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Article: Ways of the rivers: arts and environment of the Niger Delta. (exhibition preview).
- Article from:
- African Arts
- Article date:
- March 22, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Regents of the University of California. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The universal stillness of the scene was very imposing; unbroken as it was by any sound, save the dashing of our own paddle-wheels, and the clear musical cry of the leadsman ... The large and umbrageous trees, with their festoons of Orchidae and purple and white Convolvuli hanging from the branches, formed a combination of forest scenery, so striking, novel, and interesting, as enabled us to forget that the much-talked-of Delta of the Niger had been fairly entered upon ...
(Capt. William Allen in Allen & Thomson 1848:178-85)
For Captain William Allen's contemporaries in the nineteenth century, the words "Niger Delta" were more likely to conjure up images ...