Dr Adebisi Laja Germany-based Nigerian medical doctor talks
about his life in Europe since arriving in Liverpool in
June 1954 in an exclusive interview with Femi
Awoniyi. Dr Adebisi Laja, 77, first arrived in Europe in Jun e 1954, when he disembarked a ship in Liverpool
that brought him from his native Lagos. In October
1958, he moved to Germany to study medicine and
he’s been living in the country since them. Doctor, as he’s popularly called by his African
associates, narrates the interesting story of his very
eventful life; he talks about life in Europe then and
now, why he spends his retirement in a small
western German town of Lindenfels rather than in
his native Lagos and he offers Africans living in Europe some wise words.

TAC: When did you first come to Germany?
Dr Laja: I came to Germany in October 1958 from
England.
How long did you stay in England?

I lived in England for four years. Actually, I left
Nigeria in June 1954. "When I started studying in Cologne, advertisements for room vacancies at the AStA (student advisory office) carried remarks such as KA (Keine Auslaender for No Foreigners) and KN (Keine Neger for No Nigga...)."
Why did you leave Nigeria?
At that time, we had only one university, the one in
Ibadan. And there’re only five secondary schools in
Lagos with so many eligible pupils. Imagine that I
had to wait for three years to gain admission into
Lagos Grammar School after my primary school. So I
was determined not to waste time after my secondary school. That’s why I decided that I
would like to travel to the UK to further my
education. And luckily, my mother was a customer of one
Alhaji Elias, a textile trader in Lagos, who was the
brother of Dr Teslim Elias, then a lecturer at Oxford
(Dr Elias was later to become Nigeria’s Attorney
General of the Federation and Chief Justice of the
Federation; he’s also said to have drafted the charter of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963)
. My mother told Alhaji Elias that I wanted to travel
out. He said his own two sons, who were then in a
secondary school, had also said that they would
like to travel out for their education. Hence, he had
written to Dr Elias to look for a school for his
children in the UK. My mother asked Alhaji Elias to ask his brother to help me too. In fact, I went to
England with the two children of Alhaji Elias.

Why did you choose to come to Germany?

After I finished my High School Certificate in
Dundee, Scotland, in 1956, I wanted to study
medicine, but I didn’t get a place at the university.
At that time, because Britain had a lot of colonies,
there was an admission quota for each colony at
the universities and especially for courses like medicine. Hence, competition for admission was
very tough. Because of that I wanted to go to the
Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in Surrey, where
all officers in the British Army were trained, to
become a military officer. So, I went to my guardian, Dr Teslim Elias, to inform
him of my decision. He objected to it and advised
that I study law. But I didn’t like law and I told him
so. For the next two years, I practically was doing
nothing until a friend of mine suggested that we
should go to the continent, that is, mainland Europe. We just looked at the map and chose
Germany. So I went to the library to find out about the
universities in Germany. I then wrote to Hamburg,
Berlin, Cologne and two or three other universities.
I got admission into all of them. I then looked at the
map to see which of the universities was closest to
England and that was Cologne. So that’s how I got to Cologne.


Were there many Africans in Germany then?

No, not many. There were about 30 Africans
when
I first came to Cologne - Nigerians, Ghanaians, some
Congolese and others.

How was life then?

The main problem was the language. I came with
the friend from England, a fellow Nigerian, and we
started studying medicine at the university, but it
was very difficult because we didn’t speak a word
of German. So, in January 1959, I went to the
Goethe Institut in Gothenburg for 8 weeks to learn German. My friend returned to Glasgow in 1959
after only one year in Cologne - he was able to
secure admission in a university in the UK. I then returned to the university in Cologne. I
successfully went through the first two semesters.
It was not a problem. However, I failed the
Physikum, the exam you take after 5 semesters,
twice. This was because I still had problems with
the language. In courses like chemistry, physics and botany, you
could still manage because the names, formulas
and the units are international. However, in
physiology, if you’re not very good in German you
can’t do well in it. That’s why I failed the exam
twice. This meant I had to withdraw from the university.

It must have been a very difficult time?

