Night on the town in Benin City

Three weeks ago (yes, I'm behind) my Nigerian colleague rolled off the project.  We had to go out and celebrate, of course.

Time Out is a bar/music venue.  The whole thing is outside under a canopy, which is very common.  Two guys had a food stand that sold two items.  One was peppered grilled meat chunks and onions, served in newspaper.  The other was ramen and fried egg – you chose a flavor of ramen packet and they cooked it with a fried egg on top.

Everything is better with a fried egg.

We just enjoyed ourselves and talked for a while.  A live band started at 9 that played something close to reggae.  We enjoyed it in the background and didn’t think much of it until we heard the singer/emcee give a shout out to our colleague by name; our drivers, who were having a drink at a table nearby, had called over the guy and asked him to do it.  It was fun and was a nice gesture by them.  My colleague didn’t notice it when it happened, so later the emcee did it again, this time saying, “This goes out to [colleague] from the UK!” even though he is Nigerian.  He wandered by our table and one of the clients who was with us took a picture of the group with the emcee behind us.  So far, so good.

We were a fun table and stuck out since we had 3 white guys, and the emcee started to hang around more.  Several clients were with us, and he put a female client on the spot to sing a few lines into the mic, which was fun but we all then wanted him to go away so we could enjoy in peace.  By this time our table was the center of attention, which is not something we wanted.

The emcee’s next move was to go around and ask the three white guys where we were from.  While it was obvious we weren’t from Nigeria, there was something about stating it publicly that made us feel acutely exposed, particularly when coupled with the attention the emcee had brought.  At this point one of the client guys called the emcee over and told him to go away and not do that, and the emcee said he didn’t mean to offend – into the microphone.  However, he didn’t go away until the guy gave him a tip to scram.  With the spotlight on us, we all looked at each other and knew it was time to leave, so that was the end of the night.

One of the clients has a theory that he really believes.  He says things are safe before 6pm (beginning of dusk) and after 9pm.  Why after 9pm?  “Because kidnappers are regular people, and after 9pm they all want to go and have a drink and have fun.”  I’m not sure if I should be reassured by my increased safety after 9pm or slightly disturbed that I may strike up a conversation at Time Out with a guy coming off a long day of kidnapping.