Laying Berlin bare
By MAURICE ARCHIBONG
Thursday, July 7, 2005
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A view of Celle in December 2000. Photos: MAURICE ARCHIBONG |
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Although the motor car was invented in Germany, countless
Germans simply love to ride. Across various German settlements,
you simply can’t keep count of the number of cyclists
that pedal past, and the situation is no different in the
German capital.
It is difficult to tell which, between dogs and bicycles the
Berliner loves more. While Muenster, located between Hanover
and Cologne, is reputed to have the highest concentration
of cyclists, Berlin also boasts an unusually high density
of Fahrraeder as well.
Bicycles may compare with dogs in terms of number in Berlin,
but the local thief or Dieb shows little inclination to steal
the latter, many of which could often be seen wandering through
many streets here. Experts say the Berlin thief is six times
more likely to steal a bike than a car. In 2000, about 24,
000 bikes, altogether worth 20 million Deutsche Mark (DM)
over N1 billion were stolen in Berlin. Studies reveal that
thieves are more inclined to steal a bike because it is not
only faster to make away with, but also easier to dispose
of. And what is more, some bikes cost more than some used
cars in Berlin. For example, a trendy Kickboard Mountain bike
could set one back almost $2, 000 DM (roughly N270, 000).
However, the menace of bike thieves does not seem to discourage
Germans from buying bikes and enjoying their rides frequently.
Not surprisingly, some 5, 188 accidents involving cyclists
were recorded in Berlin in 1999. This figure, almost 20 percent
higher than the previous year’s (4, 627), represents
a 33 percent rise over the 1997 accidents’ rate (3,
336). This did not come as much of a shock, since bike riders
and pedestrians share the right of way at road crossings.
In an attempt to curb bike accidents, a curious law came into
effect in Berlin, some years ago. This statute stipulates
the withdrawal of the driving license of any cyclist found
to be responsible for a major accident, be it with a motorist
or pedestrian. But the deterrent effect of this edict remains
to be seen in the light of official statistics.
In any case, Germans have good reasons to love both the bike
and automobiles, for the two were invented by one of their
own. Interestingly though, the premiere of both the bike and
motor car left each creator the object of ridicule, at least
for a brief moment. Take the bicycle for instance: In 1817,
the people of Kahlsruhe almost laughed Mr. Freiherr Drais
von Sauerbronne out of town, when he launched his invention:
the Bicycle. Although Herrn Sauerbronne’s bike had no
pedal, its modified form soon became one of the most popular
means of transport ever devised by man.
Similarly, when Carl Friedrich Benz brought out his invention
for a test-run in 1885, the automobile ended up crashing into
a brick wall, giving Herr Benz’s Kahlsruhe townsfolk
a rib cracker for a long time. Eventually, Benz and Gottfried
Daimler, who had been working on an automobile invention himself,
teamed up to form Daimler-Benz in 1926. Apart from Daimler-Benz,
Germany also produced Volkswagen (the people’s car),
possibly the world’s most famous brand; Opel, Audi,
BMW and other makes later followed.
Berlin and Africa
More than most European cities, Berlin is of special significance
to Africa, for it was here that Africa was shared out among
European nations in 1884/85. In February 1884, Portugal and
England had established a curious treaty which, with the support
of the latter, the Iberian nation could levy navigators along
the Congo River. This was a troubling development to Europeans
who held that part of Africa as "The Congo Free State",
a sort of No Man’s Land. Thus was the Berliner Kongo
Konferenz convened to address the issue.
Germany consequently ended up with Togo, Kamerum (Cameroon)
and Namibia after the conference. These territories were later
lost at Versailles, in France, where vanquished Germany signed
the surrender papers after WWI.
Africa in Berlin
Going by Martina Mueller’s book, Afrikaner in Berlin,
the first African to set foot on the German capital arrived
either in the late 17th or early 18th century. According to
that author, blacks were imported by Germans as a status symbol
during the Slave Trade. Some Germans even hosted more blacks
as objects of curiosity.
Mueller adds that the 1885 edition of the German statistical
yearbook records 26 Africans resident in Berlin. Half of them
were actually of Prussian (old German Empire) nationality.
This helps to explain the presence of an African Quarters
(Afrikaner Viertel) in a part of Berlin called Wedding.
