A HAPPY TIME IN NIGERIA

A HAPPY TIME IN NIGERIA IN 1970

Exhausted and tired with four children, after four moves and without help and with a husband, who came home at 08.00 p.m. and who was abroad a lot and never had time, so I arrived at our first station in Lagos, Nigeria.
Nigeria in 1970 was, just after the departure of the English and just after the Biafran war, still very colonial.
We got a pretty house in a park-like garden in Ikoy. One side of the house only had glass doors, all of which opened to the porch side. The house had a large kitchen, spacious bedrooms, a beautiful garden with many coconut trees and of course, not to forget, a lot of staff. Two servants (men), who lived behind the house on their own compound with their own families. A gardener with an assistant, a night watchman and a driver. So we arrived from hell in heaven, everything was done for us, the washing, ironing, really everything. I didn’t have to do a thing anymore, what a gigantic luxury. To make things even more easy, there also was the Ikoy club, still entirely based on the English trends with a library, a golf course, tennis, judo, squash and a wonderful swimmingpool and where you could also eat and drink something. After school all young people came here and kept themselves busy for hours.
The project was a government project performed by Nedeco and the Dutch Embassy, so it was a very prestigious project.
We had been given a lot of money for clothing, such as evening- and cocktail dresses, sport wear and more. This was obligatory and it certainly wasn’t a problem for a worn out housewife and the four children. This was a whole new world for us with many obligations and etiquette on one side and luxury and freedom on the other side. Next to the obligatory parties via the Embassy, there were also two great nightclubs in Lagos at the time, the Bachus and the Bagatelle, where many Libanese worked, extremely charming people.
Mostly I enjoyed having free time, no more housekeeping. To be able to do whatever you want, going out, swimming and when coming home finding diner ready on the table and the laundry all done, that was great.
The kids were perfectly cared for, there was always someone at home. The driver drove them everywhere and picked them up again, really unbelievable.
The finest moments of my stay there, were the days that I left in a banana boat from the Federal Palace Hotel (with swimming pool and more luxury) to go to Badagry beach via the major routes of all vessels, that went to Lagos. Those trips with that small boat with outboard motor, which preferably refused to start when we navigated in between the large vessels, were very scary as well. That small narrow wooden boat, floating closer and closer to a huge fraigtliner and the Nigerian on the helm was in great panic, pulling and pulling the engine to get it started again and we eagerly hoping not to be run over by one of those gigantic looking ships. Many a time I thought, that is it, now my life ends here, but then the bitchy engine started and we could just in time sail away from the great danger, sighing with relief. All this tension though, couldn’t disturb my desire for those marvelous hours on a lovely beach, sitting under a palm roof and listening to the blows of the huge waves on the beach, drinking the delicious coconut milk from the many coconuts.
I’ve spent hours there on my own. Sometimes in the company of an Expat or one of the Nigerian women, who sold me the coconuts. I enjoyed those wonderful days of sun, wind, waves and deep peace. Sometimes my youngest son came with me and would also play for hours on the beach.
I will never forget Badagry beach, so peaceful, so beautiful, so pristine with many palm trees.
Dinkie