FON Fall 2019

Friends of Nigeria 

www.friendsofnigeria.org Fall 2019 Vol 24, No 1 

Peace Corps – How Has It Changed? 

by Peter Hansen, (27) 66-68 

Of the approximately 2,000 Nigeria 

RPCVs and staff, the vast majority 

served in the 1960s or early 1970s (40 

PCVs and their staff served in the mid- 

1990s). Not surprisingly, much has 

changed since then. 

Of course, the blue air letters are 

history. Most current PCVs speak to 

their parents using mobile phones or 

Skype, the latter providing online faceto-face 

conversations. However, this 

article focuses on changes to Peace 

Corps, the federal agency. 

The Application Process 

In 2014, a major change was made in 

the application process. A short application 

on the Peace Corps website can 

now be completed in less than one hour. 

Previously the application consisted of 

over 60 printed pages and required an 

estimated eight hours to complete. 

The year before the change Peace 

Corps received about 10,000 applications; 

the year after Peace Corps received 

over 23,000 applications, the 

highest number of applications the 

agency had received since 1975. About 

one in three applicants ends up serving 

with the Peace Corps. 

Applicants can also choose the programs 

and countries they wish to apply 

to. They can apply to between one and 

three programs, or they can apply for 

service wherever they are most needed. 

The Peace Corps website lists available 

open programs by country, work area 

(agriculture, community economic development, 

education, environment, 

health, and youth in development) and 

departure date. 

Mailed on January 22nd, received on 

February 1st – 10 days later. 

***** Mark Your Calendar ***** 

Peace Corps Connect 2020, the National Peace Corps Association’s annual 

conference, will be hosted by the Seattle Area Peace Corps Association 

(SEAPAX), in Seattle, WA, on July 16-18, 2020. The conference will have 

an emphasis on immigrants and refugees and will be centered around Cultivating 

Connections. 

Friends of Nigeria will hold its one-day annual meeting on Thursday, July 

16, 2020, at a time to be determined in the Seattle area. Preliminary planning 

will soon begin. The meeting’s organizing committee will need volunteers. If 

you are interested in serving on this committee, please contact Jim Clark at: 

wjclark016@gmail.com or 336-269-3452 

Newsletter 

Peace Corps Response 

Peace Corps now offers two types of 

volunteer service. The traditional program 

(three months of training followed 

by two years of service) and the Peace 

Corps Response program. About 97% 

of the volunteers serve in the traditional 

program. 

The Peace Corps Response program 

was initially called the Crisis Corps. It 

was established in 1996, accepted 

RPCVs only, and helped communities 

recover from disasters such as hurricanes, 

earthquakes and conflicts. For 

example, the Crisis Corps sent 73 volunteers 

to Thailand and Sri Lanka following 

the 2004 tsunami. 

In 2007, the Crisis Corps became 

Peace Corps Response, which 

broadened the mission of the program 

to meet specific, critical needs of Peace 

Corps host countries. In 2012, Peace 

Corps Response expanded to include 

Americans without previous Peace 

Corps experience but with significant 

professional and technical experience. 

Peace Corps Response volunteers typically 

serve for 3-12 months. Nigeria 

RPCVs who have served with the Crisis 

Corps or Peace Corps Response include 

Renate Schulz, (07) 63-65, in Mexico; 

Pat (Robinson) Edgecomb, (27) 66-68, 

in Kenya; and Linda Coughlin, (23) 66- 

67, in both St. Kitts and Jamaica. 

Training 

Most PCVs of our generation trained 

exclusively in the U.S. at a college or 

university. Exceptions were Nigeria 1 

(Harvard and Ibadan), Nigeria 19 and 21 

(Virgin Islands), and Nigeria 31 (Virgin 

Islands and Zaria). The 1990s Nigeria 

PCVs all received in-country training. 

Currently all pre-service PCV training 

is in country. A major strength of 

this training is the homestay. Trainees 

live with a local family for most of their 

three months of training. The family 

(Continued on page 3) 

Fall 2019 FON Newsletter - 1

President’s Column 

by Jim Clark, (12) 64-66 

Now that summer has come to a 

close and we prepare ourselves for the 

coming winter season, my thoughts inevitably 

turn to those days in Nigeria when 

the “dry” season suddenly became the 

“wet” season – a period in which it 

seemed as if no amount of careful planning 

was sufficient to avoid getting 

drenched by one of the frequent torrential 

rain storms that popped up with little 

to no warning. Riding my Honda 150 

motorcycle was especially precarious and 

resulted in many wet clothes and unanticipated 

baths. Soon, however, I realized 

that getting wet was not really a problem. 

In fact, looking back after 55 years, I 

have come to realize that those simple 

experiences are just another notation on 

the list of everyday things that made my 

time spent living among the people of 

Umuduru and Mbano County a special 

time in my life. 

We all have our memories of big and 

little things from our days in Nigeria that 

cause us to be generous in continuing to 

support our friends there. Last year, for 

example, our members donated in excess 

of $35,000 to fund our efforts in various 

parts of the country. Those donations, 

combined with surplus income from our 

membership dues, enabled us to award 

over $39,000 in grants to the following 

projects: DoveNet (women’s health, 

$16,000), American University of Nigeria 

Foundation (Read and Feed Program, 

$3,000), African Community Health 

Initiative ($8,050), Fantsuam Foundation 

($5,000), Mediwat Computer Science 

School ($4,500) and the Gadar Maiwa 

Primary Health Centre ($3,000). As you 

can see, the bulk of the grants we awarded 

has gone toward health care initiatives. 

For an organization the size of 

Friends of Nigeria, being able to award 

this amount of grant money reflects the 

care and devotion our members continue 

to feel for Nigeria. The fact that most 

of us served there at least 50 years ago 

has not diminished the compassion we 

feel for our “second home.” Later this 

fall we will launch another fundraising 

appeal and I anticipate that our compassion 

will lead us to another recordbreaking 

year. 

Last month, I attended a virtual town 

hall sponsored by the National Peace 

Corps Association (NPCA) whose purpose 

was to discuss the concerns of 

NPCA affiliated groups like ours. I was 

somewhat surprised to learn that there 

now are a total of 185 NPCA affiliated 

groups that make up their Affiliate 

Group Network. Some of the groups are 

geographic (city, region or state), others 

are based on country of service (like 

Friends of Nigeria) and still others have 

a special emphasis such as environmental 

concerns or social justice issues. All, 

however, have at their foundational core 

Returned Peace Corps Volunteers supporting 

the countries in which they 

served and fulfilling the promise to work 

toward the betterment of life across the 

globe. 

From the conversations of the affiliate 

group representatives attending the 

meeting, it appears that Friends of Nigeria, 

while having perhaps one of the oldest 

membership bases (ouch!), is one of 

the largest and most active groups. However, 

like other country-of-service 

groups whose members served in countries 

that no longer host Peace Corps 

volunteers (e.g., India, Iran and Pakistan), 

what will happen to Friends of 

Nigeria when our members are no longer 

around? A question worthy of further 

discussion. 

The National Peace Corps Association 

recently announced that Peace 

Corps Connect 2020, its annual conference, 

will be held in Seattle in July 2020. 

Friends of Nigeria has traditionally held 

its annual meeting in close proximity to 

the NPCA conference site at a venue 

that has lodging and meeting space adequate 

to meet our needs. Shortly after 

the first of the year, we will assemble an 

organizing committee to plan this meeting. 

Local knowledge and insights are 

invaluable in the planning process. So, if 

you live in the Seattle/Tacoma area, I 

urge you to contact me or any board 

member and volunteer to be a part of 

creating a memorable annual meeting 

event. 

FRIENDS OF NIGERIA 

NEWSLETTER 

Quarterly publication of Friends of Nigeria, Inc. 

www.friendsofnigeria.org 

affiliate of the 

National Peace Corps Association 

Editor 

Peter Hansen 

pjhansen717@gmail.com 

Arts Editor 

Sara (Kinkel) Hollis 

drsarahollis@gmail.com 

Book Editor 

Sandra Demerly Wittenbrink 

sdemerly@aol.com 

Nigeria News Editor 

Vivian Ogbonna 

interiorconceptsng@gmail.com 

Obituary Editor 

Raymond Carpenter 

rpcarpent@gmail.com 

Proofreaders 

Bea Dunn Campbell 

Mary-Ann Palmieri 

Alan Robinson 

Peter Stolzman 

Earl (Buzz) Welker 

Printer 

Lakes Marketing and Print 

Spirit Lake, Iowa 

FRIENDS OF NIGERIA 

BOARD OF DIRECTORS 

President 

Jim Clark 

wjclark016@gmail.com 

Vice President 

Mimi Budd 

mimibudd@comcast.net 

Membership Chair 

Chris Clarkson 

noskralc@verizon.net 

Treasurer 

Warren Keller 

warrendfon@gmail.com 

Secretary 

Mike Goodkind 

goodkindm@gmail.com 

Newsletter Editor 

Peter Hansen 

pjhansen717@gmail.com 

Directors 

Clemmie Gilpin 

ceg5@psu.edu 

Edward (Ned) Greeley 

nedgreeley@hotmail.com 

Greg Jones 

gregory.j@comcast.net 

David Koren 

dlkoren@gmail.com 

Monique LeBlanc 

mlebla12@aol.com 

Spencer Ralston 

sdrsantafe@gmail.com 

2 - FON Newsletter Fall 2019

Letters to the Editor 

Letters to 

the Editor 

TO THE EDITOR: 

It was nice to see a review in our 

Newsletter of Wole Soyinka’s 1972 

book The Man Died, about his time in 

prison during the Biafran War. The reviewer 

doesn’t explain why the book 

Wole Soyinka at ease in Ibadan, spring 1964 

was given that title. Soyinka was looking 

for a Nigerian role model who was willing 

to speak the truth and pay whatever 

consequences ensued. Instead, he had to 

settle on a courageous Greek journalist 

who was covering affairs in Greece at 

the time of the dictators and was arrested. 

Later Wole found that the man had 

died. The reviewer ends her piece by 

suggesting that we send 85th birthday 

greetings to Wole to “compensate for 

our failure to write him while he was in 

prison.” 

That’s a rather peremptory statement. 

I had been a volunteer in Ibadan 

from 1962 to 1964 and met Wole a few 

times.He was at the University of Ife, 

then in Ibadan, and I was teaching down 

the road at the Government Technical 

College Ibadan. Once he was arrested at 

the start of the Biafran War I wrote to 

him but received no 

response. Through Amnesty 

International I 

was able to contact his 

wife and found out he 

was being held incommunicado. 

I decided to 

take a more active role. 

At the time of the war I 

was a graduate student 

at the University of 

Illinois at Urbana- 

Champaign. Friends and 

I had started a new theater, 

The Depot, in Urbana. I convinced 

the managing directors to put on two of 

Wole’s one-act plays and send whatever 

profit we made to his wife as a contribution 

to his legal defense fund. Also, it 

indirectly signaled to the authorities that 

people far away were concerned about 

his health and safety. We raised $250 

and sent it to Mrs. Soyinka. She wrote 

back and acknowledged receipt of the 

money and was grateful that we cared. 

When Wole got out of prison he finished 

writing the book and got it published. 

