VASDU

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Country of the month

Here we want to present to you every month a different African country on cultural, economical and political view. So for you as same as for us to know a bite more about this beautiful continent. 

culture

The culture of Nigeria is shaped by Nigeria's multiple ethnic groups. The country has 527 languages, seven of them are extinct. Nigeria also has over 1150 dialects and ethnic groups. The six largest ethnic groups are the Hausa and Fulani in the north, the Igbo in the southeast, and the Yoruba predominate in the southwest, the Tiv people of North Central Nigeria and the Efik - Ibibio. The Edo people are most frequent in the region between Yorubaland and Igboland. Many of the Edo tend to be Christian. This group is followed[clarification needed] by the Ibibio/Annang/Efik people of the coastal south southern Nigeria and the Ijaw of the Niger Delta.

Nigeria’s other ethnic groups, sometimes called ‘minorities’, are found throughout the country but especially in the north and the middle belt. The traditionally nomadic Fulani can be found all over West and Central Africa. The Fulani and the Hausa are predominantly Muslim while the Igbo are predominantly Christian and so are the Efik, Ibibio, and Annang people. The Yoruba are equally likely to be either Christian or Muslim. Indigenous religious practices remain important to all of Nigeria’s ethnic groups, and frequently these beliefs are blended with Christian beliefs, a practice known as syncretism.

The Main Nigerian Ethnicities

Yoruba Culture

The Yorubas are located on the western region of Nigeria and their leadership is monarchial in nature. They have kings who are allowed to take as many wives as they want and chiefs and titled individuals. They also practice traditional worship, paying homage to gods like Sango; the god of thunder, Oya, Ogun; the god of iron…etc. The Yoruba people are very friendly and welcoming to people of other tribes and nationalities.

Efik-Ibibio Culture

The Efik-Ibibio culture of coastal southeastern Nigeria has made a significant contribution to the culture of Nigeria, especially the culture of the southern region.

Igbo Culture

The eastern part of Nigeria is the home of the Igbos, who are mostly Christians. Their traditional religion is known as Omenani. Socially they are led by monarchs known as Eze Igwes. These figures in turn are expected to confer subordinate titles upon men and woman that are highly accomplished. This is known as the Nze na Ozo title system. People of title are usually well-spoken, highly respected and well recognized in their communities.

Hausa-Fulani Culture

The Hausa-Fulani live in Northern Nigeria. Nigeria Consist of my Tribe and many Cultures, Hausa Fulani are the largest or is the most popular tribe in Nigeria, even though the Hausa and Fulani are different tribes but they are considered as one tribe due to the close relationship that exist between the two tribes. Hausa In Hausa land the their one culture that is always practice yearly by Hausa people known as Hawan Sallah.

 

Nigerian Literatur

Nigeria is famous for its English language literatureThings Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, is an important book in African literature. With over eight million copies sold worldwide, it has been translated into 50 languages, making Achebe the most translated African writer of all time.

Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka described the work as “the first novel in English which spoke from the interior of the African character, rather than portraying the African as an exotic, as the white man would see him.”  Nigeria has other notable writers of English language literature. These include Femi Osofisan who first published a novel Kolera Kolej was in 1975; Ben Okri whose first work, The Famished Road was published in 1991 and Buchi Emecheta who wrote stories drawn from her personal experiences of gender inequity that promote viewing women through a single prism of the ability to marry and have children. Helon HabilaSefi Atta , Flora NwapaIquo DianaAbasi EkeZaynab Alkali and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie among others are notable Nigerian authors whose works are read widely within and outside the country.

 

Nollywood

Since the 1990s the Nigerian movie industry, sometimes called “Nollywood“, has emerged as a fast-growing cultural force all over Africa. Because of the movies, western influences such as music, casual dressing and methods of speaking are to be found all across Nigeria, even in the highly conservative north of the country

 

Food

Nigerian food offers a rich blend of traditionally African carbohydrates such as yam and cassava as well as the vegetable soups with which they are often served. Maize is another crop that is commonly grown in Nigeria. Praised by Nigerians for the strength it gives, garri is “the number one staple carbohydrate food item in Nigeria”[ a powdered cassava grain that can be readily eaten as a meal and is quite inexpensive. Yams are frequently fried either fried in oil or pounded to make a mashed potato-like yam pottage. Nigerian beans, quite different from green peas, are widely popular. Meat is also popular and Nigerian suya—a barbecue-like roasted meat—is a well-known delicacy. Bush meat, meat from wild game like antelope and giraffes, is also popular. Fermented palm products make a traditional liquor, palm wine, and also fermented cassava. Nigerian foods are spicy, mostly in the western and southern part of the country, even more so than in Indian cuisine.

