My better memory of Abuja, Nigeria

A whole building is devoted to meat sales in the Abuja market

News from Nigeria has been bad over the last few weeks. More than 200 school girls were kidnapped from a boarding school in the northeast of the country. And another bomb went off in Abuja, the nation’s capital. Nineteen people have been confirmed dead—and that’s on top of the 75 who died a few weeks ago in another explosion in the busy Nyanya bus station.

It’s especially sad because I have some affinity with Abuja. It’s a purpose-built capital city, like Canberra (my home) in Australia and Brasilia in Brazil. Plus a couple of years back, we spent about nine days in Abuja getting visas needed to continue our travels through Africa.

No shortage of things to buy

Created in the 1960s to replace Lagos as the capital, Abuja is a huge country town (rather like Canberra).

There’s no real town centre—which we were told was intentional—so there is no place for people to congregate for riots. That’s a disturbing premise for town planning. But the city’s urban spread clearly doesn’t protect the place and its residents from terrorist attacks.

My heart breaks for the people who have to live through this sort of violence, fear and trauma.

Luckily, my memories of Abuja are quite a bit tamer and cheerier. One of my most vivid recollections is of the huge market that was a longish taxi ride from where we were staying—camping in the ‘backyard’ of the Sheraton Hotel. More about that soon.

Notice the curved knife

Real tomatoes

Fresh produce

Plenty of greens

I visited the market three times in nine days and reveled in the marvelous array and excellent quality of foodstuffs I was able to buy. And the stallholders were so friendly, helpful and informative. Language wasn’t even a barrier. I bought a couple of items I didn’t recognise and, through miming, was able to determine whether it should be cooked or eaten raw.

Gwynne, one of our travelling companions, bought a pair of tennis shoes—a little large but still okay—and Poor John bought a couple of aprons because he was tired of getting food and soot all over his clothes every time it was our turn to cook.

All is forgiven

I unwittingly managed to irk one of the butchers. I visited the meat section on a day that wasn’t our cook group’s turn to make dinner. I told one of the butchers that I’d be back and buy from him on ‘my day’.

Of course, a few days later I wandered up and down the aisles but couldn’t spot him, so started to buy from someone else. Obviously, my foreign face was pretty easy to recognise and my original butcher chased me down (I was a few aisles away) before I spent my money in the ‘wrong’ place. Butcher no. 2 wasn’t very happy, but you can’t please everyone.

The opportunity to shop in local markets is one of my favourite tasks on an overland truck trip. We’re organised into cook groups, and take turns shopping and preparing meals. While I’m glad I don’t cook for a group every day, I could visit a farmer’s market every day. In fact, I try to food shop almost every day wherever I am.

What are your shopping habits?

P.S. If you are a food lover, be sure to visit my cooking escapades.

Shoppers inspect a small table of fish for sale