Nigerian Given Names
Many Nigerians have English given names. These sometimes recalled the ancients in simply noting the day of a child’s birth: Sunday (etc.). More often they expressed a kind of magic – names, for instance, that might aid a young person toward a good career: College, Engineer, or Editor. Often they would name desirable qualities: Famous, Clever, Moneymaker, Lucky, Goodluck, Pious, Blessing, Endurance, Innocent, Ebony, and Fidelity, for example. Some were a bit less clear in intention: John Bull, Didacus (and Philemon), Portuguese, Dried Meat (though “Pigmeat” is known in the American South), Whisky, Society. Some are vast: System and Empire. Our neighbor had a boy with an indigenous name Vaki which was explained as meaning “Everything has its time.”
Road Mantras
These are lines collected from the sides of cars and trucks in Nigeria. In spite of the small percentage of the population that owns cars, Nigeria has an extraordinarily high rate of serious traffic accidents.
question of time
speak your words
nothing in my hands
don't mind
life is war
love
if men were god
truth is bitter
more days
my problem is not your problem
high life
o taste and see
not as you think
NO FACE
who knows tomorrow
see the work of god
let them say
no event -- no history
how shall we escape
are you god
princeless youth
OO-OO-OO
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