St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1962-03-02
African Woman
Journalist Reports
US. Impressions

reslnental numbers are rushing
off to Africa and returning to
write down their impressions or to
relate them to eager newsmen.
We learn more about Africa this
way than through books written by
scholars who spend years in re-
search and observation.
Has it ever occurred to you that
Africans do the same? They come
over here, take a hasty look
around and go back home to write
or to be interviewed about Amer
lea.
Last summer, Theresa Ogunbiyi,
an African newspaperwoman from
Lagos, Nigeria came here for
tour sponsored by the State De-
partment. Then she went back
home and wrote the following in
Daily Express for which she works:
Since my arrival, people have
been asking me questions like:
How did you find America? What
was America like? Did you have
good time?" etc.
my answer to all these is: I
would like to go back again if I
had the opportunity. Yes, indeed,
made more friends in the short
period I was there (seven weeks
than would in three years here.
Hard To Convince
And yet to say that it was all
roses; that there weren't nasty in
cidents is not being quite truthful.
There were people you couldn't
convince, if you tried, that Africa
is progressing. They joyously lap
ped it up if they were told that
there are still mudhuts and that
ched roofs.
There were even some who be-
lieved that Africa is still the
BLACK" Africa of the jungle films
the Africa where people wear
war-like marks; cook human be-
ings in big black pots on open fires
and sleep on branches of trees.
There was the fellow for in
stance, who'd been to this country
I was in Kano and I toured some
parts of the North :" He told
me- He liked it very much here and
he would like to come again.
Then for the benefit of people
at the coffee table he said: But
it was pretty warm out there.
About 100 degrees rising up to 12O
degrees. I was so warm in the
nights. went to bed naked in my
room which was next door to the
Jungle"
HE had delivered the goods"
and very nicely too. 1.-THE JUNGLE"
chorused his listeners, shocked. I
didn't bother to contradict him.
didn't think he or the fools listen
ing to him were worth it.
Indeed, some people in Amer
lea still think that we have jungles
and of course, wild beasts.
DO you have many tigers and
lions in Nigeria" I was often
asked. Some refused to believe
when I told them that my first +
sight of a tiger or lion was the
London Zoo; they thought I was
pulling a fast one on them. And so
to satisfy the Savage" instinct of
the latter, I cooked up nice tales.
MY favorite one was obout two
Americans who were eaten" up .
by a lion in a hotel in Lagos. The .
Americans, I said, didn't know
that we Nigerians don't keep our
windows open at night. One even
ing, when it was unduly warm,
the poor Americans went to bed
with their windows open. In the
morning when the stewards
brought their cups of coffee they
found their bones on their beds.
But gave the game away one
day. Someone asked how we Nj
gerians managed to avoid being
mauled by the beasts. Easy" l
replied. 1--WE speak their language"
Everybody had a good laugh.
"African" Authorities Made Her
See Red
But the people that made me
see red were the authorities" on
African affairs. They were in hun
dreds at the UNESCO Conference
I attended in Boston; plaguing ev-
eryone with their "half-baked
knowledge of Africa. where do
YOU come FROM" a man asked and
when I told him, he replied: "Oh,
yes, 1 was in Nigeria for three
weeks in 1929. A lady was also
here in the Summer of 1960-for
two weeks. And yet both could tell
YOU all about Nigeria. They knew
so much about it that one insisted
that the North came into the Fed
Grafton only when they were prom
ised they wouldn't be forced to give
emancipation to their women.
And yet to say that these were
the only type met would be doing
America a great injustice. 1t would
be doing the Community Council
and the Junior Women's Club both
of Wheeling wv. Va.) a great in
justice.
It would certainly be unfair to
the Negro clubs of Cleveland and