Out of the blue I received a copy 

of his new book that he had sent with a 

hand-written inscription on the cover 

page (“for Edward Gruberg with great appreciation 

from me and my family. Wole Soyinka”). 

I still have the book. It has a cherished 

place in my library. 

Ed Gruberg (05) 62-64 

egruberg@temple.edu 

Peace Corps – How Has It Changed? 

(Continued from page 1) 

helps the trainee learn the local language 

and promotes cross-cultural exchange. 

Safety and Security 

During the past two decades the 

Peace Corps has devoted far greater 

attention and resources to safety and 

security. Following the 9/11 terrorist 

attacks, the Peace Corps established the 

Office of Safety and Security. The 2009 

murder of volunteer Kate Puzey in Benin 

led to a comprehensive Congressional 

assessment of the Peace Corps. 

This resulted in the passage of the Kate 

Puzey Peace Corps Volunteer Protection 

Act of 2011, which mandated many 

specific actions. The 2018 annual volunteer 

survey reported that 92% of volunteers 

felt “safe” or “very safe” where 

they live, and 95% where they work. 

PCV and RPCV Healthcare 

Volunteer healthcare has also been 

an issue of much greater concern. The 

2013 death of Nick Castle, a PCV in 

China, resulted from what the Inspector 

General determined was a series of 

medical misdiagnoses and treatment 

failures; this led to a push for reforms. 

Subsequently, Congress passed the Sam 

Farr and Nick Castle Peace Corps Reform 

Act of 2018, which established 

provisions designed to improve volunteer 

medical care. 

The Peace Corps has also addressed 

the longstanding problems encountered 

by RPCVs with health issues related to 

their Peace Corps service. Peace Corps 

hired staff to assist volunteers with their 

claims and have tried to shorten the 

claims process. In addition, the Farr- 

Castle Act authorized the Peace Corps 

to provide medical care to RPCVs for 

120 days after termination of service for 

likely service-related conditions. 

It would be difficult to argue that 

these changes have not made for a better 

Peace Corps. 


Book Review 

Seven Myths of Africa 

in World History 

by David Northrup, (13) 64-66 

Hackett, 2017, pp. 188 (pb) 

by Sandra Demerly Wittenbrink, (20) 66-67 

Seven Myths of Africa in World History 

deserves a spot on everyone’s Africa 

bookshelf. It is a thin volume based on 

reputable research collected from decades 

of publications about the continent’s 

complex and notable history. 

“Myths” refers to basic misconceptions 

that have been difficult to dispel. They 

have resulted in a history of the world’s 

second largest continent often fraught 

with errors. Ignorance and prejudice 

contribute to this destructive mythmaking. 

All of these, Northrup contends, get 

in the way of rigorous analysis based on 

fact and logic. The author approaches 

this problem through a critical examination 

in a non-judgmental tone. 

Northrup’s first three chapters reveal 

how early writings on Africa failed to 

acknowledge the highly developed attributes 

of kingdoms and ethnic groups: 

trade, architecture, philosophy and other 

features of developing civilizations. 

These failures occurred because of fanciful 

fabrications by early explorers, 

some of whom had never visited the 

places they purported to describe. The 

notion that Africa was impoverished 

and without commerce before the arrival 

of outsiders is addressed as simplistic 

and misleading. A salient point in the 

text demonstrates how political activism 

is a significant shaping influence in Africa’s 

history. A continent rich in its diversity 

of cultures, commerce, languages, 

resources and religions is bound 

to attract writers and researchers who 

inspire movements. Northrup offers 

readers succinct explanations and vivid 

examples of how these theories had a 

lasting effect on scholars and historians. 

The fourth chapter examines the 

pervasive influence of writings regarding 

Africa’s slave trade. For those of us 

whose first awareness of Africa’s history 

arose in the 1960’s, this part of the book 

is especially edifying. At the time, Afrocentrism 

was rising and spreading. 

The slave trade was being cast in a light 

that would broaden in time. The clearly 

negative impact of slavery is given a 

more far-reaching perspective. Later 

writing points out the power that enslaved 

peoples would wield as they 

demonstrated an ability to organize, 

outwit, endure, overcome and garner 

movements that still draw attention and 

even revolutionary change. Chapter 

Four gives specific details about historic 

events relating to the peoples of Nigeria. 

Hausa, Fulani, Igbo, Yoruba, Kikuyu, 

Zulu and other major ethnic groups are 

noted in Chapter Five. The skill and 

fluency of African peoples in language 

acquisition and the spreading of linguistic 

influence is emphasized. Northrup 

also writes of the variety of responses to 

colonial influence. Some ethnic groups 

were protective of any mixing or altering 

of their ancestral customs by outsiders. 

Others, over time, incorporated aspects 

that they perceived as improvements 

and ways of expanding their identities. 

Although Chapter Six is entitled, “Is 

Islam More Authentically African than 

Christianity?” the chapter draws on historical 

events that have effects beyond 

theology. References to relations between 

rulers of African kingdoms and 

European rulers are cited. Many effects 

of religious beliefs on slavery and other 

practices are highlighted. Religious factions 

within denominations are discussed. 

The reader is made aware of the 

fact that just as there are many branches 

of Christianity, Islam in Africa is also 

quite diverse. The effects of religious 

practices on lifestyles, health, literacy 

and the ability to co-exist with other 

faiths deepen the topic. 

The final chapter demonstrates how 

selection of a particular set of trends can 

be used to portray the African continent 

as either rising or falling. This cautionary 

conclusion rests solidly on the already 

established complexity and diversity that 

characterizes all things African. 

Northrup reminds us of what highly 

respected Nigerian historian Jacob Ajayi 

(1929 -2014) has written. Generally, 

colonial influence in Africa has been 

over-emphasized by many historians. 

Foreign contact with the peoples of 

Africa did not mean that they ceased to 

be in control of the “larger patterns of 

their lives.” The legacy of political 

boundaries from colonialism was “not 

so much a blessing or a curse as an opportunity 

to build new nations and identities.” 

African nations began to flourish 

and, in a few cases, suffered under leadership 

from new elites. These individuals 

rose up, not so much from ancestral 

royalty as in the past, but as a result of 

an exceptional university education and 

the ability to win support from the 

masses. Mass movements were generally 

formed of shared aspirations. Chapter 

Seven also highlights the struggle for 

freedom in Southern Africa which was 

especially bitter and lengthy. The dominant 

leaders who spoke out against violence 

and injustice left an historic legacy. 

David Northrup’s Seven Myths of Africa 

in World History is a balanced, wellsupported, 

open-minded clarification 

and correction of many misconceptions 

about Africa and its place in the history 

of the world. 

David Northrup can be contacted at: 

northrup@bc.edu 


RPCV Report 

A Brighter Future 

by Diane Raleigh, (PCV) 63-64 

In the early 1960s, my husband and I 

joined the Peace Corps and served in 

Somalia for a year. In 1963, we transferred 

to Owerri, Nigeria, where I 

taught English and volunteered to help 

improve the quality of care at a wellbaby 

clinic. 

One day a father approached me, 

carrying a malnourished three-monthold 

baby girl who weighed just 5 ½ 

pounds. He pleaded with me to take her 

to the nearest hospital to help her survive, 

but when we arrived, we were 

turned away at the door. Nigerian hospitals 

at the time were not equipped to 

handle long-term care for motherless 

children. 

So, my husband and I took the baby 

in, and within the year, we returned her 

to her family, a chubby healthy girl. It 

became clear to us that someone needed 

to step up and improve the quality of 

maternal and neonatal 

care, upgrade the 

clinic’s facilities, and 

provide a plentiful 

supply of milk, 

medicine, and expertise 

to help these 

vulnerable patients 

survive. 

I met with local 

leaders, government 

officials, and nuns 

from a local church, who generously 

committed to provide the labor and 

materials necessary to upgrade the clinic. 

More than 55 years later, the Owerri 

Motherless Baby Home still cares for 

newborns and returns countless healthy 

children to their families. 

After Peace Corps we returned to the 

States, started a family, and I began a 

long career as a clinical psychologist, 

traveling to Africa several times in the 

intervening years. In 2009, I was ready 

to start a new project in Africa, this time 

in Tanzania. My wanderings took me to 

the slopes of Kilimanjaro, where I met a 

midwife, Yaya, in the Maasai village of 

Olmoti. She asked for help reducing the 

childbirth mortality rate, and right then 

and there, I had found my project. 

Diane and Yaya, who first asked for help 

Without local health services, village 

women gave birth in unsanitary conditions 

at home. There was no transportation 

to the nearest hospital (30 km 

away), no sanitation, no reliable water 

supply, and no pre- or post-natal care 

for mothers or their babies. 

The Olmoti Health Center with surgical facilities 

The “village” was no more than clusters 

of bomas – mud huts with thatched 

roofs – with a population of 3800, who 

were forced by the government to give 

up their nomadic ways and settle down 

on land that couldn’t support them. 

Conditions were harsh, food and water 

scarce, and tending goats and cattle was 

the only source of sustenance. The nearest 

school was seven kilometers away, as 

was the nearest source of water, which 

the village women carried on their heads 

four days a week. 

I teamed up with a friend, Gloria 

Upchurch, and created a plan to build 

Olmoti a clinic, which would be staffed 

by the government. A successful Maasai 

businessman, Willy Chambulo, owner 

and director of Kibo Guides, agreed to 

oversee construction. It took a full year 

to raise the funds and build the clinic, 

which was staffed by a doctor appointed 

by the Longido District Medical Director 

and a small nursing staff. 

We partnered with Vitamin Angels to 

supply vitamin A for babies and pregnant 

women. After several years, we 

were able to hire and help pay the salary 

of an experienced, compassionate Maasai 

doctor with 37 years of experience. 

His deep understanding of local customs 

and cultural norms quickly gained 

the trust of the villagers. 

Now, ten years later, the Olmoti 

Clinic treats a wide range of conditions. 

There’s an eye clinic for treating trachoma 

and diagnosing cataracts, a birthing 

center, where 98% of village babies are 

now born, screening for HIV and other 

infectious diseases, foot care, fistula 

outreach, hygiene 

education, family 

planning, vaccinations 

and more. 

The next urgent 

issue was clean 

water. With help 

from the Santa 

Barbara chapter of 

Engineers Without 

Borders, a sevenkilometer-long 

pipeline was laid from 

Elerai, a source of fresh water from Mt. 

Kilimanjaro. Olmoti’s men dug a deep 

trench (to discourage elephants), and the 

Hai District Water Company installed 

the piping to serve Olmoti for the first 

time in their history. Sanitation improved 

dramatically, and the drudgery of 

carrying water great distances ceased. 

Life in Olmoti was transformed. 

Olmoti mothers next requested 

schooling for their young children, for 

whom the trek to Elerai was long and 

dangerous. Four years later, the village 

had three school buildings, attended by 

(Continued on page 7) 


RPCV History 

Nicky Nylons, 1917-2012 

by Andy Philpot, VSO 1965-67 

After I had read 322 pages of a 327- 

page book titled, After the Flood, by Mike 

Nichols, I found to my amazement that 

one of its notable characters later joined 

the Peace Corps and served in Nigeria. 

