By Tonye Bakare with Yasmine Canga-Valles
05 January 2025 |
8:44 am
Amidst Nigeria’s financial struggles, Calabar’s streets come alive with practically two million revellers in beautiful apparel, celebrating certainly one of West Africa’s greatest road carnivals. Revellers wearing glitzy, vibrant costumes danced down the streets of Calabar, southern Nigeria, final weekend as big audio system blasted Afrobeats for certainly one of West Africa’s most prestigious carnivals. Each December,…
Amidst Nigeria’s financial struggles, Calabar’s streets come alive with practically two million revellers in beautiful apparel, celebrating certainly one of West Africa’s greatest road carnivals.
Revellers wearing glitzy, vibrant costumes danced down the streets of Calabar, southern Nigeria, final weekend as big audio system blasted Afrobeats for certainly one of West Africa’s most prestigious carnivals.
Each December, the celebration attracts practically two million partygoers to the capital of Cross River state, organisers stated.
READ ALSO: PHOTOS: Glitzy and glamour of Calabar Carnival
Calabar carnival, often called “Africa’s Greatest Road Social gathering”, is the excessive level of a month of festivities that started with the switching on of the lights on a 12-metre (40-foot) Christmas tree.
Now in its twentieth yr, the carnival attracts dancers and floats from Nigeria’s totally different ethnic communities, in addition to performers from overseas.
“We’re actually having fun with ourselves right here,” Grace Job, a first-time attendee, informed AFP. “The power is a lot. We’re seeing totally different designs, totally different costumes.”
Elemi Rejoice, a 25-year-old carnival dancer learning civil engineering on the College of Cross River, agreed. “Everyone seems to be attempting to showcase the custom and the tradition,” she defined.
Barbara Fruitful, one other younger carnival dancer learning psychology on the identical college, stated the carnival gave her the “likelihood to satisfy lots of people, vacationers”.
“I get the prospect to even have enjoyable… and chill with my associates and we now have the time of our life.”
The yr had been robust for a lot of Nigerians.
President Bola Tinubu’s reforms have sparked one of many worst cost-of-living crises the West African nation has seen in a long time.
However ‘Detty December’—native slang that loosely means end-of-year merrymaking—spreads Christmas cheer within the Christian-majority south, offering one thing of a reprieve from harsh financial realities.
The Calabar carnival, first held in 2004, is its spotlight. At the least 14 bands took half in performances and competitions this yr.
Cross River governor Bassey Otu stated the state had nurtured and expanded the carnival over time. It hopes in future so as to add a band representing Nigerians from the diaspora, who attend in rising numbers, and entice extra vacationers.
The central authorities is already constructing a 700-kilometre (435-mile) coast street that can reduce journey time from the business hub of Lagos to Calabar. That would open up the pageant to extra out-of-state contributors.
“Hopefully, we will beat the Brazil carnival within the years to come back as a result of we’re exhibiting our expertise completely,” Rejoice informed AFP.
