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Am now in Niamey the capital of Niger, it feels a very pleasant city, tree lined streets, impressive buildings and good roads which hide at first what is one of Africa's poorest countries. I am arranging visas here and relaxing for a few days before I head onto Benin and Togo for the last 3 weeks of my trip.

Niger

Stevemonty
2005-09-23 19:10:27

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a couple of hours there chatting they invited me to eat curried fish soup with them. Their monthly rent on the shop was 4 pounds which was a lot to them but they wouldnt except any payment towards the food they gave me.

I then went to Ouidah famous as one of the oldest Portuguese slaving ports and for voodoo. It is voodoo that originates from here that appears in Haiti, Cuba and Brasil and along the road white flags signify practicioners.

There is a famous 4km 'route de esclaves' walk down to the beach where slaves would have been lead in chains for the European ships waiting to take them to the new world. In Brazil some of them were able to pay for there own release and made the return journey. As a result there are many Portuguese surnames here, crumbling Brazilian architecture and occaisional samba music playing in bars.
I'm staying here with Mirielle and Maureen, two Canadian aid workers whom I met in Ghana while travelling with Andy. They are working at a refugee camp nearby where there is a mixture of people from all over central Africa but mainly from neighbouring Togo and the Ogoni people in exile from Nigeria. Over 1200 people in all.

I don't know a lot about their situation but I had chance to speak to some of the Ogoni people. Some of them have been here for 10 years and say they are too scared to go back to there homeland. They say that where oil is being drilled by Shell there is still pollution that has not been cleaned up and the people still do not have basic living conditions such as clean water and proper roads.
The UN refugee camp is really well organised inside, there are brick built semi-detached rooms, seperate toilet blocks and a communal area with taps for washing under a light. It's a purpose built new village, a bit like an African village version of Milton Keynes and with the oppurtunities available here for learning new skills it is far better than what most African's get.