Yes, I roamed about for some time. Although I
enrolled for economics at the university, I didn’t
attend classes. I didn’t want to study economics but
I had to be enrolled in a university to be able to stay
in the country. At that time, if as a foreign student
you dropped out of the university, you had to leave the country. I wrote to my parents and explained the situation
to them since they sent me here to study medicine.
They were not happy because they were sending
me money to study medicine so that I could come
back home as a medical doctor. They asked me not
to disgrace the family and ensure that I find another university where I could study medicine.
Otherwise, they would not send me money again. Fortunately, I met a Congolese man here in Cologne
who told me that there were opportunities for
studying in East Germany. You know, at that time,
the government of East Germany was giving
scholarship to students from Africa. He told me he
could help me because he had some influence in East Germany. So, in 1964, he took me to East
Germany. We first went to Leipzig from where I was
sent to Rostock where I studied medicine. I finished
my studies in 1969 after 5 years. The Berlin Wall had been built at that time.

Didn’t you have problems going from East to
West and back?

No. During the holidays, I was coming to the West
to visit my wife and children. As a foreigner, there
was no problem to travel between the two
countries. But you had to register with the police to
get a visa for re-entry before travelling out.
Whenever I wanted to travel to the West during the holidays, I would tell the authorities in the East that
I was going to London. "Most of our people don’t take the pension seriously enough. But pension is very important so that you can live with dignity in old age. " How was your time in East Germany? It was nice. The government made sure that
foreigners living in the country were treated well.
For example, at the university canteen, the food we
foreign students were served was better than what
was served to their own people. This was propaganda to make sure that when the
students go back to their home countries, they
would only speak well of East Germany. But that
policy created animosity in East Germany towards
foreigners. Perhaps that explains the anti-foreign
sentiments there after the fall of the Wall. What was it like to secure a job after
graduation? At that time, my first wife was working in Koblenz,
West Germany, as a sports teacher in a Gymnasium
(secondary school). So, she had told some of her
colleagues and pupils that her husband was
coming back and would be looking for a job. The
father of one of her pupils took me in as a doctor in a surgery in a small town near Koblenz. I worked
there for one year. After a year, I moved to the Pathology Department
of a big hospital in Koblenz. The head of the
department was a Professor Luetrach. He was like a
father to me. He was a very nice man. He asked me
if I wanted to do my doctorate in Pathology. He
gave me a doctorate thesis to write. He sent me to Bonn since he was formerly a professor in Bonn. He
told me that it’s important to have a doctorate
because a time could come when there would be
so many doctors in Germany that hospitals would
start looking for those with doctorates. That was
how I did my doctorate in Pathology. After that I left Koblenz, I went to a hospital in
Kirchellen, near Bottrop. I worked there for three
years. I was very lucky. When did you first travel back home? It seems
that until now you’ve not returned home. In 1971, I travelled to Nigeria, for the first time since
I left in 1954. I took my daughter Modupe with me.
My parents told me they would like me to come
back home to settle down. And I agreed with them. What was your impression of Nigeria when you
got home? After all, you had not been there for
17 years. I was shocked. Things were totally different from
the way I left them. I spent only 18 days at home.
Then we came back to Germany. But then my wife
wanted us to go and live in Nigeria. Why did your wife, a German, want you to go
back to Nigeria? Anne was fantastic, she was adventurous. She was
curious and was really anxious to experience life in
Nigeria. I told her that I didn’t know how life in
Nigeria would be. So, I got an undertaking from the
state government of North Rhine-Westphalia that I
could come back to the country. Why did you need the paper? At that time, if you were married to a German, you
had to renew your residence permit every year. So
if you leave the country, it was not automatic that
you could return. It was the SPD-led federal
government under Willy Brandt that changed the
law to the effect that foreigners married to Germans are permitted to stay indefinitely. The SPD did a lot
for foreigners in Germany. How was the journey back home with your
family? My wife and children went to Hamburg and they
took a ship to Nigeria. Why travel by sea? Couldn’t they have
travelled by air? Yes, but we had a lot of things that we were taking
to Nigeria. So it was better to travel with ship. They
spent three weeks at sea. I left two weeks later by
air to wait for them in Lagos. How was living at home after such a long time
away? I got a job at the state hospital in Lagos. But I had
problems because you couldn’t work the way you
worked in Germany. When you’re supposed to start
work at 8 am, most people came in at 10 am! When
you complained, they said that’s how it’s done
here. Then, I was paid only 250 naira, at that time about
1,000 deutsche marks, per month. But the money
was not enough; it couldn’t even pay the rent in a
decent part of Lagos. You know Lagos is a very
expensive city. However, I was lucky because a rich
uncle of mine, who had died, left behind a big house in Ikeja GRA (a highbrow area of Lagos) and
his young wife could not live alone in the house.
She invited me and my family to live with her. All my colleagues would wonder how I could
afford to live in such an expensive place. At that
time, more than 70 per cent of those living in Ikeja
GRA were Europeans. There were also some
Germans among them. I knew that I couldn’t live in the big house forever.
And I had to pay 700 naira per term for my children
in the private German school that they were
attending. Although my mother helped us
financially, I was no longer comfortable with life at
