“I first came to Africa in the early 90′s, supposedly for one year; six months in Mozambique followed by six months in Angola and then home again. 14 years later, I am still here. I have gone where the jobs were, in demining [mine removal], security, the oil industry anything that would put bread on the table…†Reads Hippo’s intro (Hippo is a pseudonym of course) his blog: “A Hippo on the Lawnâ€
I discovered Hippo (photo) via a comment he left on this site, and after some personal email communications, I visited his blog.
As it’s usually the case with me, I’m curious to know expatriates’ perspective of my country Nigeria and Africa in general. Hippo delivers bigtime! His blog offers a fresh, frank and comical insight into several socio-political issues on the African continent, well, from an expatriate perspective.
Port Harcourt is a post that captures some of the nuances of the Nigerian nation – from the peculiar driving style to encounters with the raging mob of the the oil-rich and violent Niger Delta.
“Invasion of expatriate office facilities by ethnic groups is common, especially in oil producing areasâ€, writes Hippo. Drawing from his experience as a security detail for some oil multinational, Hippo appears to have witnessed some not-so-pleasant interactions between ethnic Community Leaders of the Niger-Delta and their expatriate counterparts in the oil multinationals- the Community Liaison Officer:
“It usually starts with a couple of individuals gaining access by whatever means and then throwing open all the doors and windows whereupon the rest of the village emerge from the rocks beneath which they had concealed themselves and pile in. Most companies and all multi-nationals have Community Relations Managers whose unfortunate duty it is to negotiate with the baying mob that has just abducted the general manager, given the security manager a good hiding and ‘liberated’ the canteen fridge/freezer, the janitor’s bicycle and all the bog-roll and toilet seats that could be found in the building. Negotiation usually goes something like this:
“Community Leader (holding machete in one hand, partially masticated roll liberated from kitchen in the other): ‘You have not met your obligations to the community, we want jobs for all these boys!’ This at a volume and intensity of a Kardmann rock concert speaker…”
Continue reading the narrative on A Hippo on the Lawn.