Fashion

Historically, Nigerian fashion incorporated many different types of fabrics. Cotton has been used for over 500 years for fabric-making in Nigeria. Silk (called tsamiya in Hausa, sanyan in Yoruba, akpa-obubu in Igbo, and sapar ubele in Edo) is also used. Perhaps the most popular fabric used in Nigerian fashion is Dutch wax print, produced in the Netherlands. The import market for this fabric is dominated by the Dutch company Vlisco, which has been selling its Dutch wax print fabric to Nigerians since the late 1800s, when the fabric was sold along the company’s oceanic trading route to Indonesia. Since then, Nigerian and African patterns, color schemes, and motifs have been incorporated into Vlisco’s designs to become a staple of the brand.

Nigeria has over 250 ethnic groups and as a result, a wide variety of traditional clothing styles. In the Yoruba tradition, women wear an iro (wrapper), buba (loose shirt) and gele (head-wrap). The men wear buba (long shirt), sokoto (baggy trousers), agbada (flowing robe with wide sleeves) and fila (a hat). In the Igbo tradition, the men’s cultural attire is Isiagu (a patterned shirt), which is worn with trousers and the traditional Igbo men’s hat called Okpu Agwu. The women wear a puffed sleeved blouse, two wrappers and a headwrap. Hausa men wear barbarigas or kaftans (long flowing gowns) with tall decorated hats. The women wear wrappers and shirts and cover their heads with hijabs (veils).

 

 

ECONOMY

The economy of Nigeria is a middle-income, mixed economy and emerging market, with expanding manufacturing, financial, service, communications, technology and entertainment sectors. It is ranked as the 27th-largest economy in the world in terms of nominal GDP, and the 24th-largest in terms of purchasing power parity. Nigeria has the largest economy in Africa; its re-emergent manufacturing sector became the largest on the continent in 2013, and it produces a large proportion of goods and services for the West African subcontinent.[26] In addition, the debt-to-GDP ratio is 16.075 percent as of 2019.

Nigerian GDP at purchasing power parity (PPP) has almost tripled from $170 billion in 2000 to $451 billion in 2012, though estimates of the size of the informal sector (which is not included in official figures) put the actual numbers closer to $630 billion. Correspondingly, the GDP per capita doubled from $1400 per person in 2000 to an estimated $2,800 per person in 2012 (again, with the inclusion of the informal sector, it is estimated that GDP per capita hovers around $3,900 per person). (Population increased from 120 million in 2000 to 160 million in 2010). These figures were to be revised upwards by as much as 80% when metrics were to be recalculated subsequent to the rebasing of its economy in April 2014.

Although oil revenues contribute 2/3 of state revenues, oil only contributes about 9% to the GDP. Nigeria produces only about 2.7% of the world’s oil supply. Although the petroleum sector is important, as government revenues still heavily rely on this sector, it remains a small part of the country’s overall economy.

The largely subsistence agricultural sector has not kept up with rapid population growth, and Nigeria, once a large net exporter of food, now[when?] imports some of its food products, though mechanization has led to a resurgence in manufacturing and exporting of food products, and the move towards food sufficiency. In 2006, Nigeria came to an agreement with the Paris Club to buy back the bulk of its debts owed from them for a cash payment of roughly US$12 billion.

According to a Citigroup report published in February 2011, Nigeria will have the highest average GDP growth in the world between 2010 and 2050. Nigeria is one of two countries from Africa among 11 Global Growth Generators countries.

Overview

In 2014, Nigeria changed its economic analysis to account for rapidly growing contributors to its GDP, such as telecommunications, banking, and its film industry.

In 2005, Nigeria reached an agreement with the Paris Club of lending nations to eliminate all of its bilateral external debt. Under the agreement, the lenders will forgive most of the debt, and Nigeria will pay off the remainder with a portion of its energy revenues. Moreover, human capital is underdeveloped—Nigeria ranked 151 out of countries in the United Nations Development Index in 2004—and non-energy-related infrastructure is inadequate.