home. After fifteen months, I decided that we had to return to Germany. And the first task was to
convince my wife. Didn’t she want to go back to Germany? No, she loved Nigeria so much. It’s a different
Nigeria; not the one of today. Life was good for her, too. Although Nigeria was good at that time, why
did you leave? I couldn’t afford to live the kind of life I loved to live
there. They didn’t have good teachers in the public
schools; I paid 700 naira for my kids in the private
school. I was able to manage for sometime because
we doctors were doing illegal things to earn extra
money. For example, by giving sick leave to people who were not sick but were ready to pay. But I
wasn’t comfortable doing things like that. Did you have to apply for a re-entry visa to
Germany? Yes. My wife took the paper I was given before
leaving Germany to the German embassy in Lagos
to inform them that I wanted to return. They said I
would be given a visa if I had a job. So, I wrote to the last place where I had worked,
the hospital in Kirchellen, which sent me a telegram
that I could come back and resume work
immediately. That’s how I came back to Germany. Wasn’t it difficult readjusting to life in Germany
again? When we returned, my wife was no longer happy.
We later had differences in the marriage which
made us decide to divorce. Our two children
suffered because of the situation. I was not happy
because I wanted my children to have a good
upbringing. I had to pay so much. It later became too much for me and after some years, I felt like
returning home again. Meanwhile, I had met and
married my second wife, Ursula. Did you attempt to return home again? Yes. In 1983, I went to Nigeria for two months to
look for a job and I got one at the Ministry of Health
in Ogun State. But they told me to go back to
Germany so that they could check the genuineness
of my certificates after which they would send me
an employment letter. I therefore waited and waited for the letter which
didn’t come for a long time. When the letter from
Nigeria finally did arrive, I went to my boss and said
that I wanted to go to Nigeria. He asked why I
wanted to go back because the military was now
ruling the country with all the problems. I therefore decided to stay. In 1990, I was offered the position
of an Oberarzt (Senior Physician) in a hospital in
Winterkasten, where I worked until my retirement. What changes have you noticed in Germany
since you came to the country in 1958? My 42-year-old son, Adeyinka, a dentist who runs
his own private clinic in Duesseldorf, was here with
his wife on 26 December. We were discussing. They
sat here and my youngest son, Bisi, who is about to
finish his medical studies in Heidelberg, sat there.
And Adeyinka told Bisi that much had changed in Germany; that Bisi surely did not experience what
he experienced in school. Truly, much has really
changed in the country. Are you saying that the attitude of society has
changed much compared with for example, the
early 1980s? Yes, it has improved and it’s still getting better.
When I started studying in Cologne, advertisements
for room vacancies at the AStA (student advisory
office) carried remarks such as KA (Keine
Auslaender – No foreigners) and KN (Keine Neger –
No Niggers). Once, I was looking for a room and the landlord forgot to indicate that. So I went with a
German friend of mine. When he saw us and
realised that I was the one looking for a room, he
said: “I don’t want that one,” rudely pointing to me.
I was mad, confused and asked myself “Am I not a
human being?” Did you have problems with your doctor
colleagues in the places that you worked? At all the places where I worked, I got on well with
patients and colleagues. Except a case of a doctor
who said he didn’t want to work under me when I
was made a Senior Physician in Winterkasten. In
fact, patients preferred to go to a foreign doctor
because they know you will keep their secret since you’re not from the community. I also have a thick skin. If you said anything to me
which I didn’t like, I allowed it to pass out of my
second ear. I didn’t dwell much on it. Why? Because
that is the way I’m simply made. And when I faced
rejection anywhere I always tended not to link the
reason for the rejection with my colour. That attitude helped me a lot. In the past, many Africans turned crazy because of
racism and even had to be sent to psychiatric
homes or back to their countries. This was not only
in Germany, but also in England. Most Africans in the Diaspora dream of spending
their retirement in their home countries. But you
have chosen to stay in Germany. Why? I’m so used to living in Europe that it has become
home for me. If you leave your home country for a
long period of time and you go back, you’ll not find
the place the same because you’re no longer the
same person yourself. Anytime I go to Nigeria, after
a few days of being there with no electricity and the traffic jam, I feel like going back to Germany. That is
the human experience. There are also Europeans who live in Africa and
don’t want to come back to Europe. I know a Swiss
woman who is rich and lives in Lagos. In fact, she
even has to take money from her assets in
Switzerland to pay the staff of the travel agency she
runs in Nigeria. I asked her once Why do you do this to yourself? Why don’t you go back to
Switzerland? And she replied: “Dr Laja, I can no
longer live in Europe.” What is your advice to Africans in Europe? If you’re working here, the pension scheme is very
important. A majority of our people don’t take the
pension seriously enough. This is important so that
you can live with dignity in old age. Another important thing: there are always
opportunities to make it despite unemployment in
the country. Young people must strive hard to
make something out of their lives. This is very
important. It doesn’t help complaining all the time
about problems. I have a friend who has been living here for more
than thirty years but he keeps complaining all the
time that I once asked why he hasn’t left Germany. I
think it’s important to have a positive attitude
towards the society for your own sake. If you look back at your life, what verdict
would you give? I’ve enjoyed everything. I have no regrets. If I were
to be born again, I would do it the same way again.

