FINDING ROOTS IN NIGERIA
IBADAN
Ibadan is a town of tradition. I saw the traditional Yoruba clothes worn by many more people here than in Lagos. and I wanted to get me a set of those clothes that the ancestors wore. Which meant going to Ibadan's equivalent of the garment district. First, at the cloth merchant's, I bought 10 yards of cloth.
GARMENT AREA
Then to the tailor who took my measurements and at Kumi's request said he would do a fast job so that the clothes would be ready later that day.
IBADAN TAILORS
We went sign seeing, traveling to the Oba Oja Market to see the sights there and we saw things that a tourist would never see in a London or Paris, like the flour sack boys. They recycle the sacks used to hold flour.
Flour sack men
And the market today cannot have looked much different from what it did a hundred years ago and likely many of the same items are for sale today. The vendors sold everything from perishable meats and vegetables to pottery and cooking ustensils.OBA-OJA MARKET
It was Friday and we ran into worshipers headed to the big mosque across the street from the market for Friday prayers. The mosque quickly filled with people and so where we were standing nearly a block away became part of the service as people stopped in the streets and joined the proceedings being boomed out over loudspeakers.FRIDAY PRAYERS
I played camera hide and seek with Hausa children in central Ibadan.
IBADAN KIDS