Some of you may remember Hubert 

(Nick) Knilans, (08) 63-65, either from 

training with him at Teachers College, 

Columbia University or from his two 

years in Kano. At that time what may 

have stood out about Nick was that he 

was 46 years old when he entered the 

Peace Corps, somewhat older than most 

PCVs. 

Some of you may also remember 

reading his obituary in the Spring 2013 

issue of the newsletter but in some aspects 

it was inaccurate and did not do 

due justice to his incredible time as a 

pilot with the Royal Air Force (RAF) 

during the Second World War. 

Born into a farming family in Wisconsin 

and drafted into the U.S. Army 

in 1941, Nick wanted to be a pilot, but 

the U.S. Army required all pilots to have 

college degrees. Without telling his family, 

he packed a small bag and with very 

little money, headed to the Canadian 

border. On arrival he was immediately 

directed to the local Royal Canadian Air 

Force (RCAF) recruiting 

office where he signed up 

for pilot training. 

After the initial training 

in Canada, he was sent to 

the U.K. along with a 

number of similarly inclined 

Americans and 

many soldiers, sailors and 

airmen from around the 

Empire. 

After a “bomber conversion” 

course, he joined 

the Royal Air Force (RAF) 

619 Squadron flying Lancaster fourengined 

bombers on night raids over 

Germany. 

His first mission was in July 1943 to 

the city of Hamburg. In October of that 

year he was informed that he was being 

Nick under his Lancaster 

transferred back to the United States 

Army Air Corps (USAAC) but refused 

to leave his crew as they would have 

been split up and sent off as replacements 

to other crews that were shorthanded. 

He completed his tour with the 

619 Squadron but nearly lost his life on 

one mission after his plane was hit by a 

night fighter. With some of the crew 

dead, others seriously injured, and his 

plane defenseless, he not only pressed 

on to drop his bombs on target but also 

nursed his severely damaged plane 

home to the U.K. 

The Avro Lancaster used by the 617 Squadron; the ‘R’ designating Nick's plane. 

For this gallantry he was awarded the 

Distinguished Service Order. He would 

wear only this single medal on his uniform, 

as to wear others from Canada 

and the U.S. might seem like bragging to 

the mainly British members of his 

Squadron. During the course of the war, 

he was also awarded the Commonwealth 

and American Distinguished 

Flying Crosses and five U.S. Air Medals. 

By January 1944, Nick decided he 

had had enough of bombing civilian 

targets. “This type of bombing had weakened 

my reliance on my original idea of restoring 

happiness to the children of Europe...” 

However, he wanted to remain on 

operations and transferred to the 617 

Squadron, “The Dam Busters.” In May 

1943, the 617 Squadron had been specially 

formed to perform low-level precision 

bombings of three dams in the 

Ruhr valley of the German industrial 

heartland. They had been successful but 

had lost a disproportionate number of 

aircraft in the process. By 1944, the 

Squadron, commanded by the legendary 

Leonard Cheshire, VC, specialized in 

low-level and high-level precision 

bombing of military targets, such as U- 

boat pens in France, the V1 and V2 

missile development area in Germany 

and launch sites in France, and other 

strategic targets throughout Europe. 

Nick completed two tours with the 

617 Squadron and was beginning to 

show signs of what we now call PTSD. 

He was losing his faith that this war 

would do away with discrimination 

in the U.S. 

and perhaps the rest of 

the world. 

He had talked to other 

Americans based in Britain 

and was amazed to 

find that the Afro- 

American troops at one 

location were only allowed 

to use the public 

swimming pool on Mondays 

after which it would 

be drained and refilled for 

other Americans to use 

for the rest of the week. He had become 

aware of the Ku Klux Klan back home 

in Wisconsin but as there were no Afro- 

(Continued on next page) 


RPCV History 

Nicky Nylons, 1917-2012 

(Continued from previous page) 

Americans there, their targets were Roman 

Catholics. 

Life was not all flying, Nick was 

known for being a bit of a ladies’ man 

and his supply of nylon stockings from 

the U.S. got him his nick name Nicky 

Nylons. 

Although he flew for the RAF, officially 

he was seconded from the 

USAAC. He had the American rank of 

first lieutenant. His pay at this rank gave 

him the same pay as a Group Captain in 

the RAF, equivalent to a full colonel in 

the USAAC. Hence the expression for 

Americans during the war in the U.K. as 

being “over sexed, over paid, and over here.” 

When on leave in London, he 

seemed to ignore the danger from the 

V1 and V2 bombs falling on London 

and never took cover when many others 

sought shelter. One lucky escape occurred 

while in his hotel elevator when 

the building was struck by a bomb. The 

elevator fell some 40 feet but recovered 

to rise again. When Nick got out on his 

floor, he found the place full of dust and 

smoke and all the doors had been blown 

off their hinges. 

Lurking in the Tromsø fjord in 

northern Norway, was the German 

pocket battleship, the Tirpitz. The warship 

threatened the vulnerable convoys 

from North America to Murmansk in 

northern Russia that were guarded by 

Royal and U.S. naval ships in the most 

inhospitable winter weather conditions 

and with the constant threat of U-boat 

and air attacks. In fact, the Tirpitz only 

came out of her anchorage a couple of 

times but the mere threat of her was 

enough for the allies to send an inordinate 

number of surface ships to protect 

the badly needed supplies getting 

through to Russia. Various attempts had 

been made to sink the Tirpitz using 

conventional bombing and even by 

midget submarines but all had failed and 

the threat remained. 

The 617 Squadron was called on to 

bomb the Tirpitz using 12,000-pound 

“tallboy” bombs for which a near miss 

would be sufficient to damage the ship 

permanently. Nick was one of the pilots 

who tested the tallboy bombs and performed 

dangerous test flights – taking 

off and landing Lancaster bombers on 

short and inadequate runways while 

weighed down with the bomb and the 

extra fuel needed for the trip. 

Adding to the difficulty of the mission 

was that the Tirpitz was out of 

range of the heavy-laden bombers so 

they had to fly to northern Russia to 

refuel. The airfields in Russia were hardly 

suitable for the heavy-laden bombers 

and the Russians were not entirely truthful 

about their radio guidance system 

and weather reports. The attack on the 

ship was carried out after a three-hour 

trip and the crews then had to return to 

Russia to refuel for the 12 1/2-hour trip 

back to their airbase in Scotland. On 

arrival in Russia, Nick got lost and landed 

on a disused runway, but he managed 

to become airborne and join the rest of 

the bombers – although not after first 

hitting a fir tree the top of which 

wedged itself in the plexiglass nose of 

the Lancaster. 

Unfortunately, the first attack failed 

to sink the Tirpitz and although badly 

damaged, she was still considered to be 

seaworthy. It was later learned that she 

had been so severely damaged it took 

some nine months to repair her. This 

was Nick’s last mission with the 617 

Squadron. (Although a subsequent raid 

on the Tirpitz was scheduled and this 

time the mission was successful – she 

rolled over and sank on 12 November 

1944.) 

After the war, Nick taught for 25 

years, including his two years in the 

Peace Corps. On retirement he helped 

children of Mexican descent and was a 

counselor in the California prison system. 

All his life he championed the 

cause of less privileged kids. Nick died 

on 1 June 2012. He never married. 

Andy Philpot was a VSO volunteer in Nigeria 

from 1965 to 1967. After emigrating to 

Canada, he and his wife, Anne, taught in 

Zambia for three years. After returning to 

Canada he spent the next 25 years teaching 

chemistry. Andy joined the FON board in 

2001 and served as FON newsletter editor for 

five years (2002-2006). He left the board 

briefly but was called back to run the VSO 

project scheme for some five years. Andy finally 

left the FON board in 2017. 

A Brighter Future 


more than 400 children, five to eight 

years of age! A playground is under construction 

and we offer scholarships to 

older children to attend boarding school 

for secondary education. 

Next men and women alike requested 

that we teach them to read and write. 

Today, our adult education program has 

93 participants and a small library of 

English and Swahili books. The teaching 

staff of six has recently attended teacher 

training in Arusha. Education has become 

available to all. 

Our growing complex of buildings 

now includes a Health Center with an 

operating theater and medical wards, 

residences for medical staff and teachers, 

and a power line for electricity from 

the grid. The buildings have officially 

been handed over to the district government, 

which supplies the staff and medications. 

Our non-profit continues to 

oversee the operation of the clinic and 

augment the salaries of many staff in 

order to maintain the quality of medical 

care and educational opportunities. 

The people of Olmoti are a community 

of shared interests, a true village. 

They still struggle in their harsh environment 

but enjoy good health and vastly 

improved education for both children 

and adults. 

With clean water, sanitation, health 

care, and schools, which they can call 

their own, the people of Olmoti look 

forward to a brighter future. 

For further information: olmoticlinic.org 


The Arts 

FIFTY-FIVE YEARS STUDYING AND TEACHING 

NIGERIAN ART 

[Editor’s Note: This article introduces 

Sara (Kinkel) Hollis, the newsletter’s 

new Arts Editor. Her qualifications for 

the position will become obvious when 

you read her article.] 

by Sara (Kinkel) Hollis, (10) 64-66 

My fascination with Nigerian art 

began while I was a Fine Arts major at 

California State University Long Beach 

PCV Sara (Kinkel) Hollis 

in the early 1960’s. When I first saw 

photographs of the Benin Bronzes, I 

decided that I would later like to do my 

master’s thesis on that subject. Shortly 

after I graduated, I visited the campus 

and mentioned to one of my former 

professors that I wanted to live outside 

the country for a while. She told me that 

the Peace Corps was recruiting on campus 

and suggested I go down and talk to 

them. The rest is history. I was accepted 

and became part of Nigeria 10 which 

trained at Teachers College, Columbia 

University in New York City. Although 

I had not requested Nigeria as my country 

of service, I really wished to go 

where the Benin Bronzes were made. 

And – lo – Joanie Kral, (10) 64-66, and I 

were stationed at Abraka in what was 

then the Midwest Region, sixty miles 

from Benin City! 

Every chance I got, I visited 

craftsmen/women, markets, and especially 

museums. I loved the museum in 

Jos, all that glass and amazing art. And 

of course, the Nigerian National Museum 

in Lagos, which at that time included 

art from all over Nigeria, as well as 

another museum in Abeokuta, where I 

was also able to visit galleries. I spent 

most of my free time in Benin City, 

where I was befriended by Chief Ovia 

Idah, Court Artist to Oba Akenzua II, 

who received permission to show me 

examples of his work not only in front 

of the Oba’s palace and along the outer 

walls, but also inside the palace. He also 

showed me his many works on public 

buildings. And he made sure I saw 

where for centuries 

all those beautiful, 

historical 

bronzes were 

made in the same 

location on Oba 

Market Road and 

to talk to the head 

caster. I promised 

Idah that I would 

write a book about 

him when I returned 

home. 

Some years later I 

made good on 

that promise at 

Indiana University 

by making him the 

subject of my 

master’s thesis: 

Idah–Artist of Benin, 

Court Art and 

Personal Style. Phil 

Peek, (11) 64-66, 

wrote an article 

about Chief Idah published in the Winter 

2019 issue of the FON Newsletter. I 

am now motivated to scan my thesis 

and make it available digitally. 

