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Nigerian fishing villages on the Niger Delta early 1960's.

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Before the Niger Delta environment became polluted.

A main street in Calabar Nigeria Christmas day 1961.

Badagry Village Nigeria mid 1960's.

The lagoon at Badagry Nigeria.

River dweller's home at Warri Nigeria.

just want to encourage u ezeuche

nice one

Canoe factory Niger delta

M.V.Patani alongside at the creek port of Warri Nigeria 1962.

M.V.Patani. at Calabar Nigeria Christmas day 1961.

Apapa wharf Lagos Nigeria.

I've been a reader-only of Nairaland for years (for personal reasons) but I was moved to comment on this thread.

Whoa! I can relate to so many of their pictures as I happened to be in the age group that witnessed how much retrogression have taken place in Nigeria. Honestly (IMO), i don't think we can make any changes with the way things are at moment. Maybe I'm a die-hard pessimist or my being away for too long have affected me .

But anyway guys, thanks for these photos and giving me something to do this quiet cold winter Friday in the office. Now off to the pub

Children at Calabar Nigeria Christmas day 1961.

Gwari kaburu (gourd plucked lutes) w/ goge (fiddle). Nigeria, c. 1960 (Shlomo Pestcoe)

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First ILO African Regional Conference, Lagos, Nigeria, December 1960. From left to right: Mr. Johnson, Labour Minister of Nigeria and Chairperson of the Conference, Dr. Azikiwe, Governor-General of Nigeria, Mr. Demby, Labour Minister of Sierra Leone, and David A. Morse, ILO Director-General.

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Dr. Caroli e signora - Ikom, Nigeria, 1960

The Asaba-Onitsha car ferry glides southward past the northern edges of Onitsha community. Most of this northern portion of the town remained set aside for official offices and residence, and was at this time (September 1960) still called the "European Quarters". The strongly incised drainage channel of Nkissi Stream (historically Onitsha's primary source for drinking water and a sacred watercourse for Ndi-Onicha) is evident in some shadow at right, running toward the south to its confluence with the river.

The Haulk suspension bridge, built across the Nkissi Stream by the Colonial Government early in the 20th century, linked the Onitsha Marina Road with more remote portions of the government preserve. Beyond it downstream lie the Marine Offices and the Public Works Department (PWD) headquarters. [Peter Brigham photograph 1963]

A more substantial stall in the cloth-dealers' portion of the Onitsha Main Market. [Peter Brigham photo 1963]

Looking now west of the E-shaped towers, we see the array of some 50 I-shaped, low and flat-roofed cement structures containing the main portion of the Produce Market. Beyond these upstream, the U.A.C. warehouses stand beside their cranes where the largest Onitsha docks are located. (Note also the vastness of the Anambra River floodplain in this image, stretching across the entire central horizon, as well as a portion of the old Ubom sandbank mid-river marketplace to the left.) At far lower left, the retail store of G.B. Olivant (see also further below).

A view from the same elevated location, now looking toward the east-northeast. The visible buildings immediately beyond the E-buildings toward the center of the photograph were a central portion of the town's commercial core, owned mostly by African businessmen, except for the French-owned S.C.O.A. (the yellow building at lower right). (The upper stories of many of these commercial buildings, and the central part of the city blocks they fronted, provided residential quarters for many traders.) Beyond these buildings lay the "New American Quarters", a residential portion of the city, and beyond that a horizontal line of light-colored structures indicates the continuation of the European Quarters, extending toward the horizon, where the Anglican Cathedral (with its asociated Church Missionary Society buildings) is visible as a dark elevated rectangle at middle right.

From the same elevated location now looking directly to the east, New Market Road, a major commercial artery of the town, runs out from the central foreground of the image toward the uplands in the direction of Anglican Cathedral. Most of the buildings along the lower portion of the Road were owned by European firms (but see further below).

On the horizon, a green dome rising at image center marks the second major "heart" of Onitsha Town: Enu-Onicha ["High-Onitsha"], also called the Inland Town, the ancient location of Ndi-Onicha, the self-designated "Onitsha People", led by their King (Obi) and Chiefs (Ndi-Ichie) and who in precolonial times controlled the entire area where Onitsha Town now lies. Ndi-Onicha also hold a position of historical renown in Nigeria, due to the early prominence of Onitsha as a center for Western-style education and the Onitsha indigenes' early advantages of access to it (see further below). Consequently, as G.I. Jones (author of the influential 1956 Report of the Position, Status, and Influence of Chiefs and Natural Rulers in the Eastern Region of Nigeria) observed on page 27 of his report, "[Ndi-Onicha] were quick to profit by these advantages and the list of famous sons of [Onicha], is staggering when one considers its small size [a population of 9,583 in an Onitsha Town of 76,921]."

Now looking south from the same location, at lower right stands the offices of Kingsway Nigeria, a department-store arm of the UAC in Nigeria. Near it along Sokoto Road stood a number of older warehouses, beyond which lay the Hausa Quarters (Ogbe-Awusa, "Hausa Village". At mid-photo is the Otumoye Pond, a sacred place for Ndi-Onicha, with its outlet, the Nde-nde Stream, running into the Niger just beyond the low, elongated warehouse at far right. Beyond Otumoye Pond is Fegge ("Foreigners" Layout, a location originally owned by Onitsha indigenes, who had allocated it for occupation by Nupe traders in earlier times, then in the 1930s arranged to have it rationally built up in a grid of streets mostly designated for residential buildings. This was now occupied primarily by renting Ndi-Igbo traders.

Looking directly downriver, in July 1962 one can see standing in mid-river the first pillars of the prospective Niger Bridge. To their left, jutting out into the river is the beach of Ogbe-Ukwu (Big Village), the former location of prominent settlers (dating from the nineteenth century) coming from downriver (called Ndi-Olu, riverine people from Aboh and also from the Itsekiri area, who were early powers in the twentieth-century Onitsha marketplace). This village still existed in 1960, but by 1962 it had become a casualty of bridge construction.

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Returning now to the main concrete floors of the Onitsha Main Market, the river steps provide stable embarkment, regardless of the river's flood stage, for traders bringing their covered dugout canoes from far up and downriver. These canoes double as cargo ships and houseboats. (Note the large UAC barge docked at far right.)

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These hawkers range with their carts over much of Onitsha in 1962, and are locally manufactured.

Standing at the level of the E-buildings and looking down the terraced (and gutter-drained) stairway of one of six Produce Market avenues, retail traders (mostly women) hawk various kinds of vegetables along the way, while bulk traders (mostly men) work out of stalls on either side.

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A view from near the bottom of the terraced-steps the shows one of the major improvements of the new Produce Market over its predecessor: the architect-designed concrete flooring that provides not only secure footage but also reliable drainage and therefore cleanliness. Onitsha receives nearly 80 inches of rain per annum, and well-managed drainage is very important here. Thi is a portion of the grain market, again with bulk dealers located in the stalls on each side of the avenue, while retail traders lay their grains out on the walkways to dry in the sun.

A grain wholesaler with some of his wares [image from Onuora Nzekwu, Nigeria Magazine 1960, No. 65, p. 144].

Much of the retail trading of grain occured toward the top of the terraces near Johnson Street, as shown below. Some of the grain is piled up in small tubs, some laid out flt on cloth to dry it.

The fish market is centered mainly down near the river steps. Below, women sell smoke-dried fish (from the Niger) along one of the avenues. Dried and salted fish ("stockfish" imported from northern European countries was sold in the stalls.

X-ray c. 1960
(Evangel Hospital, Jos, Nigeria; photo courtesy of Dr. L. C. Grant, Evangel Founder)