Nigeria is such a diverse country it’s hard to comprehend.  It is possible to travel just a few minutes down the road and pass through several language areas.  After living in the Middle Belt for some time, one of our missionaries took her first visit to the South of the country and almost had culture shock all over again - it was so different!  The dry Savannah lands with friendly and relatively demure people groups are in extreme contrast to the flamboyant tropical south. In the south it has been know for someone to drive into your car on purpose – just because they didn’t like your driving!

Many people will disagree, but we think that Nigeria and Northern Ireland have similar cultures in many ways.  Once you get over the men in long dresses, the not-so-road-worthy vehicles, and the sheep, goats and chickens at every corner actually living in Nigeria, and relating with people is not so different.  Of course subjects of conversation and topics which are considered small talk are quite different but the sentiments are the same.  When you enter a shop in Ballymena; You greet the person and talk about the weather. In Nigeria you greet the person by asking how work is, and how their family is (the weather is pretty much a given!).  The words are different, but they achieve the same end – relationships.  Grasping the importance of people and relationships, especially in families is the key to living happily in Nigeria. 

One area of glaring difference between the two cultures however, is how to be polite.  In the UK you look someone straight in the eye if you’re speaking to them, any other behaviour would be considered suspicious.  In Nigeria however, eye contact can be considered arrogant or even aggressive.  In the UK if someone asks you out for dinner and offers to pay the bill, there is a long argument about who will pay, even though everyone knows who will actually pay in the end.  Coming from that culture it can be rather alarming – even offensive – to have your first offer to pay the bill accepted without question!

To Nigerians westerners seem brazen and blunt, to westerners Nigerians can seem overly assertive and without fear.  Our only real differences are what we are open and blunt about. Learning the ‘no-go’ areas of conversation can be tedious and embarrassing, but acquiring new freedoms in conversation is interesting and very entertaining!  For example, when our missionary Linda, goes to the market people shout names at her – various terms meaning white person or foreigner. She hates it.  In Northern Ireland she’ll probably go to a different market or simply suffer in silence.  After trying those ways for some time here and finding it was making her life difficult she went back to the same market.  When someone called her ‘bature’ or ‘oyinbo’ she shouted back at them, which took them by surprise and made them laugh.  This opened the way for plenty of banter.  Now she goes to the market, and if someone shouts at her she doesn’t have to say a word… someone else has already told that person “Don’t call her that - she’s a Nigerian, not a foreigner!”

There are many challenging things about living in Nigeria: market shopping is much less convenient than Tesco’s; water has to be bought in buckets instead of coming out of the tap; electricity is sporadic; and security is worrisome at times.  The best things about living in Nigeria, however, overcome the challenges.  People are fun, they love to laugh, they love drama and histrionics, they are free, friendly, and brutally honest.  Although this can make Nigeria daunting at first, it certainly means life is never boring. Nigeria is an endless sea of ‘the most happy people on earth.’