorrow we try to rebid Jonny’s rack, the go on to Bauchi. The people in the north mostly have hot and cold running water and lights all the time, teach at well-equipt schools.
The road was gravel and very dusty so we try to take a bath when we arrive. The other night we have a nice swim in a river. This afternoon I went rock climbing here on the Jos Plateau, which is at 4,400 ft elevation and very cool at night.
I’m having a great time, and the fellow I’m with just bought a Hausa camel-hair blanket which is very nice. I’ll look for one tomorrow: $12. The road to Maiduguri is tarred from here. I am carrying books to Bauchi, so when we reach there my load will be about fifteen pounds lighter.
Jos is a white man’s town—strictly colonial—with an American (segregated) high school. The museum is good, tho very small; it has a large collection of contemporary pots from all over Nigeria and some archeological stuff. The rest of the plateau is very bush, but some parts are densely populated. In some areas the women wear only a bunch of leaves or strings of beads about their waists with a small loin cloth. They live in round huts made of adobe blocks and grass thatch roofs. There are few trees here. In the bush there are no markets—strictly subsistence living. There are over 30 tribes on the plateau and they are dominated by the Hausa from the north.
22 December 1964
Yesterday we arrived in Ft. Lamy, Chad, after a hot, dusty ride on a long but smooth dirt road from Maiduguri. This town easily lives up to its reputation as the world’s most expensive capital. We spent $7 on a crummy room for two with cold water, no soap, and sagging beds. It is the cheapest in town—there are no African hotels; this one, as all others, is run by a French family. After spending $3 for a light supper last night we decided to go to the African quarter for lunch and spent $3.50 each for a Sudanese meal, huge but cheap. We finally found a Nigerian hotel (food only) where we can get rice with sauce for $0.25 (usual price in Nigeria: $0.07). We may go back there for breakfast.
The French have a real colony here—opposite to Nigeria. An entire French family will run a store and there are french cafés, night clubs, hotels, etc., with almost no facilities in the African quarter. Meat, butter, newspapers, cheese, etc. are all flown in daily from France. The French army has a lot of boys here. Since it is nearly Xmas, all the native traders have upped their prices on local goods, tho the quality of leather goods is excellent and there is lots of ivory and brass. We will wait for ivory goods until Bangui, after Xmas. We can’t afford to stay in fancy towns after this, tho we should be able to stay and eat in Nigerian-operated hotels elsewhere. It was fun while it lasted: wine, bread, and cheese in a French open-air café with coloured lights in the trees and music. Sigh.
New Year’s Eve, Bangui [via postcard]
Still having fun eating French food and drinking French wine. The entire organization of the old French colonies is different from the British ones. Ivory is not so cheap here as I had imagined (or hoped) but we are trying.
Tomorrow we go toward Yaoundé. The roads promise to be rocky and mountainous, and we are still 2,000 miles from home. Between big towns there is no food available, no African hotels or even bread-sellers as there are in Nigeria.
12 January 1965, morning
Since the last letter, things have been a bit rough, but we have smooth sailing now. We got a bug on New Year’s Day and had to stay two extra days in Bangui. After leaving Bangui by the southern route we hit 140 miles of deep sand, through which we often had to push the bikes. One day we went 110 miles in eight hours—and stayed overnight in a village with a trader. The roads in Cameroon are much better.
Cameroon is much more civilized than the other two countries [Chad and Central African Republic (CAR)]. Here you occasionally see houses with tin roofs and often plastered and white-washed. In Chad or CAR never. We stayed with missionaries in Batouri and Edéa and at a native hotel in Nanga-Eboko—the first native hotel we have seen since leaving Nigeria. In Yaoundé I was offered $600 cash for my bike, but the man (a Hausa trader) couldn’t find the money. (That is almost half more than I paid for it!)
Today it is on to Kumba, then Buea. We will get free lodging from here on out, we hope, with Peace Corps. Only ten days to get home but it is enough. We are considering taking a boat from Victoria.
20 January 1965
Home again, home again, riggidy-jig. We made it: or at least I did, and Jonny was only a bit late—he didn‘t see a truck until it was too late and had to hit a bridge to stop, but he only slightly damaged his cycle and didn't hurt himself, and he was only 80 miles from home. Good luck or something. I had no trouble at all, a credit to Mr. Honda.
In Bamenda I bought $60 worth of handicrafts—mostly brass castings—which was all my remaining Cameroon money. Unfortunately I couldn't buy some beautiful stools and carved panels as they were too big to carry. Some of this, plus some of the stuff I got elsewhere (mostly ivory) will come dribbling in. The brass is mostly too heavy and will arrive in my sea freight. I sent a package from Bauchi, Nigeria, which contains some sandalwood beads (unfortunately perfumed), a [Yoruba style] talking drum, and some things carved from gourd.
Well, we covered 4,000 miles in 35 days, or 6,000 miles in 2 1/2 months, if you count preparation. I spent £50 plus 45,000 CFA in 35 days, or about $600, counting depreciation and preparation. We saw how different the results of French colonialism are from those of the British, and many areas with no idea of a market economy, even after the introduction of a cash crop by the Europeans. After leaving Ft. Lamy, we did not see a single painted house or tin roof (outside of the towns) until we got to Cameroon.
Twice there were two-day intervals where we didn't see another motor vehicle. We stayed in Nigerian hotels, French hotels, missions, gov‘t rest houses, with Peace Corps, and once slept in a primary school building. We ate Nigerian food, Sudanese food, American food, French food, and no food. Sometimes we were so full we couldn‘t get up from the table, and once for two days we had only one meal, plus a few bananas.
For 2,000 miles (Ft. Lamy to Bangui to Yaounde) the peasants have none of the results of technology. The question arises: is this a result of 1) low population density, 2) French rule, or 3) no history of slave trading? The high density of people and long history of trading in slaves and palm oil in Nigeria must play an important part in the wealth of the peasant here, aided by the British idea of hiring native clerks, laborers, drivers, etc. The black Frenchman speaks excellent French—primary schooling is entirely in French—but has lost all his traditions. Many educated Nigerians speak terrible English; but also many have a feeling or appreciation of traditional songs and dances, etc. Ft. Lamy is full of Citroen 2CVs, owned by the poor French shopkeepers and clerks. Yaounde is full of black Mercedes, owned by the black Frenchmen. But even in Yaounde the shops are run and staffed by ex-patriots, the Africans are only figureheads in the government.
The recent election mess in Nigeria was just about as Time magazine put it. About the only people to get killed were politicians, but many of the little people have been hurt for a long time by the political bigotry and selfishness. The progress of all Africa is greatly impeded by the corruption in the governments.
I don’t think that Chad, Cameroon, or République Centrafricaine have a chance of separate economies. There are just too few resources and too few people for a market.
Thanks for the letters: when I returned I got a cubic foot of mail, including 17 magazines! I received a letter from Detlef Kleuker, Breckwede, Westfahlen, saying I can work for him (‘join the team‘) in October. I think I should be hearing from the Fulbright board about the suitability of my request soon. I will have enough saved by 15 Feb to pay for the language course. The work should pay my room and board during that time, and maybe leave some left over. That means my ‘readjustment allowance‘ [$1,500] from the Peace Corps can be useful for something else...like maybe a new VW. And if I get a scholarship, a Rolls Royce!
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