The Government Teacher Training 

College at Abraka was an interesting 

place to teach. Our students did their 

practice teaching in local elementary 

schools where we observed them by 

peering through the school’s windows. 

When I returned to California, I taught 

for two years at Good Hope Elementary 

School in Perris, California, where in 

1968 I met film actor Clarence Muse 

and his Jamaican wife Ena. Clarence was 

at that time in Daktari, a TV series set in 

Africa about a veterinarian, and had 

recently played an African elder in the 

movie Buck and the Preacher. He was fascinated 

that I had been a Peace Corps 

Volunteer in Nigeria. So, a distinguished 

African American actor added African 

American history, culture and art to my 

already-developed interest in Africa. 

Chief Idah at doors of Benin Divisional Council Office Building – photo 

by Sara Hollis, 1965 



The Arts 

FIFTY-FIVE YEARS STUDYING AND... 


Students viewing Nigerian art at New Orleans Museum of Art 

Around that time, I discovered Frank 

Willett’s book Ife in the History of West 

African Sculpture. I was inspired to write 

him and ask if I could study with him. 

He replied and said that he was headed 

back to Ife to do additional research but 

instead recommended I apply to Indiana 

University where I could study with 

Alan Merriam and Roy Sieber. I accepted 

his advice and was accepted into the 

doctoral program there in Cultural Anthropology 

and African Studies. I completed 

all the courses I could in African 

art and cultures. After two years, I wrote 

the promised thesis about Idah and was 

granted a master’s degree. I was recruited 

to teach at Bishop College in Dallas, 

Texas, an HBCU (Historically Black 

Colleges and Universities), to take part 

in an African American Studies curriculum 

development program. I taught in 

this program for three years and then in 

1973 moved to Southern University at 

New Orleans (SUNO) to teach in the 

same program. I have mostly remained 

at SUNO for more than 40 years. The 

whole idea of the program was to teach 

African and African American materials 

in the first two years of college. I married 

composer Roger Dickerson and we 

had one son, Roger Dickerson (aka DJ 

Raj Smoove), who this September appeared 

on the cover of the magazine 

OffBeat, which is published here in New 

Orleans, distributed nationally, and 

available online. 

At SUNO, I first taught in the Department 

of Fine Arts, Philosophy and 

Music. Shortly after joining the faculty I 

met Jean Kennedy Wolford, who, when 

she and her husband lived in Lagos, 

began to exhibit the work of Nigerian 

artists in their home. When they relocated 

to Washington, D.C., these artists 

began mailing 

their works to her. 

She installed over 

a hundred exhibits 

of their works 

throughout the 

U.S. in all kinds 

of venues, including 

SUNO. We 

stayed in touch 

until her death. 

She taught courses 

about contemporary 

African 

artists at San 

Francisco State 

University and 

published the 

book, New Currents, 

Ancient Rivers, about the artists and 

their works, which was published by the 

Smithsonian Press. 

Later at SUNO, I chaired the committee 

that formed the Center for African 

and African American Studies. I 

have always been interested in curriculum 

development. I designed and taught 

the courses: African Art; African Literature; 

African Humanities; and African 

American Humanities. I attended Atlanta 

University in 1981 through 1985; 

wrote my dissertation, African American 

Artists–A Handbook; and earned my doctorate 

in Humanities and African American 

Studies. By 1985 almost nothing 

had been published in that area except 

by Dr. Samella Lewis, who pioneered 

the field. I first met her visiting her galleries 

in Southern California. Later I got 

to know her better during her visits to 

New Orleans. Dr. Stella Jones, owner of 

Stella Jones Gallery has continually exhibited 

contemporary African artists at 

SUNO. 

In 1991, SUNO began to acquire 

traditional African art from a number of 

donors, most prominently Dr. William 

Bertrand, who has given the university 

more than two thousand pieces of art. 

While most are from Congo (formerly 

Zaire), there are several pieces from 

Nigeria. Our collection has been exhibited 

in many venues. At last, we have 

ample museum space in our new Arts 

and Humanities building, which replaced 

our former building ruined by 

Hurricane Katrina. We are presently 

working to finish the interior of this 

museum. We have moved out of the 

trailers we occupied since our campus 

was ruined by the floods following 

Katrina into four new buildings. 

In 1998, I suggested to our administration 

that we petition the Louisiana 

Board of Regents to add a graduate program 

in Museum Studies. After four 

years and the help of many faculty 

members and directors of museums and 

arts organizations in New Orleans, it 

was finally approved. We have graduated 

125 students. Only one other museum 

studies program exists at another 

HBCU. We encourage anyone wishing 

to diversify their museum staff to contact 

us for recommendations. 

At SUNO I served at various times 

as Chair of Fine Arts, Music and Philosophy, 

Director of the Museum Studies 

M.A. Program, Curator of our African 

Art Collections, and Dean of the School 

of Graduate Studies. I am now happy to 

serve as simply Professor of Museum 

Studies. My responsibilities include 

teaching: Studies in African Art; History 

of Art of the African Diaspora (which 

includes traditional, contemporary African, 

and African American Art); and a 

few other courses; as well as supervising 

master’s projects and museum internships. 

I am very happy with our current 

Director, Dr. Haitham Eid, originally 

from Egypt. He holds a doctorate in 

Museum Studies from the U.K., is quite 

a scholar, and is very effective at connecting 

with the national and interna- 



The Arts 

FIFTY-FIVE YEARS STUDYING AND... 


tional museum field. Our program is 

available on campus and online. I have 

always been happy teaching at Southern 

University at New Orleans. Our student 

body is almost totally drawn from New 

Orleans, which is the most African city 

in the United States. This is 

amply demonstrated in the 

various African American museums 

here, at the New Orleans 

Jazz Festival, and of 

course Mardi Gras, at which 

local culture is well represented. 

It is appropriate that the 

celebration of 25 years of Robert 

Farris Thompson’s Flash of 

the Spirit was held at the Ogden 

Museum here in New Orleans. 

The new Curator of African 

Art at the New Orleans 

Museum of Art is from Benin 

City in Nigeria, Dr. Ndubuisi 

Ezeluomba, whose Ph.D. is 

from the University of Florida. 

He also teaches as an adjunct 

professor in our program. He recently 

brought two Nigerian art professors to 

our campus and works closely with Dr. 

Clyde Robertson, Director of our Center 

for African and African American 

Studies, to coordinate activities between 

the museum and our campus. 

I strive to keep in touch with my 

artist self, so I have had several group 

and one-person shows of my work over 

Jimoh Buraimoh exhibition at Southern University at New Orleans, 

artist far right, Sara Hollis center 

the years. I recently had a retrospective 

of my drawings starting with my teenage 

years and extending to the present. Included 

in the exhibition was a drawing 

of Joan Kral that I did in our home in 

Abraka, and drawings of PCVs in training 

in New York. I have also exhibited 

watercolors and art quilts. 

I was inspired by Nigerian art even 

before I had the opportunity, through 

Peace Corps, to live and travel 

there and observe so much 

of the country’s art and artists. 

And I’ve been honored 

to meet many Nigerian artists 

passing through New Orleans, 

including Nike Davies- 

Okundaye, Jimoh Buraimoh, 

El Anatsui (who, although 

born in Ghana, has done 

most of his work and teaching 

in Nigeria), Tunde 

Afolayan Famous, Tayo 

Adenaike, Adewale Adenle, 

who graduated from our program, 

and many others. 

Sara Hollis can be contacted at: 

drsarahollis@gmail.com 

Nigerian Universities – Then and Now 

by Peter Hansen, (27) 66-68 

During the Peace Corps years of 

most of us, Nigeria had only five universities: 

University of Ibadan (established 

in 1948); University of Nigeria, Nsukka 

(1960); Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria 

(1962); University of Ife (now Obafemi 

Awolowo University), Ile-Ife (1962); and 

University of Lagos (1962). Nigeria’s 

university environment today is very 

different. 

According to Nigeria’s National Universities 

Commission (NUC) – 

nuc.edu.ng/ – a quasi-governmental 

body under the Federal Ministry of Education, 

Nigeria now (01-July-2019) has 

170 approved universities – of this number, 

43 are federal universities, 48 are 

state universities and 79 are private universities. 

Most of the growth in the number of 

approved universities occurred in the 

last 20 years, during which an additional 

129 universities were approved. Private 

universities accounted for most of these. 

Nigeria had no approved private universities 

until 1999 when three were approved. 

They were Babcock University, 

Ilishan-Remo (45 miles northeast of 

Lagos), affiliated with the Seventhday 

Adventist Church; Igbinedion University, 

Benin City, owned by billionaire, 

philanthropist and prominent Benin 

Chief, Gabriel Osawaru Igbinedion; and 

Madonna University, campuses in 

Akpugo, Elele and Okija (all in southeastern 

Nigeria), Nigeria’s first Catholic 

University. 

The NUC executive secretary reported 

that in 2017, only 19 percent of the 2 

million students who applied for admission 

to Nigerian universities were accepted, 

with about 30 percent either 

going abroad or pursuing vocational 

studies. He added that one million students 

were denied admission not because 

they had failed their exams, but 

because there was not the capacity to 

admit them. 

At the time of this report (2018) the 

NUC was processing 292 applications 

from institutions seeking approval as 

private universities. However, he qualified 

this by stating that many of these 

institutions were small and specialist 

institutions, such as private medical 

schools and creative arts colleges. 


Nigerian History 

Anthropology as a Measure of the Strength of Democracy 

by Phil Stevens, (07) 63-66 

Anthropology in Colonial Nigeria 

and the Early Years of Independence 

I became a cultural anthropologist 

because of my Peace Corps experience 

in Nigeria. After coursework at Northwestern 

University I returned to Nigeria 

for my doctoral dissertation research, 

1969-1971. I returned frequently for 

shorter projects over subsequent decades. 

A crowning highlight of my career 

came when I was invited to write the 

Foreword to the Proceedings of the 

2016 annual meeting of the Pan African 

Anthropological Association (PAAA), 

held at Nnamdi Azikiwe University in 

Awka. Preparation to write that piece 

required researching the history of anthropology 

as a field of study and as a 

profession in Africa, with specific focus 

on Nigeria, and offered me the opportunity 

to reflect on my career. It became 

evident to me that the establishment of 

anthropology as an academic discipline 

in Nigeria is an indicator of the strength 

of democratic institutions in that nation 

and that this conclusion is probably 

valid elsewhere in the world. Here, I’d 

like to discuss how I came to that conclusion. 

First, I am talking about cultural anthropology. 

In the American system, the 

academic discipline of anthropology 

covers four fields: physical or biological 

anthropology, which includes primatology 

and human evolution; linguistic anthropology, 

mainly the relationship between 

language and culture; anthropological 

archaeology; and cultural anthropology. 

In the U.K., Europe, and Nigeria, 

anthropology means cultural anthropology, 

or ethnology, only. The other 

sub-fields are offered separately or are 

contained within other departments. 