The historic tie between Africa and the German capital is
further reflected in such streets names as Togo, Sambesi,
Ghana, Uganda, Guinea, and so on in Berlin. Mueller puts the
number of Africans in Berlin by 1992 at 6,800. This represents
1.8 percent of the entire population of foreigners at the
time. Furthermore, one 1993 register states that 11,017 Africans
lived in this city then. Ghana topped the list with 1,397,
closely followed by Egypt (1,326), Tunisia (973), and 905,
709 and 634 for Angola, Mozambique and Morocco respectively.
Nigeria placed ninth out of the 53 countries and territories
listed, at the time. During our visit, it was difficult to
tell the number of Nigerians in Berlin. The community president,
Mr. Chukwuma Uzoma could not be sure because his association
was then just recovering from a two-year dispute which even
ended in litigation.
Comparative advantage
In Berlin, I wrote and read more in two months, than I normally
would in six months in Lagos because of the parlous state
of public utilities and ambient noise in the Nigerian environment.
I continue to wonder what our environmental sanitation agents
believe their responsibilities to be. But then, I also appreciate
the fact that after more than three decades of military rule
in Nigeria, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to find
the tail wagging the dog. As you can guess, I returned to
my country an angry man.
To the whites out there, it doesn’t matter that you
are Efik, Igbo, Ijaw, Hausa, Nupe, Ogoni or Yoruba. The failing
of Nigeria or indeed any part of Africa is seen as another
proof of the black man’s knack for flunking it every
time.
Our visit to Berlin, courtesy of the German Cultural Centre
(Goethe Institut), brought one face-to-face with the shortcomings
of the Nigerian society. Given my enhanced productivity and
the more conduce environment that Germany provided, you'd
think I would rather stay back there. No way!
I could understand the apprehension of some acquaintances,
when contrary to their wish that I would find some way of
staying back in Germany, I told them that I as going back
to the political jungle from whence I came.
The politicians in khaki had destroyed everything before this
present civilian government. But how much progress Nigeria
would make in the near future would depend to a large extent
on our ability to keep the turncoat ex-military dictators
and their civilian lackeys in check. The sight of some of
our politicians strutting about with an air of self-importance
gives me a good laugh each time. For 45 years, Nigeria's ruling
class have done no more than prove how irreverent and consequently,
how irrelevant they could be. No responsible political class
would foster any public utility, which defrauds the citizenry
to the extent that our electricity agency had carried on in
the last 25 years or so.
Our political class must include many a dummkopf or fish brain,
I think. If they provided basic amenities such as power, housing,
medical services, pipe-borne water, qualitative and affordable
education, efficient public transportation system and good
roads, much fewer people would bother how much they misappropriate.
But for over 30 years they failed. And it is to their eternal
disgrace that a country as rich as Nigeria, the eighth largest
oil exporting nation, ranks among the world's poorest. Such
were the thoughts that rankled in my mind throughout my stay
in Berlin.
When I visited Berlin, the EU’s common currency, the
Euro hadn’t yet come into operation. Then, the German
currency, Deutsche Mark (DM) reigned supreme and exchanged
at one to N50. It is worth noting, however, that in the early
1980s, one DM fetched a paltry 34 kobo.
At then conversion rate of one DM to N50, the cheapest haircut
in Berlin, which cost 20 DM, translated to N1, 000, whereas
that sum of money would pay for 20 visits to the Lagos barber’s
shop at N50 a cut. I also noticed that in Berlin, a 30cl bottle
of mineral drink sold for almost N40 in a supermarket. But
at an on-license spot, that volume of drink set one back some
N100. Thus, as with beer, which cost about N100 at the off-license
or N275 in a pub, you paid more for sitting down than for
the drink itself.
I found that food is very cheap in Germany. A kilogram of
chicken drumsticks cost the equivalent of N250 at the local
meat shop. However, during my stay in Berlin there was a daily
drop in the demand for beef those days, owing to fears of
the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) or "Mad Cow"
disease. By early December 2000, at least five cases of that
usually fatal affliction had been recorded in Germany. And
if any one had hoped to escape BSE by turning vegetarian,
some newspapers, such as the Berliner Kurier, on November
30 reported scientists’ fears that one could not be
sure that vegetarians were free of the risk either. Cow dung
is traditional manure and the scientists remarked that research
would have to be concluded, before pronouncements could be
made as to whether or not BSE found its way into plants through
traditional manure. But let’s revisit parts of our journey
to Europe.
Nearer my God to Thee
It is difficult not to believe in God when you suddenly realize
how defenseless you are 53,000 feet above sea level. Although
most lights in the passengers’ cabin had been turned
off, the video monitor illuminated the plane’s interior
enough for one to watch a few of the co-passengers muttering
supplications to God. Although experts say that the most dangerous
points during a flight are take-off and landing, anything
could still happen with a complex machine like an airplane.
