MamaPut’s Cook With Recycled Rim Stoves

I love street food. Everywhere I go, from street markets in Russia, to back alleys of Beijing to side streets in Skopje, to the boulevards of Bamako, I make it a point to eat as many meals from roadside stands as possible. Ghana and Nigeria are no exception. In fact, I love me a MamaPut.

Its only where Mama herself is there to put more of her good eats on your plate, that I really feel I’m getting a good meal. Why? Because I can see ever step of its preparation, talk with the chief personally, and share the transcending bond of food with my fellow man and woman.

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Ghana to Obama and America: Thank You!

Its hard to appreciate or underestimate the effect Barack Obama’s presidency has on Africans. That a black man, son of a Muslim Kenyan, is now President of the United States. Add in that he comes after the Bush years, which were seen as very arrogant, and his election was a watershed moment in American-African relations.

Now don’t even try to imagine the overwhelming pride of Ghana, a small West African, in being the first African country to host Obama after the election. Even walking among Ghanians after his visit, talking with everyone from taxi drivers to leading businessmen, I still can only glimpse at their happiness.

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Michael Jackson is Alive in Nigeria!

All those reports of Michael Jackson’s recent demise? Faked! The King of Pop is not dead, he’s now a King Cop in Abuja, Nigeria, directing traffic with the moves that made him famous. Doubt me? Then just watch this video:

Do you see those moves? That style and spin? There is only one person who has that Thriller move, those Billy Jeans – its him, Michael Jackson! Believe me or beat it!

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This Photo Almost Got Me Arrested in Lagos, Nigeria

So I am running along a random street in Lagos, when I see this poster put up to honor the Glorious Exit of Chief Ezekiel Ojo Alabi Farukan of Lagos Nigeria

Thinking its a beautiful way to honor death, I take a photo, and then I hear yelling. A Nigerian policeman is running at me screaming that I cannot take a photo and he needs to see my camera.

Yelling back, I tell him I am respecting the dead, and he should have more respect too. I then I show him what I am photographing, the poster. He demands to see my camera. Just before we were really going to get into it (I was not going to give up my camera) a woman got off a moped and jumped into the debate.

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Landing at Lagos Nigeria International Airport LOS

What does it look like to land at Lagos, Nigeria’s Murtala Muhammed International Airport (LOS)? For those who wonder, I made the following movie while my flight approached and landed just for your enjoyment.

I’m always amazed at the view – those endless shanties that spread out into the horizon. That all that humanity can live so close together. Its not the vertical living of Hong Kong, but Nigeria doesn’t have Asia’s organization either. All those people you see while approaching Lagos International are scrounging for a living in the midst of African chaos.

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