In the early fall of 1968, I was admitted 

to Ph.D. Candidacy in Anthropology 

at Northwestern University. I passed my 

advanced examinations with honors, 

and my dissertation research proposal, 

“Values in Modernization among the 

Bachama of Nigeria,” had been awarded 

fellowship support. But Nigeria was 

engaged in a civil war (War of Biafran 

Secession). My application for a visa 

seemed to have hit a wall. Finally, in late 

summer my visa was approved, a very 

unusual 10 months after the application 

was submitted. 

The long delay in approval of my 

visa application was puzzling. My research 

site was far from the war zone, 

and its focus was local. But American 

popular sentiment favored Biafra so that 

was likely a factor. I learned later that 

the chief federal immigration officer was 

a Bachama man! I also learned later that 

another RPCV anthropologist, Phil 

Peek, (11) 64-66, had an experience very 

similar to mine, the following year. His 

research proposal received no response 

for a long time; and he learned that a 

reason was that his research plan had 

positioned the Igbo centrally in the development 

of his theoretical orientation, 

and that was interpreted as actively supportive 

of Igbo. Phil also had serendipitous 

help; he told me that Michael 

Crowder personally intervened and negotiated 

his research clearance. Crowder 

(1934-1988) was a distinguished Africanist 

historian with appointments at 

several Nigerian universities in the 

1960s and 1970s (and a friend of the 

Peace Corps; he participated actively at 

my orientation in New York in 1963, 

and at others). 

I suspected, however, that in my case 

and in Peek’s, some other sentiment was 

operating. Through the 1960s and 1970s 

anthropologists in Nigeria and elsewhere 

in Africa shared a sense that they 

were largely personae non gratae in the post 

-colonial era. I recall such discussions at 

meetings of the African Studies Association. 

One reason was clear: anthropology 

was seen as a colonial enterprise and 

anthropologists as agents of colonial 

governments. And, in the proud spirit 

of independence, anthropologists were 

seen as students of the “primitive.” Getting 

rid of this label for their subject 

matter was also a priority in Europe and 

America. But also: in the post-colonial 

era, anthropologists were seen by autocratic 

governments as threats because 

they lived among the people, interacted 

closely with them and recorded their 

sentiments, and because of their professional 

status and foreign connections, 

they had a ready and possibly influential 

audience. They were considered potentially 

subversive. 

Anthropology as Subversive 

There is some precedent for this 

sentiment. Over its history the conduct 

of anthropology has generated ambivalent, 

if not downright negative sentiments, 

among both its subjects and host 

governments. Some colonial governments 

established the position of Government 

Anthropologist, ostensibly to 

enable officials to know the people better 

and thus govern more fairly. Such 

specialists generally had some training 

and tried to be fair and objective in their 

ethnographic work. My research in Adamawa 

benefited greatly from the material 

collected by C. K. Meek (1885-1965) 

in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Anthropologists 

working in the southern 

areas had access to the work of P.A. 

Talbot (1877-1945); and R.S. Rattray 

(1881-1938) was an influential government 

anthropologist in southern Ghana, 

particularly for the important kingdom 

of Ashanti. But even officials of the 

governments who hired them were ambivalent 

toward them. They lived spartan 

lives, quite contrary to the luxury the 

colonialists enjoyed; and some British 

openly criticized them as undermining 

the respect due to colonial officials toiling 

in the African “bush.” One government 

official described them to Phil 

Peek as “a rum bunch in sandals.” This 

reminds me of the curiously disdainful 

way some American Rockefeller Foundation 

expats spoke of Peace Corps 

Volunteers at a cocktail reception given 

by the American Consul in Ibadan in 

1964. 




Anthropology as a Measure of the Strength... 


Ethnologists employed by the Bureau 

of American Ethnology of the 

Smithsonian Institution from 1879 to 

the middle of the 20th century served 

similar roles among native tribes – and 

generated similar suspicions. Governments 

have also recognized a potential 

military intelligence role for field anthropologists. 

The US government program 

called Project Camelot sought to employ 

various social scientists in 1964-65 to 

investigate social processes in foreign 

areas, particularly South America, to 

enable the U.S. Military to engage more 

successfully in counterinsurgency 

measures. Anthropologists and others 

protested, and the program was declared 

ended after one year; though many suspected 

that it continued clandestinely. 

Project Camelot was a major impetus to 

revisions in the American Anthropological 

Association’s code of ethics, particularly 

to emphasize that anthropological 

information was for the good of all humanity, 

and anthropologists were not to 

divulge their findings to some, to the 

exclusion of others; and especially, that 

anthropologists must take pains to ensure 

that their data is not used by one 

group for the exploitation or subjugation 

of another. More recently, in Iraq 

and Afghanistan in 2005, again confronted 

by insurgencies, the Army recognized 

that as well as 

knowing the physical 

terrain, in order to negotiate 

with local people, 

they should also know 

the “human terrain,” i.e., 

culture. In 2005 they 

established the Human 

Terrain System (HTS), 

proposing to “embed” 

anthropologists among 

front-line troops, to 

advise them on nuances 

of local culture in order 

to avoid potentially serious 

cultural misunderstandings 

(of which 

there had been many), 

which strengthened the 

insurgency. The program caused great 

controversy and debates on ethics and 

the potential militarization of anthropological 

data. The Army declared the 

program ended in 2014. 

For later researchers, the work of 

government anthropologists during the 

colonial era was invaluable. But for the 

subject people, the colonial government 

was likely viewed as the aloof and uncaring 

usurper of traditional structures and, 

indeed, as agent of the destruction of 

culture. For the people of a kingdom 

like Bachama, whose leader was divinely 

appointed, the usurpation of his role 

was especially demoralizing. 

Adamawa State, in Nigeria’s northeast, 

is ethnically among the most heterogeneous 

regions in all Africa. It includes 

dozens of small autonomous 

societies with very different social and 

political systems, different languages, 

and varying sentiments toward one another. 

The kingdom of Bachama, a centralized 

and previously militaristic society 

straddling the Benue River and controlling 

the deep-water port of Numan, 

was the most powerful of the several 

societies within Numan Division. Since 

the turn of the 20th century the people 

had known various types of Europeans, 

including British colonial administrators, 

river traders dominated by the John 

Holt company, and Danish Lutheran 

missionaries, mainly medical personnel 

Phil Stevens interviews Bachama elders, 1970 

and teachers. Anthropologists were a 

new type, for which the people had no 

conception. Some were suspicious. History, 

however, is important to the people, 

and all were sadly aware that their 

children, seeking a liberal Western education, 

were likely to grow up ignorant 

of their own histories. The fact that I 

was there to record their histories and 

render them permanent in “book” (boko 

or boku, the Pidgin word for writing and 

for Western education) was at first welcomed. 

But history validates political 

claims, and the story spread that I had 

been hired by the Bachama to record 

their version of local history. My proposed 

values study could not be completed 

in the time I had, and fortunately 

the topic I chose for my dissertation 

research required investigations among 

the neighbors of the Bachama, and I 

was able to spend significant time 

among the others and alleviate their 

concerns. 

Anthropology in Independent 

Nigeria 

Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nigeria’s Governor 

General at Independence in 1960, then 

President of the First Republic, 1963-66, 

had earned an M.A. in anthropology at 

Penn in 1934. (It was fortuitous that the 

2016 annual conference of the PAAA, 

whose Proceedings I was invited to introduce, 

was held at the university that 

bears his name.) Anthropology 

was offered 

at the first two Nigerian 

universities, both established 

before independence 

– Ibadan 1948, 

and the University of 

Nigeria, Nsukka 1955. 

But very few other educational 

institutions 

offered anthropology, 

until the era of democracy 

in the 2000s. From 

1983 to 1999 military 

governments ruled. The 

last of these was the 

especially brutal regime 

of Sani Abacha, 1993- 




Anthropology as a Measure of the Strength... 


1998. During his rule, anthropologists 

were especially uneasy. It’s important to 

note that very nearly all anthropologists 

in Nigeria were foreign. Their data went 

home with them, was published in their 

journals to be shared among their colleagues 

and was used to advance their 

careers. Any applications of anthropological 

data to improve the lives of African 

peoples were made to development 

programs constructed from outside by 

the great philanthropic foundations and 

government agencies like USAID. 

An important exception was the late 

Victor C. Uchendu, Professor of Anthropology 

at the University of Illinois, 

who also received his doctorate from 

Northwestern, and whom I had met at 

various meetings of the interdisciplinary 

African Studies Association. He was 

quite distinguished by then, having published 

a very successful college-level 

ethnography of his Igbo people, and 

several other scholarly works. In 1978 as 

Chair of African Studies at SUNY, Buffalo, 

and host of the annual meeting of 

the New York African Studies Association, 

I invited Uchendu to deliver the 

keynote address. I conversed with him 

about anthropology both as an academic 

discipline and as a basis for policy formation 

in Nigeria. We agreed that the 

administration of such a heterogeneous 

nation would surely have benefited from 

anthropological input in the last years of 

colonial administration and the early 

years of independence; and we regretted 

the fact that in spite of Azikiwe’s training 

in the field, anthropology was scarce 

in university curricula. Uchendu was 

able to witness its blossoming, but not 

its fruition; he was murdered during his 

campaign for mayor of Umuahia, Abia 

State, in December 2006. 

The governmental anti-anthropology 

sentiment continued into the new millennium, 

but as democracy took root, 

anthropology expanded as an academic 

discipline. Today 74 universities in Nigeria 

teach anthropology either within 

departments of sociology or in combined 

departments of sociology and 

anthropology (12 universities use this 

option). The University of Ibadan is 

unique in having the only department 

that combines anthropology and archaeology. 

Because of its great heterogeneity 

and the intense and often violent squabbling 

among so many of its ethnic units, 

Nigeria from its beginning till today has 

been called “ungovernable.” The numerous 

different societies in Nigeria 

vary greatly in language, social and political 

structure, ecology and values. Anthropologists 

know well that the resolution 

of inter-ethnic conflict must start 

with details of culture; and they are the 

only professionals trained to understand 

and describe cultural systems. Successful 

diplomacy and negotiation depend on 

an understanding of cultural differences. 

It was fortuitous that the theme of the 

2016 PAAA conference was “Conflict 

Resolution.” 

There are now many hundreds of 

anthropology students and graduates in 

Nigeria. Every one of them did some 

field work for their major theses, a treasure 

trove of cultural data with important 

potential for national social and economic 

development. Many anthropology 

graduates would like to apply their 

special insight into cultural factors in 

ethnic conflict. Such a unique army of 

eager and dedicated minds has immeasurable 

potential for Nigeria’s future. 

Now, of course, to make applied anthropology 

viable and effective requires 

funding, and that requires acceptance 

and active support by Nigeria’s politicians. 

Everyone knows what a challenge 

that is. But for now, I can say, in the era 

of autocratic governments, anthropology 

was anathema; the simple fact that 

there are so many qualified African Africanist 

anthropologists today is an indicator 

of the increasing solidity of Nigeria’s 

democratic institutions. 

Phil Stevens first taught English at Ahmadiyya 

Grammar School, Ibadan; he then extended 

his tour to pursue work at the Esie Museum, 

in Kwara State. This led to museum enhancements, 

publication of The Stone Images of 

Esie, Nigeria in 1978, and an honorary 

chieftaincy title (Erewumi of Esie) in 2012. 

