On the night of the masquerades, all the Elders of the surrounding communities gathered to watch the masquerade display at the masquerade dance compound, which was the 2nd village on the right, after the seventh creek.
After Captain Harry had presented good reasons for them to leave their aircrafts and join the people in whatever form they decided to go, so as to help them get a true and clearer picture of the Oily Lands. Which they couldnt get on their aircraft, the whole crew decided to abandon their aircrafts and accompany the people even if it means swimming down there.
The fire burned and different groups of masquerade were assembled around the dance compound. Captain Harry and the crew were fascinated by the rhymed sound produced by what seem like a violin that was carved from the branch of a big tree with a hole in the middle and some strings fastened from top to the bottom. The sound of the drums and other wooden instruments intruded on the senses of the crew that they all got up except the Captain, the palm wine in one hand and well-prepared grilled fish, stocked with African vegetables and spices in the other hand.
Captain Harry watched the crew enjoy themselves and smiled after taking a sip from his calabash of palm-wine. In the midst of the rhymes, he suddenly heard a long shrilling sound that made his heart leap. It sounded like a flute. What can be the thought and was still contemplating on holding himself back but the sound of the African flute had eaten the better half of him and he stood up and danced heartily.
The crew watched him dance towards the direction of the drummers and laughed. Captain Harry traced the sound to a young boy that turned to be Tari. He held Tari by the shoulders and danced with him directing him toward the crew.
A white masquerade with a howling marks, long canes with bells strapped to their ankles surrounded the crew and danced while Tari altered their steps with his flute that was a piece of rectangular wood with a hole going through the width and a bigger hole going through the length.
It seemed the masquerade were trying to block them from seeing something and by the time their individual minds started to comprehend this fact, the masquerades faded away from them like smoke from the wind.
Right in front of the masquerade hall, stood a masquerade with red mark and clothes made from raffia standing on two bamboo poles that were nothing less than twelve feet high. A man with two lovely peacock feathers stuck to a red cap was pouring libation on the ground right in front of the tall masquerade whose height made the crew open their mouths in surprise.
This is impossible said Steve. And he still walks with his sticks. This is wonderful and unbelievable exclaimed a member of the crew. The masquerade walked on top of the tall stick towards them fanning himself with a pink and green woven fan.
The masquerade had to run away on his tall sticks towards the masquerade hall, as soon as the music stopped, and the crew were amazed because it wasnt supposed to be possible, yet they saw it right in front of them and realised it was a normal thing for this people of Oily lands.
Everybody stood up as the elders took their sits under the shade of the big oak tree. They all wore caps with colourful feathers stuck to them and coral beads adorned their wrists and necks, while they kept their hands busy with the woven hand fans they used to cool themselves.
They all sat after the elders had taken their seats. A spokesman stood up and introduced a man that seemed well advanced in age, who walked to the platform located in the middle. An elder that took pride in his ability to speak English also walked to the platform as a translator.
Greetings to you all, he said. As we all know, our friends from the Western World have come to our aid, so it is left for us to give them the maximum cooperation they deserve. I would like everybody to express their views orally or in a written form and present it to our Western friends.
Initially, we were made to blame the western world for exploiting us and taking our resources to enrich themselves. We thought they stole all and what we have left is our morals and orientation, which we thought is gradually being stolen, the elder said. It is now clearer to us that the Western world have our interest at heart and we were deceived into believing that the West instead of our own people were responsible for our low living conditions.
I will therefore call on the elders from the next clan to present their appeal to the Western men in presence of all the people of the land, the elder concluded and walked off the wooden platform.
What is the name of that flute you played, asked Captain Harry. It is an African flute known as Oja, replied Tari with a slight smile on his face. He could not really believe what was happening, sitting in the midst of Western men who were his pals as a matter of fact. It was a good thing to be with the Western men because they kept surprising him with Western mysteries and yet they seemed panicked whenever they were confronted with some of our mysteries, thought Tari.
An elderly man with blue trousers and traditional Oily land attire adorned with leopard print, walked up to the wooden platform and greeted the people in his native language and they all responded. Izon-tu-or-noah, the man said. Hein! They all responded. Ah-Izon, the man shouted. Hein! They replied. Izon-kimi-emi-ah, the man asked? Emii...oh, they all responded, cheering him up. The translator said I greet you all my people. Yes my people are you there? Yes we are, he interpreted.
The crew was surprised to hear the man change to English. I just returned from the city and it is so unfortunate that the cities of the Oily lands are still having difficult times, the elder said. The translator frowned as he interpreted to the people, slightly disappointed he wasnt interpreting to the Westerners in English.
Even the cities are in total blackout resulting from the managerial incapability of the Oily lands electrical power providers. This occurred when the whole nation was subdued by total collapse of the power generating system.
