Teknoids

Before the interior of sub-Saharan Africa was known, mapmakers would leave it blank or dark and so Africa was known as the "Dark Continent".

This graphic from 2005 shows that Africa is still the Dark Continent in terms of Internet accessibility.

This map shows the reason why ...

Although this map is from 2004, it's illustrative of the problem. Here's a closer look at Nigeria where I am most interested...

My travels took me to the Abuja campus which is the largest of the four campuses of the Nigerian Law School. There are 1600 students enrolled here and the picture above shows just about all of them.

Because the room is so big, I took three pictures and stitched together. If you click on the picture (or here), you can see a larger version.

I can't imagine teaching to such large classes. It's more like a rock concert or a church service and the parallels are not far off in terms of individual interactivity between the teacher and student. This is the problem. To the hapless students sitting in the back row, they can learn just as well from a tape recording of the lecture - perhaps better because they can pause and rewind, listen over and over and choose the time and place to listen.

Yesterday, I visited the Kano Campus of the Nigerian Law School. Kano is in the north of Nigeria and is NIgeria's second most populous city after Lagos. The law school is a long way away from the city center and resides on a large and beautiful campus of a former conference center/resort.

My estmeed host, Professor Nasirdeen Usman took me on a thorough tour of the place which is undergoing much renovation (and much needed). We interrupted a class on Evidence that was being taught to the 400 students and since it was Monday, I took a picture to contrast to the "casual day" picture from my last post.

As you can see, the status quo is black suites, white shirts and black ties. Women dress in business black for class. The temperature in the room was around 70 degrees Farenheit - actually cold to the Nigerians. During the rainy season, it can get quite hot and damp. The students were not "kids" either. Most looked to be in the their 30's or 40's and upon questioning I learned that this is true of most law students at the Nigerian Law Schools. Many government officials, policemen and former military go to law school.

The picture above was taken during my visit of the Enugu campus of the Nigerian Law School this just past Friday. This was my second stop of four. I am visiting all four campuses of the Nigerian Law School - Lagos, Enugu, Abuja and Kano.

While touring the Enugu campus, we dropped in on a Property class in progress and I was asked to say a few words on the spot.

I looked out over the 1000+ students (which is how they each law in Nigeria) and was dazzled by the colorful clothing. Many students were wearing traditional outfits and so I complimented them on the brightness of their clothing and urged them to mirror that brightness in their studies of law.