There have been reports of how, for example, a plane at cruising
altitude "suddenly turned on its back and dropped like
a stone". Thus, it was easy to understand the fear of
these suppliants.
Fortunately, it was a smooth flight from take-off to touchdown
as Lufthansa LH 561 cruised without a hitch to an almost imperceptible
landing. Within a few minutes one was through with the German
immigration and customs services at the airport.
Although flights land at Frankfurt by the minute the airport
seemed relatively less busy owing to the facilities and sheer
size of the station. There are model cars to ferry people
with perambulatory difficulties across the airport’s
vast area, not to talk of the fabled German efficiency.
Under normal circumstances, flight LH 561 should have stopped
over in Cote d’Ivoire, but owing to the political situation
in that West African country, at the time, the pilot flew
the plane with half the seats empty from Lagos directly to
Frankfurt. Consequently, we landed at 0525, two hours early.
However, the complimentary newspapers at the Frankfurt-am-Main
International Airport made our two-hour wait for the connecting
flight to Berlin easier. The newsstand offered a choice of
about 10 titles, including the International Herald Tribune,
USA Today, and others from the Anglophone world as well as
the popular French broad sheet, Le Monde, beside numerous
German papers such as Der Bild, Die Welt, Frankfuter Rundschau,
Die Tageszeitung (taz)" and so on.
The flight to Berlin was really cheery. Unlike sailing over
the earth in darkness as we did coming from Lagos, the previous
night, the 50-minute or so morning flight from Frankfurt to
Berlin gave a good aerial view of Germany. Countless serpentine
rivers, lakes, hills and farmlands, formed a gigantic mosaic
down below. One could also sight dugout spots, which could
be mines or archeological sites, as well as colossal building
blocks as we came in for landing at the Berlin-Tegel airport,
which lies in the northwestern Berlin suburb called Tegel.
Tegel has been part of Greater Berlin since 1920. But before
the airport came to Tegel, this settlement had earned considerable
fame as home of the Humboldt brothers, Alexander and Wilhelm.
The former was a naturalist and explorer of world renown,
while the latter, who lived from 1707 to 1835, was a celebrated
educational reformer and a "statesman of Periclean sublimity
of intellect", according to the poet Talleyrand. Wilhelm
founded the Humboldt University, one of three such tertiary
institutions in Berlin. The city’s other universities,
both established in 1948, are the Free University to the west
of Berlin and the Technical University.
My host family
My host, Mr. Wieben Homann, was at the airport to meet me.
In the last couple of years Wieben, a retired teacher then
60 and his elegant wife, Frauke, have hosted about 50 students
of the German language from 13 countries across the world.
The Homanns have had guests from Japan, Cote d’Ivoire,
and China etcetera. I happened to be the sixth Nigerian quartered
by this benevolent couple. Before me had been Dr. Yomi Akinwunmi.
Others include Jide Ogungbade, Kazeem Adeleke and Emeka Udemba.
After my visit, the Homanns also hosted Steve Ayorinde, among
others.
I arrived in Berlin in autumn. November is usually not a warm
month here, but the sky shone clear blue and the sun hung
brave and bright even at 10 a.m. Moreover, the ambient temperature
was rather warm for the season. Wieben had a quip in store
as we headed towards the car park. "Sometimes, the weather
can be cold for some days, but every time we have a guest
from Africa, he brings some sunshine with him", remarked
the risible retiree.
The Homanns had waited three days for my arrival and had probably
had to replace the apples and bananas which adorned the desk
in my room. That was not all; a welcome note written in German
followed by Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa translations was placed
before the Reis Gebaeck or Yatsukko Arare, Japanese hot flavoured
rice crackers. This rice meal presumably came from Miss Mitsue
Nagaya a Japanese lady studying in Berlin, also a guest of
the Hommans.
These snacks and note were instantly heartwarming, but another
item on the table invoked a muse from me. A short blue-green
candle, about two inches thick, set in a crimson holder held
another meaning other than the romantic, soothing aura it
was supposed to enshroud me with. Coming from Nigeria, where
through the curse of a state-sponsored fraud called the national
electricity authority, the presence of a candle seemed to
reflect more of darkness than light. But there is another
perspective here: assuming one had never heard of Europe,
and was only spending a night with his hosts and never bothered
to ask, he would probably return to Nigeria believing that
power outages were common in Berlin too, or won’t he?
–To be continued |