www.theafricancourier.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=433:my-life-in-europe-since-1954&catid=121:diaspora&Itemid=813

Enjoyed every bit of d interview....

I enjoyed it.

Inspiring!

@ all that viewed and commented.thankz to u guyz

Nice write up!

he still is a second citizen.

if others who have being successful had stayed behind,

Will they be known.what's inspiring about this.no contribution to the growth of your father's land

its not by force to contribute to any fatherland, he is contributing to humanity already!

souleymon: he still is a second citizen.

if others who have being successful had stayed behind,

Will they be known.what's inspiring about this.no contribution to the growth of your father's land

The man is fulfilled and has achieved all he set his heart to achieve. That, my friend, is inspiring. Talking about contributing to the growth of one's fatherland, I'm tempted to ask you what contribution(s) you've made to the growth of your fatherland?

Whoa, this is a very interesting and inspiring story. Goodluck to the old man
and his children.

chukxie:

The man is fulfilled and has achieved all he set his heart to achieve. That, my friend, is inspiring. Talking about contributing to the growth of one's fatherland, I'm tempted to ask you what contribution(s) you've made to the growth of your fatherland?

I might not have the millions

I am total naija, have at least two staffs..that little is a contribution man.


why would I spend those years abroad and still want to die there.. , when I can be more meaningful to my country of birth

souleymon:


I might not have the millions

I am total naija, have at least two staffs..that little is a contribution man.


why would I spend those years abroad and still want to die there.. , when I can be more meaningful to my country of birth

To each his own

souleymon: he still is a second citizen.

if others who have being successful had stayed behind,

Will they be known.what's inspiring about this.no contribution to the growth of your father's land

father land indeed

Fiver: its not by force to contribute to any fatherland, he is contributing to humanity already!

yes u re ryt.....if u try too much in 9ja ur lyf is @ stake.....our system is down and i dont think anyone wld lay down his innocent lyf that wont change anything

souleymon:


