The Migrants

The Migrants

June 20th is world refugee day. Recently, I was reading about the sinking of yet another boat taking migrants from Africa to Europe. This time it was a boat taking West African migrants to Greece. The boat sank, and many lives were lost. Men and women mostly young people in search of a better life. Those that do make it across have further daunting challenges. Seen as nuisances and illegal, they are often locked up in internment camps for years before being deported back home.

The circumstances were different a generation ago. I was seeing an elderly patient of mine today. He became excited when I told him I had grown up in West Africa. He was born in the small Greek island of Kefalonia. He was 18 when in August of 1953 a major earthquake hit that area. Many were killed and most homes were destroyed.

My patient had lost his home and was sleeping in the open. There were no jobs. It was then a cousin convinced him to come to Africa where a family member was running a store. My patient made it to Rhodesia (current day Zimbabwe). He started in business trading in goods all over Africa, and was quite successful. He has very fond memories of those days in Africa remembering it as a beautiful place with wonderful people.

I had grown up in Nigeria and was reminded of another famous Greek merchant there, Anastasios George Leventis. Mr. Leventis moved to Nigeria in the 1920’s from Cyprus and was very successful as a trader. He eventually established the Leventis chain of superstores which were found all over Nigeria.  I remember going to these stores while growing up. 

Mr. Leventis was very friendly with the leaders of newly independent West African states such as Ghana’s Kwameh Nkurmah, who appointed him as Ghana’s ambassador to France. Mr. Leventis died in 1978. After several years his stores eventually closed down, but the A.G. Leventis foundation remains active and provides many charitable activities.

As for my patient, he eventually migrated to the United States in the 1970’s and settled down here. He subsequently got married and had children and grandchildren. He is in his seventy’s now and loves talking about his time in Africa.

However with time, things have turned full circle and migrants are now going the other way to Greece and other European countries from Africa.

I wish that a day will come when no one is forced to migrate for economic or other reasons.

Old Leventis Headquarters in Lagos, Nigeria

Nicknames

Nicknames

I went to medical school at the Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Nigeria many years ago. My classmates were a varied bunch of people from different places, different ethnicities, different languages and so on. Yet, the rigors of medical school made us bond for a lifetime. Even today, when many of us have not seen each other in so many years, those bonds remain.

One way we marked our kinship was to give nicknames to each other. Some of these were as simple as shortening the name and adding an ‘O’ at the end in true Northern Nigerian style. I thus became Sifo (from my first name Asif). David became Davo, Isiyaku became Skimo, Mikhail was Miko and so on. Auwal became Walo, but we had two Auwals in our class, so we differentiated by calling one Walo white (slightly lighter skin tone) and the other Walo black.

Some names were initials. We had a CCC (CC Okafor), IYV (Isah Yahyah Vatsa), MSS (Mohammed Sani Shehu) and MBD (Mohammed Bello Dikko). Some were a corruption of the actual name (Ado Zakari Kudan became AZ kudanese and Zara became Zarams). Temple was always known as Temples. Even he does not remember how the S was added to his name.

Some names were based on a certain character of the person. Prof (Emmanuel Ameh) got his name because of his immense knowledge. Iliya Jalo was always smartly dressed and his boyish good looks got him the name Oyiboyish. Goli was short so he was called Brevis and his close friend Agaba was tall, so he was called Longus (from names of muscles in the human body).

Not everyone had nicknames of course, but our bonds were just as strong. So many years later, I still remember my brothers and sisters as it were yesterday. We are scattered all over the globe and practicing medicine in different specialties, but remembering those nicknames we had for each other brings back wonderful memories. 

To me these names represent an amazing fellowship that we had so many years ago that I miss dearly today. Here is a list I made as to the best of my memory;

1. AKA -Alakija Salami
2. Alhaj Bobo -Kabir Sabitu
3. Anastomosis -Moses Audu
4. Ayour -Ayo Oyewo
5. AZKudanese -Ado Zakari
6. Brevis -Lamar Goli
7. CCC -CC Okafor
8. Chi Chi -CC Ekwempu
9. Computer -Ibrahim Mohammed (IM)
10. Davo -David Ewaoda
11. Frikkado -Farid Tahir
12. Fusco -Furera Sule
13. Geeno -Mohammed Yakubu
14. IYV -Isah Vatsa
15. Jugul  -Bitrus Danboyi
16. Lizzie -Elizabeth Ogboli
17. Longus -Emmanuel Agaba
18. MabJo -Mela Mansfield
19. Mallam -Ahmed Yakubu
20. MBD -Bello Dikko
21. Medo -Ahmed Girei
22. Miko -Mikhail Yusuf
23. MSS -Sani Shehu
24. Mr. T -Taiwo Irinoye
25. Nash -Ibrahim Nashabaru
26. Oyiboyish -Ilya Jalo
27. Prof -Emmanuel Ameh
28. Ralour -Tony Akpotabore
29. SamP -Sam Epelle
30. Sankas -Robert Sanda
31. Sifo -Asif Zia
32. Sikkiways -Sikiratu Kailani
33. Skimo -Mohammed Isiyaku
34. Temples -Amaefulla Temple
35. TSW Anya -Daniel Tswanya
36. Verna -Veronica Ubakanma
37. Walo black -Auwal Abubakar
38. Walo white -Auwal Abubakar
39. Zarams -Zara Mairami

Faculty of Medicine, Ahmadu Bello University