Voice for Voiceless

My journey to Kaduna, Kaduna state in the Northern part of Nigeria changeable transformed my perception about other people’s culture, even though unknown to me and relationship with them especially those I don’t have tie with. Born and grew in the western part of the country; the Yoruba speaking region, my family had no history of traveling, thus, for the first time, traveling away from home was intriguing for me. Regardless of the challenges ahead, which I did not thought of, I embarked on a fifteen hour journey to Kaduna to inquire about the tertiary institutions there because I wanted to study far away from home.
The first challenged I faced was communication barrier explicit in the language of the people. The family I went to meet instructed me to ask for the way from the people. I spoke in English mixed with pidgin but none understood what I said. I found myself amidst the Hausas, and the Fulanis, thus, the only language they understood was just their native language- hausa language. Regardless of the signs and words, they did not get my point until somebody that understood English came to my rescue.
The other part of their life that intrigued me most was their food materials. In terms of feeding, the northern people have a ‘funny’ way of eating with dirt around, they are satisfied and life continues. Although they are endowed with varieties of food materials, yet, I could not cope. Indeed, the journey to a land far away from home; of the unknown culture and people was a remarkable one and I will never forget it in my life. It did changed my perceptions about them in that we use to believe that they are uncaring, difficult to deal with and that they are silent. But my encounter with them in my journey proved all these wrong even thought their religion is very prominent, yet, they can be very peaceful, helpful and highly industrious.