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Article: Queen -plans -to see the real Nigeria - but the 'villagers' will be actors Royal visitors to Africa will go walkabout on a soap opera set as local people are kept away
- Article from:
- The Sunday Telegraph London
- Article date:
- November 30, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2003 The Sunday Telegraph London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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WHEN THE QUEEN returns to Nigeria this week for the first time
since its independence, a highlight of the royal itinerary will be
her walkabout in the colourful market at New Karu, a small farming
village just outside the gleaming modern capital, Abuja.
The Queen will be invited to meet and talk to market traders
preparing and selling eje - a homemade moonshine - and aweina -
beancakes - from a row of mud-brick stalls with shiny new zinc roofs.
The images, of Her Majesty mixing with the locals, will no doubt be
beamed across the world.
Yet not all will be as it seems: this will be a stage-managed
spectacle rather than real Nigerian life.
The market has been specially built for the Queen's ...