Phil retired this year from the Department of 

Anthropology at the University at Buffalo, 

SUNY, after 48 years. He is the recipient of 

two awards for excellence in teaching, and author 

of many publications in anthropology and 

African studies. He is grateful to anthropologists 

Phil Peek, and P-J. Ezeh of the University 

of Nigeria, Nsukka, for their input. He 

may be contacted at: pstevens@buffalo.edu 

Do You Know a Peace Corps Kid? 

Julie Early Sifuentes, founder of the NPCA affiliate group Peace Corps Kids, is looking for people and families to participate 

in a book project. Julie, whose father served in Peru in the 60’s and whose mother is Peruvian, started Peace Corps Kids 

one year ago. The group is building community among multicultural people and families who have come together through 

their Peace Corps experiences. The group has grown rapidly and already has members with family roots in 20 countries. 

The book will be a compilation of essays, interviews and photos that reflect how people and families celebrate the joys and 

navigate the challenges of multicultural identities and families. You can see some examples of these stories at 

www.peacecorpskids.com. 

Please contact Julie at julie@peacecorpskids.com if you have any questions or are interested in participating. 


In Memoriam 

[Editor’s Note: The obituaries that follow 

were edited by Ray Carpenter, (25) 66- 

68, our new Obituary Editor. He has a 

B.A. in Economics and Accounting 

from the University of Arkansas, a J.D. 

from the Emory University Law School, 

and has completed graduate work at 

Harvard’s Business School. As a PCV, 

Ray served in Kaduna with the Ministry 

of Community Affairs as a manager of 

the Cooperative Union of Northern 

Nigeria. Ray is a tax specialist. He 

worked with Price Waterhouse and retired 

as a tax partner from Holland & 

Knight in 2009. Currently, he maintains 

a small law practice and teaches corporate 

law. Please send obituaries, death 

notices or questions to: 

rpcarpent@gmail.com] 

Jean E. Boyd, (17) 65-67 

Jean Elizabeth Boyd, a dedicated 

learner and educator, passed away 

peacefully at her home in Tulsa, OK, on 

August 1, 2019, at the age of 75. 

Jean was born on October 31, 1943, 

in Royal Oak, MI. She received her B.A. 

(1965) and M.A. (1968) degrees from 

Michigan State University. As a Peace 

Corps Volunteer, she taught history and 

geography at St Mary Magdalene's 

School for Girls in Ashaka (Northern 

Nigeria). Her assignment ended prematurely 

because of the Biafran War. Jean 

and a group of RPCVs returned to visit 

Nigeria in 2008. 

Jean spent most of her professional 

career teaching at George Washington 

Carver Middle School in Tulsa. She 

served as a docent at the Gilcrease Museum 

and was a volunteer at the Philbrook 

Museum of Art. Jean’s calm and 

quiet manner provided a comforting 

presence to her family and friends. She 

developed close friendships in her book 

club and the women of her writers’ 

group. Jean will be missed by her family, 

friends and all who knew her. 

[Source: Tulsa World] 

Frank E. Brockman, (02) 61-63 

Frank was born August 29, 1939, in 

Philadelphia, PA and passed away 

peacefully at his Congress Street home 

on Wednesday, July 10, 2019. 

Frank earned a Ph.D. from Cornell 

University and worked as an agronomist 

for the International Institute of Tropical 

Agriculture. His career as an agronomist 

spanned several continents and 

included projects in Tanzania, Nigeria, 

Burkino Faso, Democratic Republic of 

Congo, North Korea and other countries. 

He was also a visiting scholar at 

Oxford University, England. 

After his service in the Peace Corps, 

Frank served in the United States Navy 

1965-1968 as a Lieutenant JG. 

Frank is survived by his wife of 51 

years, Elvira (Viggiano), his three children, 

nephews and grandchildren. 

[Source: Ness-Sibley Funeral Home, 

Trumansburg, NY] 

Edward M. Brynes, (20) 66-67 

Edward “Ned” Byrnes, died suddenly 

on Friday, June 30, 2006, while visiting 

family in Colorado Springs, CO, at 

the age of 65. 

Ned was born October 21, 1940, in 

Butte, MT. He graduated from Butte 

High School in 1959 and from the University 

of Utah with a B.A. in Social 

Work. He later received a master’s degree 

in Social Work. 

After serving in the Peace Corps, he 

worked as a social worker in Indian 

Health Services at Cass Lake, MT; Pine 

Ridge, SD; and in Social Services at Columbus 

Hospital in Great Falls, MT. He 

also taught social work at the University 

of Wyoming, Laramie, WY. 

He is survived by his wife of 24 

years, Helen (Zuhoski), their three 

daughters, and a host of grandchildren, 

family and friends. 

Ned had just returned from New 

Orleans where he had twice volunteered 

in the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort. 

He loved being able to help others and 

he loved his wife and family. 

Ned will be sorely missed by his family, 

friends and all who knew him. 

[Source: The Montana Standard, Butte, 

MT] 

George P. Clarke, (03) 61-63 

George Preston Clarke was born on 

October 12, 1932, in Beloit, WI, during 

the Great Depression. He passed away 

on August 15, 2019, at the age of 86. 

He graduated from Milton College in 

Milton, WI, after serving in the Army. 

In 1961 he joined the Peace Corps and 

was trained at UCLA. He was in one of 

the first Peace Corps groups and taught 

secondary school in Arochukwu, Nigeria 

for two years. 

Upon his return to the states he 

joined the Consumer Products Safety 

Commission. Later he became an overthe-counter 

drug compliance officer for 

the FDA and reviewed applications for 

new drugs before going to market until 

he retired in 1995. 

In retirement, George could be 

found visiting with grandchildren, family 

and friends in Maryland and Cincinnati. 

George’s wife of 50 years, Gail, predeceased 

him in 2017, as did his two 

brothers and their parents. He is survived 

by his two daughters and two 

sons, numerous grandchildren, friends 

and other family. 

[Source: Donaldson Funeral Home, 

Laurel, MD] 

Daniel P. Conroy, (30) 67-69 

Daniel Paul Conroy was born on 

November 28, 1944, in Akron, OH. He 

died on August 27, 2019. He was the 

fifth of seven children born to Joseph 

and Olga Elison. He graduated from 

Walsh College in North Canton, OH in 

1967. In the Peace Corps he taught secondary 

school science in Maiduguri, in 

Northern Nigeria. 

Daniel is remembered as an anti-war 

activist, who participated in numerous 

marches and demonstrations of the 70s. 

He was a long-distance runner, an avid 

reader, a world traveler – he hitch-hiked 

across Africa and Europe and lived for a 

time in Mexico and Jamaica. He was 

also an amateur astronomer. 

Daniel became a member of the 

Founders of Great Vow Zen Monastery, 

upon his return to the U.S. where he 

served for a number of years. He will be 

fondly remembered by the Zen community 

of Oregon. 

[Source: The Chief, Clatskanie, OR] 



In Memoriam 

In Memoriam 


Michael Adam (Hryhoryszyn) 

Gregory, 07, 63-65 

Michael was born in St. Paul, MN, 

and passed away on September 5, 2019. 

Michael graduated from St. Thomas 

University with a B.S. and Harvard University, 

with a masters in English. In the 

Peace Corps he taught English in Enugu, 

Eastern Nigeria, and later, in other 

cities in North Africa and Asia. 

When Michael returned to the states, 

he continued to teach English at the 

college level in the Washington, D.C. 

area and, he worked for the Census Bureau 

in Minneapolis. Michael was known 

for his playful sense of humor and will 

be missed by his family and friends. 

[Source: Kessler & Maguire Funeral 

Home] 

Mary S. Grummon, (staff) 61-62 

Mary Elizabeth Swanson Grummon 

was born April 15, 1923, in Jamestown, 

NY. She passed away peacefully on December 

10, 2012 in East Lansing, MI. 

Mary earned a degree in philosophy 

from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1945 

(and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa) and 

a master’s degree in psychology at the 

University of Chicago in 1947, where 

she met her husband, Donald Grummon. 

For 30 years they lived in East 

Lansing, where Donald was on the faculty. 

The family moved to the University 

of Nigeria, Nsukka, where Mary and 

Donald ran an administrative project for 

the Peace Corps and raised their family. 

Upon their return to the states, Mary 

earned an educational specialist degree 

from Michigan State University, and 

became a school psychologist for the 

rest of her professional career. She retired 

in 1983. 

Mary is survived by one brother, two 

sons, Mark and David, and seven grandchildren. 

Mary will be missed by her 

network of friends, those she worked 

with at the symphony and its public 

radio studio, and her Ohio Wesleyan 

Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority sisters. 

[Source: www.findagrave.com] 

Millard Hayes Jr, (25) 67-68 

Millard Hayes, Jr., age 75, passed 

away on September 15, 2019, in Nashville, 

TN after a short illness. Millard, a 

native of Nashville, graduated from 

Pearl High School, for nearly a century 

the most prominent black high school in 

Nashville, in 1961, and from Tennessee 

Agricultural & Industrial State University 

(now Tennessee State University) in 

1966. After graduation he joined the 

Peace Corps. 

During his 50-year residence in St. 

Louis, for 38 years, until his retirement, 

he worked at Famous Barr, a prominent 

St. Louis department store. In 1993, he 

was ordained an itinerant elder in the 

African Methodist Episcopal Church 

and served as a pastor in the Missouri 

Annual Conference. 

Millard was preceded in death by his 

parents and two brothers, and is survived 

by his wife, Rev. Brenda J. Hayes, 

and three sons: Millard (Jenai) Hayes III, 

Brandon J. (Natasha Clay) Hayes and 

Grant T. Hayes, as well as two sisters, 

two brothers, two grandsons, and numerous 

aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews 

and other relatives and friends. 

[Source: The Tennessean, Nashville, TN] 

Ervin R. Hobbs, (12) 64-67 

Major Ervin R. Hobbs, 43, and his 

wife Karen M. Hobbs, died on July 27, 

1986, in a crash of their private plane 

near Willow, AK. 

Hobbs was born on March 2, 1943 in 

Anaconda, MT. He was a graduate of 

Montana State University with a B.S. 

degree in General Studies. 

He served in the Peace Corps in 

Kofare, in northeastern Nigeria. He 

joined the U.S. Air Force in 1968 and 

volunteered for two years in Vietnam. 

He earned the Distinguished Flying 

Cross and the Air Medal with two oak 

leaf clusters while flying missions in 

Vietnam and Cambodia. Later he served 

as a liaison officer to the Royal Canadian 

Air Force. For five years he was a 

volunteer pilot for the Iditarod Race 

Committee, ferrying food and supplies 

along the sled dog trail. 

Major Hobbs was survived by his 

two daughters, Erika Lee and Heidi Kay 

both of Anchorage. 

[Source: Anchorage DNews and 

www.findagrave.com] 

Ed Holmes, (staff) 66-66 

Edward Alonzo Holmes, Jr. was 

born June 6, 1925, in rural Washington 

County, GA, and passed away peacefully 

on August 12, 2019. 

