Pat's Wildways: Adventures in Nigeria

Some weeks, like this one, I don’t have anything interesting happening in my life to report about in my weekly columns. But, looking around my home, I see many old stories to tell. So, every now and then, I’ll take us back to the days when I was doing biodiversity assessments for the now defunct United States Agency for International Development (USAID). These projects combined a lot of internet and academic research, poring through published documents, arranging an in-country team and field schedule, then traveling to the country to assess their efforts regarding biodiversity, conservation and resource management, and to advise the U.S. government in shaping their projects to help in these efforts.

Now, in my home, my glance settled on a giant mortar and pestle used to pound yams in Nigeria. How about I start with my assignment in Nigeria in 2008? Nigeria is now in our news, with U.S. forces gathering in the region in “targeted counterterrorism operations aimed in part at protecting Nigerian Christians,” says the New York Times. But for the most part, the Muslim population is concentrated in the northern part of this large country, the Christians are concentrated in the south, but there is overlap and the attacks in the north by terrorists impact them all.

When I arrived in Nigeria in 2008 it was my second assignment there and this time I was determined to look at the conservation management practices in both parts of the country. Before long, I had a car and driver and a Nigerian team to travel with me to the south, the Delta region, where conflicts between large multinational oil companies and local residents have their own violence. The changes the oil infrastructure has made to the area have depleted the wildlife, cut down forests, and disrupted watercourses that once sustained the local population of villagers in this region. We saw villagers that hunt "bushmeat” (anything that can be killed, from rodents to monkeys) for sale to rich people in the cities and instead rely on cheaper “ice fish” — usually mackerel that comes frozen in large shipments from elsewhere. Often, these loads of fish are those rejected in other countries due to bad quality, and are deposited in Nigeria as a last resort.

Further down the road, we spent a night at the Api Mountain Drill Ranch where drills — threatened large primates — are protected, orphans are raised, and breeding groups are established for visitors to see and learn about. Once at the Drill Ranch I had to stay away from the big male in the enclosure near my hut; he stationed himself where he could see me, and masturbated with a s--- eating grin aimed at me. Scary to say the least. And I’ll never forget driving with my team into the village where candles and small fires and lanterns lit up the night without electricity and we were singing Christian religious songs. I chimed in with the chorus “Amen, Amen, Amen,” the only words I could understand. I remember telling Tony Bassey, my southern Nigerian colleague, that I would never forget this moment, and a decade and a half later, I still remember it clearly and moreover I’ve kept in touch with Tony ever since.

A few days later we had traveled to the north of the country, in the Muslim region. I had to bid goodbye to Tony, who was replaced with a Muslim team to show me this region. But first, I had to go to the local market with the office women to get outfitted in fully covered regalia. In the north, as in the south, I had a busy schedule of meeting village chiefs, government officials, conservationists and the like. But one meeting really stood out. We drove for hours to reach a village where the women were gathered to meet with me so I could interview them without the men around to influence their answers. When I arrived, about 20 women were nervously sitting in a circle of chairs awaiting me. So serious. So, in my inimitable style, I sashayed into the room, showing off my new clothes that completely covered me, and everyone laughed. I broke the ice! And, with this accomplished, I could easily get the women to answer my questions like “What do you grow? What problems do you have? Do the men take all your money?” At the end of this interview, I switched roles and let the women ask me questions too. “Do you live in a city or a village?” (Which is Fernandina, I wondered?) “Do you grow any vegetables?” And, having noticed their crops of tomatoes outside the clinic, I mentioned that I grew tomatoes. And soon we had a wholehearted discussion about best ways to grow tomatoes, common the world over!

It was experiences like this where I was reminded that people are all the same whatever their religion, skin color or politics. And hopefully, they learned that Americans are good people. The results of my three-week field trip and extensive research before and after shaped recommendations that USAID later enacted to support the national parks in Nigeria, community conservation efforts, better nature- oriented learning materials and more.

But now, all this goodwill is lost in favor of our military troops entering the country instead of USAID. The world has become less friendly and we have our own country to blame.

Pat Foster-Turley, Ph.D., is a zoologist on Amelia Island. She welcomes your nature questions and observations. patandbucko@yahoo.com