19naia: I lived in rural part of nigeria and i was always attracted to outdoors in the bush in my free time..My mates always called me crazy and feared the bush...i was deprived of african bush beauty being born abroad before coming to nigeria..i thought on arrival i will be in africa as 8 yr old boy with no more friends in people and i will befriend monkeys and no school for me because only bush dey for naija e.t.c.. this was my assumption at that age but also it was my hope and dream to enjoy simple wild life of strange new companionship....OH God i was into deppression as the aircraft approach airport with big highway and many yellow bus like the school buses in america...I recovered my disappointment quickly since my young mind grew well every day....So in my final settling in nigeria, i prefer to chase lizards and find the spiders and many other insects and even stopped to look close at snakes before running away...i would go in the bush and follow the stream of water for kilometers,i would go fishing with the poor village boys who fished the stream for food while i fished for fun but went home to eat market bought food.......Now i am back over seas 22 years since i left nigeria and the effect of that up bringing is with me...i have mannerisms that people do not understand in the akata cities, but then when i go out to wild out door environments,like the beach i go daily,it stands out as a strong survival quality of alertness and skill....many people come from cities to the beach for vacation in the quiet forest rural town i live,and many times they die or get injured there after just 1 day,whereas many locals who live there survive and enjoy it evryday for years....I was fortunate to be able to go out in the dangerous areas of oceanwaves and rocks and help save people and just endure with abilities to help others with risky environment..As such -people there all look to me as one of the prefered life guards there and wonder why i am like that,and i tell some i was an african bush boy who enjoyed the wild and jumping across the rocks and following the rivers looking at beauty while alert for danger....african wilds have the fastest predators waiting to teeth flesh and the biggest waiting to stampede bones and poisions waiting to overwhelm blood, and this is embedded in the restistance mechanisms africans have in their biological heritage...When i see always african origin people taking the prize for best runners,i always remeber the fastes predators that have chased africans for many generations forcing africans to be the best just to suvive..or when i see african origin people dominating so many phisical activities,i remeber the challenges that require acute hearing and eye sight and balance to perform at high level in basket ball ,football e.t.c it all comes from continuos exposure to the challenges africas wilds have.....When people go for escalator and elevator and drive moto every where and never go to know the wild environment everday unless bull dozer first clear the land then only will they enter;this makes people less in phyisical endurance and many modern countries having big health issue with being so fat because eating much food is so easy ,but work where you can sweat and breath big open air is rare,and efforts that task the body and open landscape to entertain the eyes and the wild risks to sharpen the senses, these things become rare in modern world and also when they become rare-it puts in danger the well being of the entire planet for all of humanity to survive...i remebr they say the first will be last and the last will be first in judgment time.....It goes in hand with africa being the last to make the so called "development leap" following the world race to make things so easy with little effort and challenge...And we see now almost too late ,that reversing the effects of the great european ideal of modern development is almost as big a task as developing an african nation.....Africa can still become a world leader in nature preservation rather than join the rat race of over devlopment and humans falling into biological frailty.......Development is the way to go,but how fast and in what manner -will determine if humans can survive in the world we change to make for ourselves when there are so many secrets to learn of in the world as it was made for us by the great provider from our origins...