He received his undergraduate degree 

from Mercer University in Macon, GA, 

and later a divinity degree and a Ph.D. in 

history from Emory University in Atlanta, 

GA. 

Ed served as the Midwest Regional 

Director of the Peace Corps. Later he 

served as founder of the Overseas Development 

Office of the Episcopal 

Church, which helped establish libraries, 

hospitals and refugee programs in many 

areas of Africa. In Liberia he was the 

dean of a private university, creator of a 

rural farming development program, 

and a grants administrator for the International 

Foundation. 

Ed was a naval aviator during World 

War II, and a chaplain in the Naval Reserves, 

where he served until his retirement 

as a commander in 1972. Up until 

the last decade of his life, he remained 

an enthusiastic pilot. 

Ed was an lifelong athlete who loved 

competing in track and field and other 

events. He was inducted into the Emory 

University Sports Hall of Fame. He 

loved doing things that made the world 

a better place and worked well into his 

80s. He traveled the world, meeting and 

encouraging people and helped fund 

projects in health, education, and humanitarian 

assistance. 

He is survived by his wife, Shirley 

Miller Holmes and seven of his nine 

children. 

[Source: Episcopal News Service] 

Carol Schneckloth Martin, (06) 62-64 

Carol was born an only child in Davenport, 

IA. When she trained for the 

Peace Corps in New York, it was her 

first time out of the state. She was post- 



In Memoriam 

In Memoriam 


ed to Holy Child College, a Catholic 

high school in Lagos, where she taught 

math and lived in a cottage on the campus. 

Carol was a gifted pianist and became 

an accompanist for the Festive 

Players, a group of expatriate performers 

of light opera in Lagos. There she 

met and married her partner for life, 

Keith, a baritone and bank manager. 

They served in a number of places including 

Dakar, Senegal and Dacca, 

Bangladesh. Because she had no family 

in the states, Carol never returned to the 

U.S. except for very brief visits. 

Carol and Keith lived in Kings Lynn, 

Norfolk, England until she passed away 

in hospice care on June 25, 2019. She 

left no survivors. 

[Source: Greg Zell, (06) 62-64, by way 

of neighbor and caregiver Josie Barnes] 

James M. McNamara, (staff) 66-68 

James Michael McNamara was born 

in St. Paul, MN, on July 20, 1937, and 

raised in Milwaukee, WI. Jim attended 

Marquette University High School and 

earned both a B.A. and M.B.A. at Marquette 

University. He met and married 

his wife of 53 years, Melanie Rohr 

McNamara, during this period. 

Jim served as Deputy Director of the 

Peace Corps in Lagos. Two of his children 

were born in Nigeria. 

In 1979, he and his family settled in 

Trumbull, CT, where he worked in consumer 

products sales for forty years and 

as a financial advisor for twenty years. 

Jim was fond of recalling his first jobs 

during his youth, delivering newspapers 

and selling hot dogs at Milwaukee 

Braves games. He was a volunteer at 

King Catholic Church, where he was a 

frequent lector, eucharistic minister, and 

a member of the church finance committee. 

In addition, he volunteered with 

the Knights of Columbus and the 

American Red Cross, where he was a 

member of the “gallon club” for his 

blood donations. 

Jim died on August 10, 2019, after a 

brief but valiant bout with cancer. In 

addition to his wife, Melanie, Jim leaves 

four children, fourteen grandchildren, 

and numerous nieces, nephews, cousins 

and friends to mourn him. He is remembered 

for his dry wit and bear hugs, 

and his spirit of service to his family and 

community. 

[Source: Redgate-Hennessy Funeral 

Home] 

Mitchell A. Poling, (13) 64-66 

Mitch Poling died peacefully in his 

sleep of metastatic cancer, on Saturday, 

July 6, 2019, at his home in Port Townsend, 

WA. His wife, Sandra Smith- 

Poling and their two children were in 

attendance when he passed. 

He was born in Ketchikan, AK, to 

parents who were schoolteachers stationed, 

at various times, in native villages 

across Alaska. 

Mitch studied chemistry at the University 

of Alaska, Fairbanks and earned 

his B.S. at Stanford in 1964. He served 

in the Peace Corps in Ogwashi-Ukwu, 

Nigeria as a secondary schoolteacher. 

He earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry 

at the University of Washington in 1972. 

Mitch’s wife Sandra was a military 

physician which took them to several 

duty stations including a time in Germany. 

Upon their return to the States they 

took up residence in Seattle where their 

two children were raised. Mitch spent 

the next 18 years supporting his children’s 

sport and musical activities. He 

also conducted research on the lives and 

heritage of native Alaskans and travelled 

throughout Alaska recording life in photographs 

and arts classes. 

His love of the sea and boat building 

consumed much of his later years and 

he passed on his passion for canoe 

building in boat building classes in the 

Port Townsend, WA area, where they 

lived. The community has lost one who 

had an abiding love for the arts, culture, 

and the history of the native northwest. 

[Source: Peninsula Daily News, Port Angeles, 

WA] 

Barbara JC Struble, 18, 65-67 

Barbara Jeanne Coulston Struble 

passed away peacefully on June 13, 2019 

with her husband by her side. She was 

born on August 14, 1943, in San Diego, 

CA, to Jeanne and Dick Coulston. She 

grew up a true beach girl in Manhattan 

Beach, CA, where she also graduated 

from Mira Costa High School. She 

earned a B.A. in English from San Jose 

State University, while later completing 

an M.A. and a Ph.D. in archeology at 

UCLA. 

Barbara served in the Peace Corps in 

Eastern Nigeria and became fluent in 

the Igbo language. Upon her return to 

the U.S. she married a U.S. naval officer, 

Arthur Dewey Struble III, an aerospace 

rocket and aircraft engineer in 1976, and 

moved to Reno, NV, where she raised 

her family. She led a full and fruitful life 

as a lifelong Girl Scout and camper; 

guide and counselor at Camp Curry in 

Yosemite National Park; math, science 

and English schoolteacher; and staff 

archaeologist at sites in England, Mexico, 

Greece, Italy, the La Brea Tar pits 

and throughout the high deserts of Nevada 

and the Great Basin. 

She survived more than 10 years of 

cancer treatments at Stanford University 

and in Renown Hospital, in Reno, NV. 

She is survived by her husband of 43 

years, one son and one daughter, two 

sisters and numerous friends and family 

members. She will be remembered as a 

true inspiration to those lucky enough to 

have known her and call her friend. 

[Source: Reno Gazette-Journal] 

Addison H. Verrill, (13) 64-67 

Addison Verrill, Jr., was born August 

11, 1941. He passed away on September 

14, 1977, at the age of 36. Addison was 

a movie industry film critic for Variety 

Magazine, a graduate of Princeton University 

in 1963, and a Peace Corps Volunteer 

in Achina in Nigeria’s Eastern 

Region. 

Newspaper accounts revealed that 

Addison was killed by an intruder in his 

New York apartment, which had been 

ransacked, and police suspected robbery 

as the motive for the killing. He was 

survived by his parents who reside in 

Hamden, CT, as well as a brother and 

sister. 

[Source: www.findagrave.com/] 


Nigeria News 

[Editor’s Note: The following is Vivian 

Ogbonna’s first submission as our 

newsletter’s new Nigeria News Editor. 

Vivian started writing in February 2014. 

Her short story, A Ball of Thread, was 

published in Roses for Betty, the 2015 

Anthology of the Writivism Literary 

Initiative. Looking for the Badge of Honour 

was published in Daughters Who Become 

Lovers, a Writivism-Afridiaspora Anthology. 

Her nonfiction piece, A Long Way 

From Home, was short-listed for the 2017 

Koffi Addo Prize for Creative Nonfiction, 

and published in Enkare Review. 

A Place Within was published in Bonus 

Edition, Jalada 05: The Fear Issue. Other 

writings by Vivian have been published 

in The New Black Magazine, Sahara Reporters, 

Premium Times, My Mind Snapps, Olisa.tv, 

and Dugwe Magazine. Vivian interviews 

survivors of the Nigerian-Biafran 

War and documents their stories on 

mybiafranstory.org.] 

by Vivian Ogbonna 

Presidential Candidate 

Arrested 

The presidential candidate of the 

African Action Congress in the February 

2019 election, Mr. Omoyele Sowore, 

was arrested on August 3 by operatives 

of the Department of State Service 

(DSS) for calling for a revolution in 

Nigeria through #RevolutionNow protests 

which were to be held across Nigeria 

on August 5, 2019. In a July video, 

Mr. Sowore listed the credibility of the 

February elections, corruption, and oppression 

as some of the reasons why 

Nigeria needs a revolution. He said, 

“We don’t want war. We want a very 

clean, quick, succinct revolutionary process 

– surgical. That we put an end to 

the shenanigans of government, that put 

an end to oppression and the corruption 

of government.” 

The Public Relations Officer of the 

DSS, Mr. Peter Afunanya, said the 

planned protest was a threat to “public 

safety, peaceful co-existence, and social 

harmony in the country.” On August 6, 

the DSS filed an application to detain 

Mr. Sowore for 90 days while they carried 

out investigations. A federal high 

court, on Thursday, August 8, granted 

the agency the permission to detain him 

for 45 days, ruling that the detention 

order was renewable after the expiration 

of the first 45 days on September 21. 

Sowore’s arrest and detention 

sparked a lot of debate over the word 

“revolution” especially as it has been 

used in the past by notable political figures 

to urge Nigerians to action. They 

include Tunde Bakare, running mate to 

President Muhammadu Buhari during 

the 2011 presidential election, who, on 

April 3, 2016, called for a revolution to 

correct what he termed “leakages in 

government.” Also, the national leader 

of the All Progressive Congress, Bola 

Tinubu, on September 29, 2014, made a 

similar call in a statement titled, “A return 

to decency.” And, during an interview 

on November 30, 2018, the presidential 

candidate of the Young Progressives 

Party in the 2019 presidential elections, 

Kingsley Moghalu, called for 

young people to, “rise up for a revolution 

in 2019.” None of these individuals 

were arrested and detained by the Department 

of State Security. (Source: The 

Punch [Lagos], 8/4/19; Saharareporters.com, 

8/7/19; The Guardian [Lagos], 

8/8/19) 

Nigeria’s #MeToo Movement 

The #MeToo movement seems to 

have taken off in Nigeria with Biodun 

Fatoyinbo, Nigeria’s Gucci Pastor and 

founder of COZA – Commonwealth of 

Zion Assembly – being accused of rape 

by Busola Dakolo, wife of popular Nigerian 

singer, Timi Dakolo. Busola had 

accused the pastor of raping her before 

she turned 18 – the first time at her parents’ 

home and the second on a lonely 

road. She also said she lost her virginity 

to him. 

Angered by these accusations, Nigerians 

protested on social media using the 

hashtag #IStandWithBusola. Others 

took their protest to the church’s premises 

in Lagos and Abuja. Busola has 

been lauded for her courage in a society 

where patriarchal attitudes – in homes, 

in religious spaces, in the workplace, and 

even within the government, including 

the arms charged with law enforcement 

– often stigmatize victims of sexual 

abuse. In her own words, “Our culture 

doesn’t allow speaking of these sorts of 

things against anointed men of God. 