I might not have the millions

I am total naija, have at least two staffs..that little is a contribution man.


why would I spend those years abroad and still want to die there.. , when I can be more meaningful to my country of birth

u are entitled to ur own opinion,diff stroked for diff folkz

chukxie:

The man is fulfilled and has achieved all he set his heart to achieve. That, my friend, is inspiring. Talking about contributing to the growth of one's fatherland, I'm tempted to ask you what contribution(s) you've made to the growth of your fatherland?

help me ask am ohh,i hate a country wia hardwork doesnt pay,wia corruption,ritual killings,unemployment,fraud,road accident,robbery,wia plane crash is an act of God,wia u buy 2 bulletproff vehicle for N225m,*weda na james bond edition who knowz* is d oda of d day....even if my palie na bill gate i wld leave this country.
If the above man in question resides in 9ja,he wld be dead by now

souleymon:


I might not have the millions

I am total naija, have at least two staffs..that little is a contribution man.


why would I spend those years abroad and still want to die there.. , when I can be more meaningful to my country of birth

just lastweek more than 5000 student graduated from unilorin,abeg u wan give them job,i be graduate,no job ohh,i sabi bizness no capital and i cant rob,family dont want to help,make i kill myself,i go kon get visa i go sit down abi.....lol

many cousins of mine are living their 36th yearz in usa,living a fulfilled life,they only come to oja @ most for a month,then run back,they intended to settle down,but d system is corrupted,their properties are locked down in abuja worth 80milla *kuje ind. Estate* they just av to go back.....i love 9ja but i dont see a brigther future of the coming generation,just few month ago one of them left for canada to study nursing and after that she is entitled to a work permit,if to say i no go school u for talk say i be illiterate na him no make me get job,but i am graduate @ 21 still looking for job and i didnt study yeye cousre ohh *enviromental health and safety technology*

souleymon: he still is a second citizen.

if others who have being successful had stayed behind,

Will they be known.what's inspiring about this.no contribution to the growth of your father's land

I am pretty sure that a Nigerian can also be a second class, even a third class citizen in Nigeria.

TheCongo:

I am pretty sure that a Nigerian can also be a second class, even a third class citizen in Nigeria.

even fourth class citizen ....you are correct.

Wow. . . really touched. . . Nice Thread OP

jassie: Wow. . . really touched. . . Nice Thread OP

thankz

ola30:

even fourth class citizen ....you are correct.

abi ohh

TheCongo:

I am pretty sure that a Nigerian can also be a second class, even a third class citizen in Nigeria.

i wonder ohh,we are treated as slaves in our own country

Nice writeup, so inspiring.many times i look at myself too and wonder which way for me too, cus have been living in usa for a while now , i have kids here. i wonder what year im going to say "odabo" to usa, cus i know the situation back home is not encouraging. i know someday oneday my story will be " have been living in this country for 40-50 years" just like Dr laja, when it get to that would i be afraid to go back home?will nigeria be a bettr place then? so many question on my mind no asnswer.

alala dakosta: Nice writeup, so inspiring.many times i look at myself too and wonder which way for me too, cus have been living in usa for a while now , i have kids here. i wonder what year im going to say "odabo" to usa, cus i know the situation back home is not encouraging. i know someday oneday my story will be " have been living in this country for 40-50 years" just like Dr laja, when it get to that would i be afraid to go back home?will nigeria be a bettr place then? so many question on my mind no asnswer.

home is where u made it,wia u raised ur family,wia they av a secured future and better chance to succeed.i hope u wont trade all that for this shit hole.wia u stand d risk of being kidnapped,killed/robbed of ur possession/hard earned cash.

What I particularly like about the man's story, was that he explored. There's no true essence in life than exploration. . .

No be say make person just siddown for Naija dey cause kasala up & down! Live life, see places. . .

jassie: What I particularly like about the man's story, was that he explored. There's no true essence in life than exploration. . .

No be say make person just siddown for Naija dey cause kasala up & down! Live life, see places. . .

u ve got d drill bozz