A dancing society

After checking my mail in the shade of the car, I went for a stroll around the Millenium Park yesterday afternoon. I was blasting the excellent Afrique C'est Chic compilation album out of the Ipod. I'm very distracted by sound, so I find listening to music from an Ipod helps me to see things more clearly. It transformed my experience of the park. I noticed something that more observent types would spot immediately: everyone dances here. This being Nigeria, the everyready rhythm latent in the muscles is transformed into a business model: a troupe of musicians work the space, moving from group to group, extracting naira through talking-drummed praise. Its as if I'm watching in slo-mo. A group of elegant hausa women sway gracefully to the rhythm, self-consciously coy at dancing in public. A man in a corduroy outfit and funky shades rolls from side to side as if he's on Soul Train, accessorised by Star. There's something beautiful going on here, amongst these people: celebrating the simple joy of an afternoon in the park.