They’d rather hide it, and the party that 

is victimized tends to live with that selfblame. 

The damage to the survivor is 

terrible. The society, the church, keeps 

sweeping things under the carpet.” 

Her allegations received a push back 

from the flamboyant pastor who, 

through a letter delivered by plain 

clothes men from the office of the Inspector 

General of Police, accused her 

and her husband of criminal conspiracy, 

falsehood, mischief and threat of life. 

Busola told The Guardian, “One was 

holding a gun, and I noticed a second 

one holding a letter. They told me they 

were from the IG’s [Inspector General 

of Police] office in Abuja and that I 

needed to sign this letter.” 

Following the altercation with the 

police officers, her husband, Timi 

Dakolo posted on his Instagram page 

about the strange armed men at his 

house. This prompted a tweet from the 

wife of the President, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, 

“ATTENTION: INSPECTOR 

GENERAL OF POLICE 

#SayNoToRape 

#JusticeForRapeVictims 

#SayNoToIntimidation.” 

Lawyer and women’s rights advocate, 

Ayisha Osori, lent her voice to the debate, 

saying it was a “huge deal” to have 

an educated, public-facing woman speak 

out, with a supportive spouse alongside 

her, and would be looked upon as a 

milestone. (Source: The Guardian [UK], 

7/21/19; Vanguard [Lagos], 7/4/19) 

Police Clash with IMN 

July 22 was a bloody day in Abuja as 

the Nigeria Police clashed with members 

of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria 

(IMN), who were protesting the continued 

detention of their leader, Ibraheem 

El-Zakzaky. The Police claimed that 

protesters set fire to a unit of the National 

Emergency Management Agency 



Nigeria News 


building and destroyed two vehicles. But 

the spokesman of IMN, Abubakar Abdulrahman, 

said the fire was caused 

when gas canisters launched at protesters 

by the Police hit the building. He 

said the IMN lost six members in the 

clashes and many more were arrested. 

A Deputy Commissioner of Police 

and a journalist with Channels Television 

also died in the fracas. The police 

said it arrested 54 people in connection 

with the incident. (Source: edition.cnn.com, 

7/23/2019; 

www.aljazeera.com, 7/22/19; thenationonlineng.net, 

7/24/19) 

Nigerian School Girls Win in 

Silicon Valley 

On August 9, 2018, a team of five 

Nigerian girls won $10,000 in the Junior 

Gold Awards at the 2018 Technovation 

World Challenge. They competed with 

students from Spain, USA, Turkey, Uzbekistan, 

and China, who altogether 

submitted more than 2000 apps for the 

competition. The girls, whose code 

name is Save A Soul, are students of 

Regina Pacis College in Onitsha, Anambra 

State. Their real names are Promise 

Nnalue, Jessica Osita, Nwabuaku Ossai, 

Adaeze Onuigbo and Vivian Okoye. 

Their invention is called the “FD- 

Detector” [Fake Drugs Detector] which 

will help fight the problem of fake 

drugs. By scanning the barcode on 

drugs, the FD-Detector will be able to 

determine if a drug is genuine or not. 

The girls hope to partner with the National 

Agency for Food and Drug Administration 

and Control (NAFDAC) in 

the future. (Source: www.technext.ng, 

8/10/2018; Daily Trust [Abuja], 

8/13/18) 

Low Female Representation in 

Buhari’s New Cabinet 

On August 21, President Muhammadu 

Buhari swore in 43 ministers to 

serve in his second term. Some of the 

first-term ministers who were reappointed 

are: Zainab Ahmed (Finance, 

Budget and Planning ministry), Babatunde 

Fashola (Works, Power and 

Housing ministries), Geoffrey Onyeama 

(Foreign Affairs ministry), Rotimi 

Amaechi (Transport ministry), Lai Mohammed 

(Information ministry), and 

Chris Ngige [Labour and Productivity]. 

There are only seven women among 

the forty-three appointees. They are: 

Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, 

Budget, and Planning; Sharon Ikeazor, 

Minister of State for the Environment; 

Gbemisola Saraki, Minister of State for 

Transport; Ramatu Tijjani-Aliyu, Minister 

of State for the Federal Capital Territory; 

Sadiya Umar Farouk, Minister of 

Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management; 

Mariam Yalwaji Katagun, Minister 

of State for Industry, Trade and 

Investment; Pauline Tallen, Minister of 

Women Affairs and Social Development. 

Female politicians in Nigeria have 

criticized the APC-led government for 

the low representation of women in the 

cabinet. In Buhari’s second term, there 

are seven female ministers out of 43 

making up 16% of the total, and in the 

first term there were only six female 

ministers out of 37 also 16%. (Source: 

www.premiumtimesng.com, 7/24/19; 

Punch [Lagos], 8/21/19; Sahara Reporters 

[New York], 7/24/19) 

Xenophobia Attacks in South 

Africa 

Nigeria pulled out of the World Economic 

Forum in South Africa, after 

Nigerians were targeted, along with other 

foreigners, in deadly clashes across 

South Africa. Vice President Yemi 

Osinbajo was billed to address a panel 

on Universal Energy Access on Thursday, 

September 5. Nigeria also recalled 

its high commissioner to South Africa 

and sent a special envoy, Ambassador 

Ahmed Abubakar, the Director General 

of the National Intelligence Agency, to 

convey a special message to the South 

African President. The rioting which 

began on Sunday September 1, is said to 

have killed at least five people in Johannesburg 

and Pretoria. 

On Wednesday, angry mobs in Lagos 

attacked South African-owned companies, 

MTN and Shoprite prompting 

them to close their stores across the 

country. Following the crises, Air Peace, 

a privately-owned airline, offered to 

evacuate Nigerian nationals who wished 

to return to Nigeria. The Federal Government 

also announced it has made 

arrangements for voluntary evacuation 

of Nigerians who wish to return to their 

country. 640 Nigerians have registered 

to return and those who do not have 

valid travel documents will be issued 

new ones by the Nigerian High Commission. 

(Source: www.aljazeera.com, 

9/3/19; The Guardian [Lagos], 9/10/19; 

www.africanews.com, 9/10/19; Punch 

[Lagos], 9/2/19) 

Nigeria to Be Declared Polio- 

Free in 2020 

Nigeria will be declared polio-free by 

the World Health Organisation, WHO, 

in 2020. This is because no new case of 

Wild Polio Virus (WPV) has been recorded 

in three years. The last case of 

WPV in Nigeria was isolated in a child 

in war-torn Borno state on August 21, 

2016. Official “certification” of polio 

eradication will be conducted at the 

regional level by the Global Polio Eradication 

Initiative (GPEI). 

In the past few years, volunteers 

vaccinated some fifty million Nigerian 

children aged five and above. This was 

done through an effort of the Nigerian 

government with the Global Polio Eradication 

Initiative, a joint effort between 

the WHO, Rotary International, the U.S. 

Government, UNICEF and the Bill & 

Melinda Gates Foundation. (Source: 

Vanguard [Lagos], 7/24/19; Vanguard 

[Lagos], 8/21/19; Punch [Lagos], 

7/23/19) 

Three Nigerians Longlisted for 

the Man Booker Prize 

Three Nigerians have been nominated 

for the Man Booker Prize. They are 

Chigozie Obioma, Oyinkan Braithwaite, 

and British-Nigerian Bernardine Evaristo. 

Obioma’s nomination was based on 

his second novel, An Orchestra of Minorities, 

an epic story about determination 



Nigeria News 


and destiny. Oyinkan Braithwaite’s debut 

novel, My Sister, the Serial Killer, talks 

about the complex relationship between 

a glamorous fashion designer and her 

responsible older sister. Evaristo’s Girl, 

Woman, Other, is her eighth book and is 

the story of twelve mostly female characters 

who tell the stories of their families, 

friends and lovers across the country 

and through the years. The long list 

also features Margaret Atwood’s The 

Testament and Salman Rushdie’s 

Quichotte. The winner will be announced 

on October 14, 2019. (Source: Punch 

[Lagos], 7/27/19) 

Nigeria’s Most Popular 

Transgender on the Run 

The Nigerian Police, on August 31, 

2019, stormed the 28th birthday celebrations 

of Bobrisky [real name Idris 

Okuneye], Nigeria’s most popular 

transgender, causing him to flee and go 

into hiding. 

This happened days after the Director 

General National Council for Arts 

and Culture, Otunba Olusegun 

Runsewe, called him a national disgrace 

and threatened that he would be dealt 

with. He said, “He [Bobrisky] started by 

selling and using bleaching creams, now 

he has grown boobs, bums and hips. If 

Bobrisky is doing well with his immoral 

lifestyle, how do you convince Nigerian 

youth to do the right thing? Bobrisky 

has the right, but not within the Nigerian 

environment. There are others like 

him, but they live outside the country. If 

we don’t address Bobrisky as early as 

possible, he will form a team that will 

spread like wildfire, which will result in 

a lot of suicide cases because the typical 

Nigerian parent would not want to see 

their child become a Bobrisky.” Bobrisky 

had scoffed at Runsewe’s threats, 

saying that he rolls with Runsewe’s 

bosses. “I roll with the big boys in power,” 

he said on social media. (Source: 

www.premiumtimesng.com, 8/31/19; 

Vanguard [Lagos], 9/1/19) 

Leah Sharibu Is Alive! 

The Presidency, through its Senior 

Special Assistant to the on Media and 

Publication, Mallam Garba Shehu, has 

assured Nigerians that Leah Sharibu, the 

Dapchi Secondary School girl who was 

abducted by the Islamic State West Africa 

(ISWA) for not renouncing her 

Christian faith, is still alive. He reiterated 

the government’s commitment to 

return her and other hostages to their 

families. “We must commit to law and 

communication, using the breadth of 

strategies at our disposal: legal initiatives, 

stakeholder cooperation, the involvement 

of all relevant parties, and 

the use of the latest hostage negotiation 

techniques.” 

Fifteen-year-old Leah was abducted 

on February 19, 2018. (Source: Vanguard 

[Lagos], 8/31/19) 

Nigeria 22 Reunion 

L to R: Stuart Lewin, Alan Frishman, Debbie Losse, Gail Swantko Lamont, Ruby Stout (in front), John Losse, Mike 

Levine, Chris Clarkson, Dick Holmquist, Joel Wingard, Greg Jones, Cindy Wingard, Nat Ellis, Pat Ellis 

Not pictured: Tad McArdle, Nancy Schell (Chris Clarkson’s wife), Ronny Frishman, Barbara Jones and Bob Lamont 

Alan Frishman and Greg Jones organized 

a Nigeria 22 reunion in Austin, 

TX, on June 19, 2019, the day before 

the Friends of Nigeria annual meeting – 

14 RPCVs and five spouses attended. 

Alan put out a call for photos and 

stories of members’ time since Nigeria. 

He asked people to send them to all 

Nigeria 22 members. At the reunion 

they shared their photos and stories and 

John Losse showed 60 slides from his 

time in Nigeria. 

Nat Ellis challenged the group with a 

questionnaire covering the Nigeria 22 

experience. For example, “[During 

training at BU] what vivid video did Dr. 

Kantrowitz show us?” and “Which 

PCV had a donkey named Lugard?” 



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