KANO .......Cats and Country Bombs
Life with a restless , itinerant spouse can be unsettling sometimes. One is never able to put down roots and one is forever living in a nomadic tent, forever planning for a future life of permanence. But there are great perks. One can tag along to see places one would never think of calling a tour operator for. Personally speaking, Timbuktoo has always been on the desiderata list. And Mali was almost within reach when we made home in Lagos. But we never did visit it. However, was fortunate to get a view of a cousin-city ,the closest to the "Timbuktoo feel " - KANO, the nerve centre of the Northern Hausa dominated provinces of Nigeria, situated by the River Jakara . Lagos was an upscale metro even then ( 1980s), Kano was startlingly different, though it had an airport and an Industrial Estate. Most parts were within the ancient city walled ( a crumbling mudfort, whose sad remains still stand here and there) with squat brown and gray mud houses and narrow alleys...