 From 2003 to 2007, Nigeria attempted to implement an economic reform program called the National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (NEEDS). The purpose of the NEEDS was to raise the country’s standard of living through a variety of reforms, including macroeconomic stability, deregulationliberalizationprivatization, transparency, and accountability.

The NEEDS addressed basic deficiencies, such as the lack of freshwater for household use and irrigation, unreliable power supplies, decaying infrastructure, impediments to private enterprise, and corruption. NEEDS was intended to create 7 million new jobs, diversify the economy, boost non-energy exports, increase industrial capacity utilization, and improve agricultural productivity. A related initiative on the state level is the State Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (SEEDS).

A longer-term economic development program is the United Nations (UN)- sponsored National Millennium Goals for Nigeria. Under the program, which covers the years from 2000 to 2015, Nigeria is committed to achieving a wide range of ambitious objectives involving poverty reduction, education, gender equality, health, the environment, and international development cooperation. In an update released in 2004, the UN found that Nigeria was making progress toward achieving several goals but was falling short on others.

Specifically, Nigeria had advanced efforts to provide universal primary education, protect the environment.

A prerequisite for achieving many of these worthwhile objectives is curtailing endemic corruption, which stymies development and taints Nigeria’s business environment. President Olusegun Obasanjo‘s campaign against corruption, which includes the arrest of officials accused of misdeeds and recovering stolen funds, has won praise from the World Bank. In September 2005, Nigeria, with the assistance of the World Bank, began to recover US$458 million of illicit funds that had been deposited in Swiss banks by the late military dictator Sani Abacha, who ruled Nigeria from 1993 to 1998. However, while broad-based progress has been slow, these efforts have begun to become evident in international surveys of corruption. Nigeria’s ranking has consistently improved since 2001 ranking 147 out of 180 countries in Transparency International‘s 2007 Corruption Perceptions Index.

The Nigerian economy suffers from an ongoing supply crisis in the power sector. Despite a rapidly growing economy, some of the world’s largest deposits of coal, oil and gas and the country’s status as Africa’s largest oil producer, power supply difficulties are frequently experienced by residents.

 

Two thirds of Nigerians expect living conditions to improve in the coming decades. 

politik

As Africa’s most populous country, largest economy, and biggest democracy, Nigeria is a bellwether for the continent. National and state elections in 2019 were deeply competitive, with scattered instances of violence amid a mostly peaceful process. However, historically low voter turnout signals a deepening distrust in government and institutions. Overall, Nigeria has made major strides in its democratic development, but still has significant work to do in improving national, state, and local governance.

USIP’S Work (United State Institut of Peace)

Nigeria’s federal system gives governors great responsibilities in addressing the issues that are driving conflict and the Boko Haram insurgency. USIP brings together state governors and civic leaders to design and implement inclusive policies that mitigate violence and strengthen community-oriented security. The Institute engages a variety of influential figures, empowers citizens, and uses its expertise and convening power to inform Nigeria policy in the U.S., the region, and around the world. Recent work includes:

Nigeria Working Group on Peacebuilding and Governance

The Working Group fosters relationships between citizens, governors, and national and international figures to ensure a diverse array of voices impact decision-making processes. These relationships allow the Working Group to turn expert analysis—such as a recent Special Report that examines changes in political and conflict conditions since 2015—into tangible, actionable recommendations. The analysis from our recent Special Report informed key stakeholders’ strategies for preventing violence throughout the 2019 election season.

Strengthening Local Security

USIP’s Justice and Security Dialogue project in Nigeria improves local, state, and national-level institutions’ ability to manage local conflict through supporting dialogues and activities that bring security and justice providers together with communities impacted by violence. The approach promotes mutual understanding, knowledge-sharing, and trust among participants, and results in better informed decision-makers, more effective and accountable security forces, and citizens who are active in the safety of their own community.

Network of Nigerian Facilitators

Community facilitators trained by USIP are holding dialogues in six states throughout the country. Dialogues focused on preventing election-related violence—including during the post-election transition period—as well as strengthening community-security relationships and other conflicts that facilitators identify as having the potential to lead to violence.

Working with State Governments and Peacebuilding Institutions

USIP helps governors and state peacebuilding institutions leverage their influence and networks to establish inclusive, cooperative strategies that prevent and resolve violent conflict, ensure policies focus on citizens’ needs, and stem the potential for electoral violence as well as play meaningful roles in the transition process.

