Project 365 23rd January

Last week when I was at my friends house I took a picture of her wooden toys that had been used by her children sixty years ago.

Today I was getting some fascinating history out of her. My friend D will be ninety one in June. D went to Nigeria with her husband with 3 young children, one a baby of 8 weeks. When she went out there they had to live in the jungle, no running water, no electricity, miles away from civilisation as her husband was the architect that drew up the plane and over saw the building of the first University In Nigeria, The University of Ibadan

I have a photo collage of some of the items she brought back with her and some of the history that goes with them.


Top left is a camel hair blanket. These were made on portable back looms that the African woman carried and when they had time they made they made the panels from camel hair. The hair was dyed with vegetable dyes which only allowed shaded of browns, blacks and yellows to be achieved. They were designed to go keep your camels warm, but if people were stuck they would use them. They are amazing when you think these woman could not count and the patterns were passed on from person to person.

Bottom left is a wall hanging made in the same way.

Top Middle is a wooden mask, she never explained if this had a purpose or just an ornament

Bottom middle is made from wood and is a gift given to a mother on the birth of a baby.

Top right, D has four of these, two male and two female, these are given away by a family when they had twins and one of them died. They believed this protected the living twin from evil spirits.

The other two items are bronze and again I have no explanation as to what purpose they served.

She tells such fascinating stories and has led an interesting life.