Nigeria

We finally got our Nigerian visas last week (on Monday) and have spent the last 7 days travelling through Togo, Benin and into the heart of Nigeria. Togo and Benin are very small, though there were some very interesting sights to see. In Lome, Togo, we went to a voodoo market. Voodoo has nothing to do with sticking pins in dolls but is based on fetishes (small objects that bring luck or improve your memory, for example) and traditional potions (for lack of a better term) made of ground up animal parts and blood or water. The voodoo market is full of dried animal remains and skulls. Not too pleasant, especially since some of the animals are highly endangered. In Benin we went to another slave trade memorial to those who were shipped to the Americas, a village built in the middle of a lake where all of the buildings are on stilts (the Venice of Africa) and the palace of the Dahomey empire, complete with a throne that is mounted on the 4 skulls of the kings vanquished enemies. Pretty spooky, really.

We have made our way to Abuja, Nigeria, near the middle of the country. There are nationwide elections in April, and the tension is rising daily. We haven't had any problems yet, and we are going to try and keep it that way. There are lots of police checks, complete with many soldiers carrying AK-47s and pistos which they show off quite regularly. They are always smiling, but there are too many guns around to feel really comfortable. But on a whole everyone in Nigeria has been very friendly towards us.

We will be in Nigeria for another 2 weeks, visiting some national parks and a gorilla reserve before heading to Cameroon.