Friday, October 01, 2010

The 237th good thing about Lagos: the American School celebrates Nigeria's culture

It was Nigerian Cultural Day at the American School this week and I stopped over there for some culture and to do a little shopping because there are great prices from the vendors they allow to come there.
 They had a beautiful cake on display celebrating the anniversary.


And they had lots of displays of traditional Nigerian food.  I had a sampling of roasted yam for the first time (those are their big yams in the basket in the picture on the right).  It was palatable, though as bland as I had expected it to be.


 And there were tables with women explaining the different Nigerian foods, which was very helpful.
 The kola nut is used ceremonially as the traditional offering to a chief, but it has also been used in many West African cultures medicinally and to ease hunger pangs, because it has a high caffeine content.

Palm oil was the biggest Nigerian export and source of income before the discovery of oil here. 
I had seen the fruit before,

but I found it interesting to see the plant that the palm kernels come from.
 This young woman was dressed as a bride from Cross River State.


These girls were dressed for a festival in Calabar.

And, of course, it's impossible to have a celebration of Nigerian culture without some drumming and dancing!



2 comments:

Jojo said...

Wow! Great exhibit!

Shaheen said...

That is one beautiful looking novelty cake celebrating Nigerian culture. I was also intrigued to see new ingredeints. Thank you so much for sharing.