I left New York last week to live and work in Nigeria. It felt like an out-of-body experience as I packed the articles that constituted my life since I moved to the U.S. in 2002. I’m here now, I’m living in Zaria and working as an energy consultant for the United Nations Development Program’s efforts in bringing efficient firewood stoves to people in Millennium Villages. My work starts in Nigeria, but I expect that after a successful test run in Nigeria, I’ll be moved to Senegal, Mali and hopefully elsewhere.

You should have seen me packing. It’s like I was trying to pack as much of America into my suitcase before leaving. As I walked around New York that last week, I looked around knowing it could be a while before I’d see “order” and “choice” and “convenience” as embodied by the subways, restaurants and other amenities of life in New York. However, this attitude almost ruined me. It wasn’t until I’d mentally let New York and the US go and fully embraced the reality that I was leaving and it was counterproductive and unfair to my time in Nigeria to keep wanting to capture as much of the US as I could. This realization was particularly freeing and has made the transition quite fun.

Boy, it was great to hang out with my parents and my sister. I get to be home for Easter, my sister’s graduation, my parents’ 25th Anniversary, my other sister’s 21st birthday, my little bro’s 13th birthday. I get to hang with my aunties and uncles – who can be quite a riotously funny bunch. I get to be uncle Jr to their kids. I’m also acutely aware of how much I have to learn about being a grown up in a place where I’ve only ever been a kid. It’s in small things like being called uncle Jr, but also in the way parents treat you and value your opinions – they actually kept quiet and wanted to hear stuff I had to say. People at work randomly assaulting you with a sir instead of your first name, etc. I promise I won’t let it get to my head.

Now that I’m here, I would recommend it to others who’ve lived away for a while. But remember, financial stability makes this move a lot easier. Like others have said, it’s no use comparing your life in Nigeria to your life abroad. In some ways it’s better and not so great in others. What matters most to me right now is that I get to see firsthand all the things I’d talked about with friends in the comfort of coffee shops and restaurants abroad. It’s a lot like putting your money where your mouth is, and sometimes, having your money and mouth in the same place won’t be tasty.

Well, work starts tomorrow. I’m not as nervous as I thought I’d be. Let me spell out what my job is: Open firewood fires remain the main stove option for many African villages. In some places, this is a heavy burden on the forests and causing the desert to creep south even faster. To counter this, there are stoves that burn firewood more efficiently and could lead to as much as 40% less wood being burned and possibly less time spent fetching firewood for cooking. My job is to help community workers in these villages test the stoves and determine which one the community prefers. Once we’ve identified a stove that people are willing to buy, we will set up a cooperative to sell these stoves in the community. This also has benefits in terms of carbon credits that can be received from richer nations – but that comes up further along the road.

What does this mean for Solving Africa?

It means I’ll be a lot closer to the projects we’re hoping to start. I’ll be looking into how hard it is for ordinary individuals to start schools or basic health centers. Keep checking www.solvingafrica.com for what I’m learning about setting up these facilities. It’s going to be a busy next few months and with writing the book, it’s going to be a fun ride, but I hope to stay on schedule with completing a first draft of the book sometime this summer.

Now that I’m not in New York and wanting to concentrate fully on book-writing , Solving Africa will need a steering committee of a 3-5 people that will:
a) work on helping us organize events like April’s kickoff, where people can share their project ideas;
b) incorporate Solving Africa as a nonprofit; and
c) keep the website updated with fresh content.

If any of this interests you, please send me an email: junior.kanu@gmail.com and we’ll get the ball rolling.

From Zaria, Nigeria,

Jr.