In summer 2006, I went to visit my parents that were living in Abuja, Nigeria. When I got to the Lagos international airport from an Air France flight, I had to transfer to the internal airlines and buy a ticket for a local trip Lagos-Abuja-Lagos. As I was used to travelling in Africa, I was not shocked that the international terminal had nothing in common with the internal flights one. However, that was something I had never seen before. I was buying an airplane ticket and I felt like I was buying a bus one, each airplane company trying to make me buy their ticket and lowering the price in front of my eyes. I had instruction and I knew what company to choose so I didn’t let the promoters get to punch themselves to have me as a client.
When I finally got my ticket, the guy who sold it to me asked me where I was coming from. When I said Canada, he said “rich country”. Then he said “Make me happy please”. I understood he wanted some kind of a tip, a foreign currency tip. But I didn’t have any small amount in cash. When I told him that, he said “but you are chewing a gum”, which was true. So I pulled out my packet of Dentyne and gave it to him. The joy in his eyes ashamed me and I felt slapped by the gap that was separating us.
I really enjoyed reading Oguibe's essays. As a traveller and a citizen of a third world country myself, I felt like I had a direct connection with this text.
The first issue he addresses that is the gap between basic needs for two human beings living on the same planet at the same era is particularly striking and sets somehow the source for the rest of the writing.
From there, he ironically and wisely points out that “the entirety of (their) debates and intellectual flirtations do not matter” to the child that was making gestures. This thaught haunts me since I started going to college and faced the reality of not being able to explain what I was studying each time I came in contact with my continent.
I don’t consider myself wise enough and with a sufficient knowledge to try to come up with a solution. The only thing I can assume is that there is no global solution.
However, I do believe that a first step would be to work on people’s consciousness about this gap, especially those who left the countries concerned by such problems to get degrees in the best universities of the world. They are the ones that, in my point of view, will and can make a real difference because they have both cultures.
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