Pick the Cat's Eyes Out

In the late 1960s, English journalists were told to stay away from the Biafran War and turn their keen eyes to Vietnam. "Cover America's howler, not ours." At Earth Summit 2002 in Johannesburg, Namibia's President Sam Nujoma said, "We here in southern Africa have one big problem, created by the British." They drew lines on a map when they had no business ever clutching the quill.

I can't imagine the public bore witness to the famine that resulted from the Biafran War as intimately as folks bore witness to the Ethiopian famine in the 80s; nevertheless, the images were there in late '60s Britain, so it's laugh-inducing when I read the following excerpt from an article on Paul McCartney and his Wings, who zipped away to Lagos in 1973 to record Band on the Run.

How were the McCartneys received in Nigeria?
"We enjoyed it eventually. We're all a bit British y'know."

Of course, as all the narratives go, Paul and company were cornered by a nondescript local and accused of filching African music, and then mugged by Fela Kuti at knifepoint. Or vice-versa. Hey Macca, I guess you weren't all a bit Brit. Whatever the case, tonight I fell into the laid-back groove of King Sunny Ade's "Easy Motion Tourist" and thought of Paul. Somewhere he's still drawing lines on a map.