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Still in Books and Arts; Book Review;A memoir of Nigeria；Madmen on the ground；
文藝；書評；尼日利亞回憶錄；尼日利亞游記；
Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria. By Noo Saro-Wiwa.
《尋找仙境：尼日利亞游記》, Noo Saro-Wiwa 著。
Throughout her childhood and early teens, Noo Saro-Wiwa spent every summer in Nigeria. The flight back always came as a shock, as was the arrival itself. The noise, decay and corruption of Lagos airport were unending, along with the insects, power cuts and the higgledy-piggledy way of living that was far too intimate for one brought up in Britain’s home counties.
孩提時代和少年時光的Noo，每年都要去尼日利亞度過她的夏季。到達尼日利亞和航班返回時的嗡嗡聲一樣讓Noo感到厭惡。喧嘩，骯臟的拉各斯機場永不停息，再加上昆蟲和供電中斷，這種雜亂無章的生活方式，對于從小在英國長大的noo說是陌生的。
Ms Saro-Wiwa would far rather have stayed in the family house in leafy Surrey, with its golf clubs and Leylandii trees, or holed up with her smart boarding-school friends from Roedean. But her mother thought of their Surrey home as the “house”, whereas their Nigerian home was “home”, a character-building “tropical gulag” with kerosene lamps, rice-and-okra soup, “body-temperature Coca-Cola” and a live-in tribe of cackling uncles and aunts. Home, that is, until Noo’s father, Ken Saro-Wiwa, a businessman and activist from the oil-rich region of Ogoni, was arrested, imprisoned and then hanged in 1995 for his outspoken political views. The trips back to Nigeria came to an abrupt stop.
Saro-Wiwa寧可呆在擁有高爾夫球具和Leylandii樹的葉薩里郡家中，或者和來自羅丁寄宿制學校的淘氣小伙伴們玩躲貓貓的游戲。但Saro-Wiwa的媽媽把這個葉薩里郡的家當成一座房子，而在尼日利亞的家才是真正意義上的“家”：標志性建筑“熱帶拉格”中的煤油燈和大米秋葵粥，暖暖的可樂，家族中長輩的高談闊論--這才是真正意義上的家，直到Noo的父親肯·薩洛-威瓦，這個來自于奧格尼的商人和活動家，因為他的直言不諱的政治言論，而逮捕入獄，隨后又于1995年被處于極刑。尼日利亞的旅途才戛然而止。
For a decade afterwards, Ms Saro-Wiwa traded Surrey and Roedean for new destinations which she wrote up for “Lonely Planet” and “Rough Guides”. As the rest of the world became increasingly familiar, Nigeria appeared to her to have more and more mystique. Eventually, she just had to return to the country no sane tourist would set foot in.
隨后的十年，Saro-Wiwa將葉薩里郡和羅丁做為新的旅行目的地，并寫進“孤獨的星球”和“旅游向導“中。隨著對外部世界的逐漸了解，尼日利亞在Saro-Wiwa看來逐漸變得富有神秘。最終，她決定返回尼日利亞這個任何神志清醒的人都不愿意踏上旅途的國家。
“Looking for Transwonderland” is a search for enlightenment. Why are Nigerians such “a nation of ruffians”? Why is Lagos, their largest city, such a “disaster of urban non-planning” characterised by “impatience, armed robberies and overflowing sewage”? How do Nigerians survive in their own country, let alone thrive? It would be easy to focus on the colourful insanitythat is Africa’s most populous nation. But Ms Saro-Wiwa is careful to avoid caricature. Curious, she travels out of Lagos to corners of the country many Nigerians never see: to the Transwonderland Amusement Park, to the beauty of the eastern mountains and to the northern city of Kano with its modestly covered women and its forest of ancient minarets. Along the way, she allows herself to be surprised by kindness and humour, making new friends who open her eyes to the passion, wit and ingenuity of her homeland.
“尋找仙境“是探尋文明之旅。為什么尼日利亞是“綁匪之國”?為什么以騷動，持槍搶劫和污水泛濫為特征的最大城市拉各斯被稱作“無規劃城市災難”？尼日利亞人如何生存下去？更別說繁榮昌盛？這個非洲人口最多國家，不難得到世人的關注。Saro-Wiwa卻小心翼翼的避免碰觸任何夸張描述。讓人稱奇的是，她游歷了連諸多尼日利亞人都不曾到過的拉各斯的各個角落：充滿奇幻色彩的主題娛樂公園，美麗的東部山脈，北部城市卡諾戴著頭巾的優雅婦女，稠密熱帶雨林中的遠古宮殿。Saro-Wiwa驚嘆于尼日利亞人民的善良幽默，并結交新朋友—他們展開雙臂擁抱這個充滿激情，智慧，富有創造力的國家。