Civilian-led Security and Governance

USIP conducted research on the transition to civilian-led security and governance in northeast Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin in the aftermath of the Boko Haram insurgency. USIP experts suggested replacing military forces with police officers—increasing both the size and capacity of the police as part of the process—and creating a formal interagency cooperation mechanism dedicated to community stabilization. In 2019, USIP will convene newly elected and re-elected politicians to discuss the findings and incorporate the recommendations in their security plans.

Researching Community Resilience to Violence

 

With USIP’s support, the Centre for Information Technology and Development examined the factors that make certain communities in northeast Nigeria more resistant to violence. The research showed that resilience thrives when there is a robust community platform for active citizen participation and democratic decision-making.

NIGERIA

Here we want to inform you about our projects. What we have already done, what we are doing and what we are planning to do in the future. We will keep you on track as well as possible and will be greatfull for any support.

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These are going to be weekly news without a specific topic: This might be a must-know for anyone belonging to the African community. It can also come from Universities or Embassies so for African Students to always stay tuned. 

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Here we regularly post articles about different interesting topics. Going from our own experience on the German ground to articles about health, politics, culture, business and economics. Enjoy the reading and don’t forget to leave comments and visit our social network pages. 

About Us

Our Team

We are a group of Students at the university of Heidelberg with focuses ranging from linguistics to Medicine. Our members have different backgrounds and come from different countries. They are committed to help any newcomers especially students for a better integration in this beautiful country, Germany. We feel blessed to have captured your attention via our platforms and are pleasured to do our best to further help you with issues regarding university, integration or for any other questions. 

Don’t be shy, contact us.

RESULTS FROM A SURVEY THAT WAS RUN ON OUR MEMBERS

This survey was run by the formal president of the association Karl Fokou, with the help of the secretary Nelly Ouedraogo. It’s purpose was to get to know each individual personally, establish a database of the members but most importantly, to find a way to fulfill and satisfy our members in terms of the development of the association. We wanted to know their expectations , what they didn’t like much so far and what they would suggest for improvement. We also took record of the spoken languages around the crew. All in all, those one-on-one phone calls with the members were amazing, we thank every participant for the time they took for us. But we also want our visitors to note that this survey engaged 44 out of 75 of our members. Karl and Nelly were not included in the statistics to prevent biased results and the other 29 members couldn’t participate for personal reasons. In conclusion these are the results of  60,3% of the members of our community, and we hope it is representative of the association.

Expectations Of The Members

 

  • Help newcomers have a better integration and help them find a network that can 
    support them in regards  to their main issues: apartment, job, new
    system.

     

     

  • Organize intercultural events and meetings that will promote the African culture,
    strengthen the trust within the community at large, which would make some members feel more at home.
  • Help meet new people in the region and in the area, with whom we can have fun, decompress,
    enjoy and also avoid loneliness and depression. 

     

     

  • Have a forum or debates where we can post  information or discuss about the experiences of
    one another regarding discrimination and racism for example, and also get
    support from the community when necessary.

     

     

  • Organise charity actions and projects. 

     

     

  • Offer educational and schooling support to children from immigrant families
  • Educate ourselves and the Europeans about Africa (it is not a country it is a continent. My
    Africa is not the same as yours)
  • Have some fame or status at the university and motivate new members to join us in the
    adventure.
  • Have a strong network that boosts social life, mutual aid and purpose that can have a
    positive impact on the members of the community and our continent.

Points That Need To Be Worked On

 

  • We need to meet more (meetings, events) 
  • We need more transparency 
  • We need more communication 
  • We need a common and clear purpose “what do we stand for ?”
  • We need to motivate the inactive members 
  • We need to be able to help our members when they are in difficult financial situations 
  • We need to advertise our culture more 
  • We need a stronger African diaspora that can come together and think about realistic
    and applicable projects 
  • We need more projects and realizations
  • The flow of messages in the WhatsApp group is high

Spoken Languages In The Association

  • English
  • German 
  • French 
  • Swahili
  • Arabic 
  • Kikuyu
  • Lingala 
  • Luganda
  • Kinyarwanda
  • Loo
  • Dutch

What are our origins ?

How old are we?

When did we join the association?

What do we do for a living? 

In which Fields do we study or work?

How connected to our homelands do we see ourselves in the near future?

This one is for members or people who wish to become members:

Please note that the majority of those who had no problem with the fees also demanded  that everything remains transparent, in terms of how it will be used. Which we highly understand and we will see to it that it is done that way.