No.GSSK.15/Vol.I/137
Government Secondary School
Kaltungo - Gombe
23rd October, 1971
Mr Paul Woods
37 Sandringham Ave
Hoylake, Cheshire
England
I am referring to your dated 6th
September 1971.
2. I was delighted to read yours indicating your
intentions to teach here in 1972.
3. Yes, you will teach English and/or
Geography plus something else on the curriculum. Besides we have various extra
curricular activities and you would certainly interest yourself in two or three.
Our games include Football, Hockey, Basketball, Volleyball, Lawn tennis, Table
Tennis and Athletics. For the first time I am admitting 24 girls in January 1972
to change the school into a mixed one. So if you have a wife, please bring her
with you or negotiate for one quickly as she will be needed to work with the
girls.
Kaltungo is a village. There is a General Hospital, a Post
Office, a sister Teachers’ College and a small airstrip owned and used by the
missionaries. The road to the township is very good by Nigerian standard, and
the township itself is 45 miles away where we have banks and the main Post
Office and shops. Jos is 220 miles away on the Plateau. Yankari Game reserve
with the Warm Spring is about 150 miles away.
I am arranging a house for
you about 1 ½ miles from the school. It will be furnished, but you have to get
your own utensils.
You are coming into a lovely country and to a very
beautiful part of it. Our first set are going to form V in January 1972, but
they may not leave till 1973 December.
Please let me hear from you again
before you start.
(M.D.A. OLORUNMONU)
Principal
Government
Secondary School,
Kaltungo.
N/B., Bring light dresses – just some
since you can buy here.
2. Be prepared for the Dramatic Society – Julius
Caesar in particular for 1972 and 1973.
3. Bring a camera, a tape recorder
and a radio for your own use.
4. Finally come with a very open mind; you are
going to be a Nigerian for two years; so be
prepared!
SIM Rest House, Kano
9 January 1972
Arrived here in Jos from Gatwick about 2.30 yesterday afternoon, about half an hour late. One of the things which first strikes you in northern Nigeria is that Nigerians have a different sense of time. It being a Sunday, I took myself to the church on the mission compound. Most of the sermon at the morning service was a stirring condemnation of lateness and “sleeping in”. Nobody seems to worry at all if things start late and then carry on for twice as long as they were intended to. At Gatwick airport, I got collared by a Nigerian with vast amounts of luggage, who talked me into carrying some of it onto the plane for him – much against my better judgement as the briefcase and bag he gave me to carry hadn’t been weighed in and so had no labels attached. Fortunately nobody said anything and there were no repercussions, though I resolved inwardly not to take pity on overloaded fellow-passengers next time without considering all the possible consequences.
At the airport we were met by two representatives of the British Council, who look after VSOs in Nigeria, Kelvin Nicolson and Robert Collins (who has only been here for three months). Somehow or other, after we had been shunted through Customs as a group – they went through my suitcase with a fine toothcomb – why do they always pick on me? - they managed to cram all twenty of us, plus suitcases, hand baggage and various guitars into two normal-sized land rover Defenders and a small car. My haversack mysteriously found its way into the car boot, complete with passport, camera and other valuables, then the British Council man forgot to unload his boot before driving off. I didn’t get it back till that night, though I wasn’t too worried as it was unlikely to get lost while locked in a car boot.
Kano airport was jam-packed with people, standing on the roof, sitting on the ground, lying on the floor, all waiting for flights to take them on the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, which started a couple of days ago. Apparently 11000 pilgrims go on the Hajj from Kano each year, but despite chartering planes from all over the Middle East, Nigerian Airways seems incapable of coping with the backlog of passengers.
We drove via the old city, very picturesque with traditional mud-walled houses, to the British Council office, with its mud-walled library, apparently the only foreign organisation allowed within the walls of the old city. After a briefing from several old hands at volunteering, sitting on the library floor, I was taken off to the SIM mission rest house where I was to spend the next three days until my plane left for Yola at some very uncivilised hour on Wednesday morning.
This morning it was up at 7.30 for breakfast in the mission then they had a morning service. Actually, three, two in English at 8.00 and 9.00, then a Hausa service at 1000. In fact the services started considerably later and lasted considerably longer. The pastor who preached took as his text 2 Corinthians 8 v 5 “ First they gave themselves to the Lord, then by God’s will they gave themselves to us as well”. This seemed quite appropriate in the circumstances. The people at the mission are very friendly though the atmosphere is a bit hyper-American-fundamentalist at times. The conversation at dinner on Saturday evening somehow managed to get onto the topic of whether women should wear hats in church – which most of them don’t but still spend time discussing it, as if there weren’t other more important issues to talk about..
Before lunch I hired a bicycle for 24 hours for 7 shillings (apparently it usually costs 6d per hour) and cycled to the Muslim prayer ground at Kofa Mata, where during Ramadan thousands of Muslims gather each day to pray. They were about to hold the first public execution in Kano state on the prayer ground. In fact the Military Governor of the state had sent out invitations, like invitations to a cocktail party, printed in black and gold on card with crinkly edges, to all the notables in town, inviting them to the event. It even said “RSVP to the Military Governor’s office” in the bottom left-hand corner. The British Council man had received one of these invitations but as he didn’t think attending public executions was appropriate had asked if any of the newly arrived volunteers would like to go instead. I’d put up my hand but missed out on being the lucky recipient of the invitation for a grandstand seat, but decided to go along any have a look anyway at what was going on.
Three men were being executed for armed robbery. It was rumoured they had robbed a man of his trousers and about 500 Naira, but used guns to do so, and the penalty for armed robbery was death. The whole prayer ground was crammed with people – probably up to 100,000 or more – all jostling to get a better view of the execution, standing on mammy wagons and car roofs and climbing up trees. One tanker driver was obviously afraid his vehicle was going to get crushed, and tried to shake off the milling crowds clambering on top of the vehicle by reversing backwards then forwards in rapid succession, with a considerable degree of success. The whole atmosphere of the event had an air of excitement and expectation to it, rather like the atmosphere prior to the kick-off at a cup final. Some unfortunates had paid N5.00 each to stand on the roof of a corrugated iron shack, not far from where I myself was standing on the roof of an expatriate’s car – which was buckling under the weight. He didn’t seem to mind – just said “its ok, you just press from the inside and it comes out again!”. Suddenly the shack roof collapsed completely taking all its occupants down to ground level with a resounding crash and clouds of dust flying in all directions, much to the amusement of the surrounding crowd. It was rumoured that two people got crushed to death when the crowd suddenly surged forward towards the wall against which the men about to be shot were standing blindfolded and tied to poles. Finally several shots rang out, the men slumped to the ground, while the crowd cheered as if for the winning goal of the match. I was pretty scared myself when it was all over and cars, mammy wagons, motorbikes and people scattered in all directions, mostly opposite, and I had to cross a narrow bridge over a ditch with no sides to prevent you from falling off into the muddy stream below.
The SIM pastor had been given permission to visit the condemned men prior to their execution, and this morning at breakfast time in the mission prayers were said for them. In the evening one of the missionaries spoke on “fearing rather he who has the power to cast into hell rather than those who kill the body”.
The next day the New Nigerian reported that three men had been executed for stealing 500 Naira and a pair of trousers. Police reported that 3 people had been killed in a stampede and estimated that pickpockets in the crowd had stolen 50,000 Naira! An eventful introduction to local Nigerian culture….
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