19naia: I lived in rural part of nigeria and i was always attracted to outdoors in the bush in my free time..My mates always called me crazy and feared the bush...i was deprived of african bush beauty being born abroad before coming to nigeria..i thought on arrival i will be in africa as 8 yr old boy with no more friends in people and i will befriend monkeys and no school for me because only bush dey for naija e.t.c.. this was my assumption at that age but also it was my hope and dream to enjoy simple wild life of strange new companionship....OH God i was into deppression as the aircraft approach airport with big highway and many yellow bus like the school buses in america...I recovered my disappointment quickly since my young mind grew well every day....So in my final settling in nigeria, i prefer to chase lizards and find the spiders and many other insects and even stopped to look close at snakes before running away...i would go in the bush and follow the stream of water for kilometers,i would go fishing with the poor village boys who fished the stream for food while i fished for fun but went home to eat market bought food.......Now i am back over seas 22 years since i left nigeria and the effect of that up bringing is with me...i have mannerisms that people do not understand in the akata cities, but then when i go out to wild out door environments,like the beach i go daily,it stands out as a strong survival quality of alertness and skill....many people come from cities to the beach for vacation in the quiet forest rural town i live,and many times they die or get injured there after just 1 day,whereas many locals who live there survive and enjoy it evryday for years....I was fortunate to be able to go out in the dangerous areas of oceanwaves and rocks and help save people and just endure with abilities to help others with risky environment..As such -people there all look to me as one of the prefered life guards there and wonder why i am like that,and i tell some i was an african bush boy who enjoyed the wild and jumping across the rocks and following the rivers looking at beauty while alert for danger....african wilds have the fastest predators waiting to teeth flesh and the biggest waiting to stampede bones and poisions waiting to overwhelm blood, and this is embedded in the restistance mechanisms africans have in their biological heritage...When i see always african origin people taking the prize for best runners,i always remeber the fastes predators that have chased africans for many generations forcing africans to be the best just to suvive..or when i see african origin people dominating so many phisical activities,i remeber the challenges that require acute hearing and eye sight and balance to perform at high level in basket ball ,football e.t.c it all comes from continuos exposure to the challenges africas wilds have.....When people go for escalator and elevator and drive moto every where and never go to know the wild environment everday unless bull dozer first clear the land then only will they enter;this makes people less in phyisical endurance and many modern countries having big health issue with being so fat because eating much food is so easy ,but work where you can sweat and breath big open air is rare,and efforts that task the body and open landscape to entertain the eyes and the wild risks to sharpen the senses, these things become rare in modern world and also when they become rare-it puts in danger the well being of the entire planet for all of humanity to survive...i remebr they say the first will be last and the last will be first in judgment time.....It goes in hand with africa being the last to make the so called "development leap" following the world race to make things so easy with little effort and challenge...And we see now almost too late ,that reversing the effects of the great european ideal of modern development is almost as big a task as developing an african nation.....Africa can still become a world leader in nature preservation rather than join the rat race of over devlopment and humans falling into biological frailty.......Development is the way to go,but how fast and in what manner -will determine if humans can survive in the world we change to make for ourselves when there are so many secrets to learn of in the world as it was made for us by the great provider from our origins...

odumchi:

This is expansive and at the same time concise and interesting. I like how you introduced a serious topic of discussion with smooth transition. You really have nice writing skills.

Anyway, I can also identify with your feelings towards these issues since I spent my first few years in rural Nigeria before moving abroad. I agree with what you're saying. Our relationship with the outdoors has a great effect on us. I also don't think that we (Africans) should leap head-first in the race for industrialization. I prefer Nigeria's landscape to be dominated by palm trees and tropical forests than for it to be filled with factories, multi-story concrete buildings and smoke-pumping plants.

May the road of progress never make us forget where we came from.

odumchi:

This is expansive and at the same time concise and interesting. I like how you introduced a serious topic of discussion with smooth transition. You really have nice writing skills.

Anyway, I can also identify with your feelings towards these issues since I spent my first few years in rural Nigeria before moving abroad. I agree with what you're saying. Our relationship with the outdoors has a great effect on us. I also don't think that we (Africans) should leap head-first in the race for industrialization. I prefer Nigeria's landscape to be dominated by palm trees and tropical forests than for it to be filled with factories, multi-story concrete buildings and smoke-pumping plants.

May the road of progress never make us forget where we came from.

19naia: Ah you people make me feel like yes there is hope with this way of thinking and the value cause it does no good if only i have this thought and feeling...i know somebody laughed at my youthful ignorance about monkeys there,but i must agree cause i laugh also at my past mistakes and cry very few times for other mistakes i made.....i hope to fufil my plans to get back into Naija by the end of 2013...plenty time ahead for me to properly prepare....

And we see now almost too late ,that reversing the effects of the great european ideal of modern development is almost as big a task as developing an african nation.....Africa can still become a world leader in nature preservation rather than join the rat race of over devlopment and humans falling into biological frailty.......Development is the way to go,but how fast and in what manner -will determine if humans can survive in the world we change to make for ourselves when there are so many secrets to learn of in the world as it was made for us by the great provider from our origins...

ifyalways: Nice write up but i HATE(excuse me) wild life.My husband says its fear and these days im begining to agree with him. . .i had a friend who got bite by a snake back in the days and unfortunately she died days later either from the poison or tetanus(she was out with friends when the incident happened,all kids and they had the wisdom of offering her first aid of spit and sand) and i think that somehow made me equate wildlife with death and danger.
My sons however love wildlife and taking them to the Lekki conservation centre each week is a nightmare for me though i must confess its a nice place if i would just stop being paranoid.lol

PAGAN 9JA:
westerners will first kill all the animals in the area to make it safe. .

Fulaman198:

LOL they usually do that then 10 years later down the road they make these "protection laws" against the animals they slaughtered in the first place

PAGAN 9JA:
westerners will first kill all the animals in the area to make it safe. .