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Normal.dotm 0 0 1 269 1535 Rubypseudo 12 3 1885 12.0 0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} Ruby:Last summer, we took Nate, who's Nigerian, to uh, Nigeria. He'd never been before... Whilst I prepared by reading Noo Saro-Wiwa's 'Looking For Transwonderland' book [it's amazing, read it], Nate had essentially been prepared his whole life... [If you'd seen him laughing so much he couldn't breathe in the office watching this, you'd have laughed too]... When we got there, along with Australian Jimmy, Rosie, Ben, Tamika and I, we'd get cut off by the time we tried to introduce Nate: 'He's Nigerian, we know', they'd say, before saying 'he's like Lost and Found' [it became the nickname the sassy translators used for him too...] Here, he gives his views on youth culture out there and how things aren't as different as you might think... It's a point we're gonna keep making huh ;)Pseudo. xNate:Having never travelled to Nigeria before - yet being raised in a Nigerian household - is a funny thing... You hear about the customs of the country, the attitude of the people, you eat the food, learn some Yuroba and hear stories about the strict schooling system and police corruption. It all kind of leaves you with a pixilated view of country that you have vast attachment to... As I said, it’s weird...This pixilated view didn’t allow me any understanding of what you youth would be doing out there though, you'd think it didn't exist... My mothers/aunts/uncles/whomever's stories didn’t leave me with any inkling of an insight either... I had no idea what the latest trends and influence would be that'd be popping in 2012...During my time there, and through the hundreds of conversations I found myself in, I found that the young aren’t up to stuff too dissimilar to the young people here... They hang out... They watch sports... They play football, play pool, play around... They smoke, drink, do drugs, laugh... all that stuff. They may have to travel further to actually get to the TV station in town, yea, and they may not be able to afford the same amount of drinks as we thirstily [dumbly] do and the green they are smoking is definitely brown, but still... It ain't that different... There's definitely a Western influence thing going on yea, but the kids there are still very attached and proud of their countries own output, and damn, they should be... Nollywood movies, watched all over Africa, is now an industry worth around $250m that churns out 200 home movies every month... Their hip-hop and R'n'B continues to hold it's own too, with artists like Dbanj, P-Square’s and WizKid all making it big across the rest of Africa too and even infiltrating our radios making sound-waves... P-Square's infectious [to the point of it being annoying] 'Chop My Money' song with Akon has a video to match any of those coming out of America; white expensive car? Check. Pretty girl spending [chopping] all your money? Check. You and your friends laughing it off in a club? Check... Diamonds, in ears, on fingers, on handbags? Check. Dance move anyone can mimic across the world? Yea, course... And then there's WizKid, who has a deal with Pepsi, if you were having trouble getting away from Chop My Money, getting away from WizKid's face was just as hard... Naturally, the guys I was chatting to were telling me they liked his 'swagger' [yea, really], and had started copying his 'carrot jeans' or 'swagger trousers' [trouser