Reflections of Nigeria’s Most Mischievous Season
I should have known when I started sniffing about two weeks ago. Shortly after, my sniffles gradually escalated into incessant, raucous, ricocheting sneezes. The desert warrior is coming! Over the years, my nose, like a barometer, has proven to be an excellent predictor of weather changes. You can call it one of my superpowers. Even before any discernible evidence is provided, my nose knows when the weather will change.
Some pray for a white Christmas, in Nigeria, we can only expect a grey or brown one. Dust everywhere, hazy mornings, dry and hot afternoons, cool evenings. Sometimes the weather is so confusing that it contradicts itself. Today could start chilly and usher in a hot afternoon, however, tomorrow would be the reverse. Harmattan is a dramatic visitor that we all love to hate.
Anyone born before the early noughties should remember what real harmattan felt like. What we experience these days, at least in Lagos, is a joke compared with what the dry season was like back in the day. In the boarding house, we always had to wake up at 5 am. We were expected to clean up our surroundings before preparing for class. This was anything from cutting grass, sweeping the internal and external parts of the dormitory, and washing toilets. Imagine doing these activities as cold and heavy winds raced through every orifice in your body while you were clad in just a t-shirt and shorts. If you were lucky, you bathed in hot water boiled with a contraband boiling ring and this gave temporary relief. If you were not, a cold, stinging bath was your lot.
I thought I knew what harmattan was like after my boarding house experience. It wasn’t until I spent a year in Yobe State for youth service that I experienced the real deal. I remember the first time I actually felt the cold. I was walking to the corper’s lodge from the school where I was teaching, about a 10-minute walk. Suddenly, I felt a cold chill run through my knees like someone had hooked a pipe blowing a heavy stream of cold air under my kneecaps: I almost collapsed! That was the first of subsequent chilling experiences. There were also dusty winds that swept through everywhere and somehow managed to get into well-shut rooms, laying all over every available surface.
I went to Jos for a few days during the NYSC period and realised my Yobe experience was tame. Plateau State was where the true harmattan lived. I could only take a bath in the afternoon when the sun was at its most intense. However, it only offered a mild reprieve from the cold as even using hot water almost made no difference. By the time the water hit your body, it had turned cold. I wore several layers of clothes plus a head warmer and scarf. I was more thickly dressed than when I was in Yobe.
Global warming has been doing a number on everything weather-related, one never knows what to expect. I think Harmattan this year seems a bit more intense than the last few years and it’s also arrived a bit earlier than usual. One day, it storms in like an unwanted house guest and the next, it’s barely noticeable. I have yet to see anyone layering up though so it’s definitely not so cold yet. I have, however, seen many people sweating buckets under the intense afternoon sun. Overall, I think we should be thankful that it’s a lot milder these days.
With Harmattan comes the need to engage in a dedicated skincare routine. Chapped lips, dry skin, cracked heels, and ashy ankles are typical but thankfully, there’s lip balm, vaseline, lotion, baby oil, and all sorts to ease the crease. One has to be sure to generously smother one’s skin until it shines bright like a diamond. I mean, if you’re not glowing like The Sirius Star, are you even trying? No one wants to go out looking like they work as dust removal agents so rub and shine till you glow.
On a somewhat related note, I love winter fashion. Once winter sets in, out come the long coats, scarves, mittens, head warmers, and boots. Everyone looks so stylish as they battle the cold. Do we have Harmattan fashion in Nigeria? I know people dress like it’s winter in very cold regions of the country but down south where we get a mix of the dust, cold, and intense heat, do we have a harmattan style? Maybe sunglasses to manage the intensity of the sun but clothes? I can’t say I see any changes in what people wear compared with the rainy season. Do agbadas and boubous count though?
For me, the dry season automatically means an unending cough, intermittently stuffed and runny nose, and sometimes a light fever. I have never become accustomed to the dust flying around and this makes each day a very uncomfortable one. The cold weather doesn’t really get to me but you see that dust? That is the issue but do I wear a nose mask? No! Maybe I am the architect of my own problem!
Perhaps we can prevent or limit the effects of harmattan on our skin with creams and clothes but what about surfaces around our homes and offices? Everything gets a fresh coat of dust by the minute: cars, furniture, and this makes cleaning very hard work. What’s the point in washing your car today when it will be covered with dust by morning? How often do you need to wipe the surface of that furniture piece to ensure dust doesn’t accumulate? No matter how many times you attempt to clean anything, the dust will always win: it can get so annoying!
Harmattan is largely a sub-Saharan experience, our African winter for lack of a better expression. Sometimes I wonder if Nigerians could survive an extreme harmattan comparable to an intense winter. If it was cold all day and we had the dusty winds, how would we adapt our lives to manage this experience? How would it influence our dressing, architectural design, and daily activities?
Seeing as there is nothing we can do about Harmattan, we all just have to grin and bear it. Maybe those who live in areas with dunes can build sandmen just like snowmen are built in winter. No point really, one would have to contend with the force of the wind as the creations would never stand. So, let’s brace up for the harmattan till the rains come back. Remember to stay lotioned and also drink a lot of hot tea during the cold days and nights. We’ll survive the harmattan, we always do. This is the way I see things today.
