The townsfolk of Karu in central Nigeria watched the British queen on a giant television screen in their main square on Thursday, as she toured a mock-up market under heavy guard in a nearby compound.
Security fears surrounding Queen Elizabeth's first state visit to Nigeria since its independence were so great that the monarch was taken to the staged arena, purpose-built by the BBC for a new World Service radio soap opera, instead of the real Karu market.
"I believe if she wanted to visit the market she should have gone to the actual market," said Patrick Chenge, 40, who watched the screening with three young children. "Maybe there was a bit of stage managing involved."
Wearing a pink dress suit, pink hat and white gloves, Queen Elizabeth showed particular interest in a food stall displaying smoked fish and nuts, and watched a short sketch about living with AIDS before being whisked out of the compound in a convoy of sport-utility vehicles.
"Obviously security was a major factor," said a British diplomat.
A British spokeswoman said that some of the people the Queen met during her 20-minute tour were real market traders, while others were BBC actors brought in for the launch of the three-year radio soap project.
The set was created because radio producers prefer the "authentic" sound provided by an outdoor set to studio sound, even though the audience will never see the "market."
The market tour was the Queen's main opportunity to meet "ordinary Nigerians" on her four-day state visit, when she is also due to open a Commonwealth leaders' summit.
People watching the giant screen in Karu said the visit, the Queen's first since Nigeria gained independence from Britain in 1960, had already brought some blessings to the poverty-stricken town.
Its main road was recently resurfaced with smooth earth, and a faulty electricity supply has become more reliable in the past few weeks, they said.
Angela Omeje, a 22-year-old street trader, said she hoped it would bring more improvements to the community.
"Do you have water? Do you have electric light? Do you have water? We are lacking many things and our children are suffering from bad facilities in the schools," she said, pushing a plastic wheel-barrow containing sweet yam snacks.
"Many people are running with barrows and we are lacking jobs," she added before disappearing into the crowd of hundreds.
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
‘ABSURD MISTAKE’: The election commission said that there had been a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations ran short of ballot papers South Korean riot police yesterday cleared protesters from a Seoul polling station after a 35-hour blockade sparked by a shortage of ballot papers during local elections earlier this week. Wednesday’s election was the first nationwide vote since South Korean President Lee Jae-myung took office following the ouster of Yoon Suk-yeol over his short-lived martial law declaration. Lee’s ruling Democratic Party swept most races, but failed to flip the crucial Seoul mayoral seat. The South Korean National Election Commission apologized, blaming a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations in Seoul ran short of ballot papers. Some polling stations stayed open until 10pm to
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
A Sherpa guide was found crawling to base camp on Mount Everest a week after he went missing and was reunited with his family, who had given up hope he would return. Dawa Sherpa was last seen on Friday last week descending the mountain, but he did not reach base camp even though his client did. The pair were among the last climbers on the mountain as the climbing season came to an end and the route was dismantled. Dawa was located by a cleaning crew on Thursday morning as he was crawling down the snowy slopes around the Khumbu Icefall, just above
RSS