Ndidi from Nigeria
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Description
In this episode Manchán has a chat with Nididi from Nigeria. Ndididi is from the eastern part of Nigeria from a village ‘that is like a city also, as all the amenities of the city are there. My own village even has a university. There is a big thick forest there, and a river, and a market and schools. There is electricity also. It is very beautiful.’ Their local market is renowned and people ‘from other cities, far and wide come to do their market there. People bring many foods and some people trade by barter. They might bring crayfish, and if they don't have money, they will exchange it for something else.’ She lived with her grandmother ‘in a traditional mud house, and even when my father was going to build a new house she refused, saying that this was the house that my husband build for me and so that's where she lived till she died.’ Singing was always a major force in her life. ‘My dad was an organist, and my husband is also one.  My children and I sing a lot. Singing is part of us. When you are happy you sing, you can also use singing to stop crying, as when you are singing you can’t be crying.’ Mostly they sing and play Christian music, but also high-life, which is highly percussive vibrant form of Nigerian music ‘It’s very happy music. You’d be jumping and dancing. Us women, use our waists to dance, so that are waists are shaking. Western people use their legs.' Home Stories was funded by Creative Ireland alongside the county councils of Laois and Westmeath.
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