Book Review;A memoir ofNigeria;Madmen on the ground

　　書評;尼日利亞回憶錄;尼日利亞游記;

　　Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria. ByNoo Saro-Wiwa.

　　《尋找仙境：尼日利亞游記》, Noo Saro-Wiwa 著。

　　Throughout her childhood and early teens, NooSaro-Wiwa spent every summer in Nigeria. Theflight back always came as a shock, as was thearrival itself. The noise, decay and corruption ofLagos airport were unending, along with theinsects, power cuts and the higgledy-piggledy way of living that was far too intimate for onebrought up in Britains 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(dá)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 golfclubs 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 homewas 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, thatis, until Noos father, Ken Saro-Wiwa, a businessman and activist from the oil-rich region ofOgoni, 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(xué)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(dāng)成一座房子，而在尼日利亞的家才是真正意義上的家：標(biāo)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 destinationswhich she wrote up for Lonely Planet and Rough Guides. As the rest of the world becameincreasingly 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(jìn)孤獨的星球和旅游向?qū)е小ｋS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 anation of ruffians? Why is Lagos, their largest city, such a disaster of urban non-planningcharacterised by impatience, armed robberies and overflowing sewage? How do Nigerianssurvive in their own country, let alone thrive? It would be easy to focus on the colourfulinsanitythat is Africas most populous nation. But Ms Saro-Wiwa is careful to avoidcaricature. Curious, she travels out of Lagos to corners of the country many Nigerians neversee: to the Transwonderland Amusement Park, to the beauty of the eastern mountains and tothe northern city of Kano with its modestly covered women and its forest of ancientminarets. 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(guī)劃城市災(zāi)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(guān)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(yōu)雅婦女，稠密熱帶雨林中的遠(yuǎn)古宮殿。Saro-Wiwa驚嘆于尼日利亞人民的善良幽默，并結(jié)交新朋友他們展開雙臂擁抱這個充滿激情，智慧，富有創(chuàng)造力的國家

　　Book Review;A memoir ofNigeria;Madmen on the ground

　　書評;尼日利亞回憶錄;尼日利亞游記;

　　Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria. ByNoo Saro-Wiwa.

　　《尋找仙境：尼日利亞游記》, Noo Saro-Wiwa 著。

　　Throughout her childhood and early teens, NooSaro-Wiwa spent every summer in Nigeria. Theflight back always came as a shock, as was thearrival itself. The noise, decay and corruption ofLagos airport were unending, along with theinsects, power cuts and the higgledy-piggledy way of living that was far too intimate for onebrought up in Britains 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(dá)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 golfclubs 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 homewas 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, thatis, until Noos father, Ken Saro-Wiwa, a businessman and activist from the oil-rich region ofOgoni, 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(xué)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(dāng)成一座房子，而在尼日利亞的家才是真正意義上的家：標(biāo)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 destinationswhich she wrote up for Lonely Planet and Rough Guides. As the rest of the world becameincreasingly 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(jìn)孤獨的星球和旅游向?qū)е小ｋS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 anation of ruffians? Why is Lagos, their largest city, such a disaster of urban non-planningcharacterised by impatience, armed robberies and overflowing sewage? How do Nigerianssurvive in their own country, let alone thrive? It would be easy to focus on the colourfulinsanitythat is Africas most populous nation. But Ms Saro-Wiwa is careful to avoidcaricature. Curious, she travels out of Lagos to corners of the country many Nigerians neversee: to the Transwonderland Amusement Park, to the beauty of the eastern mountains and tothe northern city of Kano with its modestly covered women and its forest of ancientminarets. 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(guī)劃城市災(zāi)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(guān)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(yōu)雅婦女，稠密熱帶雨林中的遠(yuǎn)古宮殿。Saro-Wiwa驚嘆于尼日利亞人民的善良幽默，并結(jié)交新朋友他們展開雙臂擁抱這個充滿激情，智慧，富有創(chuàng)造力的國家