In assessment of the electrical provider of the nation, only one verdict was left and that was failure and absolute failure in the electrical providers of the nation. He continued, we thought that the electricity problems in the nation will be over but we were wrong, because the new directors were not magicians that could Oily land from the hands of darkness.
He cleared his throat and said, living in absolute darkness is not new in the nation and so are many sorrows caused in business and residential areas, and situations like that have resulted in loss of properties and in some cases outbreak of fire or an outcome of fluctuating voltage that has led to the loss of lives and properties.
For people like us who are lost in the depths of the Oily land, life has been different altogether, he said. Mosquito bite at night and our children can hardly sleep at night as a result of the discomfort caused by the mosquitoes. We do not have cold drinks or wear ironed clothes, so we hardly look presentable. These are some of the ironic benefits of the Oily lands electric providers.
Imagine the discomfort of getting home after a hard day and there is no atom of comfort because everywhere is in darkness. Living in the dark is also a difficult predicament. The expense of buying oil for lamps, warming foods that would have been refrigerated and the increased cost and scarcity of oil required to light your lamp and stove and we are left with little or no option but to risk burning our wooden houses with candles, he said sadly.
If not for little transistor radios, which are kind of common and keeps us aware of what is happening around us, we would have been cut from civilization.
Residents of a town close to the city have almost lost hope of power supply from the nations electric providers since their officials removed the transformers for repairs. The neighbouring towns had long lost all hopes since the electricity providers blamed the problems on their step-up facility and I am sure that is meaningless.
If we want to talk about being fair, the cities and neighbouring towns do not have constant electricity supply, how much more the people of the depths of the Oily lands, the man said.
Since the nations electricity providers are far from serving the purpose they were made for, do they still deserve to exist? They impose a fixed amount of money for neighbouring residents to contribute and yet no improvement.
It is all about payments, but these people can hardly afford a three square meal, so what is the issue here, he asked? Heartlessness and wickedness. We plead with the Westerners to please come to our aid, he said. The people cheered, while the Westerners applauded.
As a matter of fact, I will be discussing the major problems affecting the environment of the Oily lands, the elderly man continued. Since the problems affecting the environment are inter-related and complex, we will start by identifying the real causes of the problems because identifying them is necessary for the invention of suitable course of action. It calls for a clear understanding between the causes of environmental issues and the effects it has on the environment.
The real causes of the problems in Oily lands in regards to the environment are political instability, growth of population, poverty, migration, inequality and sectorial policies that are poorly defined. The policies of the field of activities that negatively influence the environment are those of infrastructure, transportation, industry, forestry and fisheries.
A great condition is the absence of fair play that is not always measured by an established rule on which a judgement is based because it is probably hard to comprehend.
On the other way round, it was discovered that the absence of fair play has a direct influence on the manner of production and wealth of people affected by environmental problems. So the underlying causes of such problems are not only related to ways of resources for exploitation but also for industrial development, the elderly man said.
After identifying the problems, I suppose you will know that the next step will be to classify them. That I am going to do by starting from the environmental issues, the elder continued.
Classification of environmental issues is a necessity in order to identify effective investments and a ranking of low, moderate and high will be used as a yardstick for measuring the significance of the problems affecting the Oily lands. The following problems classified as moderate to high priority includes water contamination, air pollution, solid wastes, flooding, depletion and degradation of agricultural land, fisheries supply, and a plant with a bell- shaped flowered head and a sweet smell, that grows from a bulb below the water and opens on top of the water, I cannot remember the name, the elder said, scratching his head.
Is it water Hyacinth, asked a member of the crew? Yes, it is water hyacinth, the elderly man replied with a thank you smile. Mangroves and biodiversity, he continued.
A further look into the Oily lands and you will find declining crop yield as a result of soil fertility loss, unemployment, over-hunting, crime, land conflict, poverty, lack of fallow, which can be classified under high priority. These high priority issues pressurize communities and natural resources, with a high concentration on the poor.
All these priority provide the classification of environmental issues that should be of immediate concern to you, my western friends, the man said.
Anthony looked at the classification of problem set, priority and problem type he earlier compiled and handed it to Captain Harry, who scanned through it.
On the other hand, the local people need to be enlightened on modern principles and methods of resource conservation and environmental management, the elder continued. The people also need to know more about the operations of the oil industry and its possible impacts, so they can join hands with planners and decision makers in working out realistic mechanism for coping with these impacts.
On that note I call it a day, the elderly man bowed and stepped down from the wooden platform. There were several rounds of applause for the brave elderly man that had expressed the heart of the Oily lands to the Westerners who promised to deliver the message to the West.