(By Okey Ndibe) - "I was not altogether ignorant about
winter. . . . I had always thought that winter was the American version of what
the Igbo call ugulu, otherwise more widely known across West Africa
as harmattan. Harmattan is a dry cold wind that emanates from the Sahara Desert
and sweeps through much of West Africa from the latter part of the -ember month through to March.
Growing
up in Nigeria, I had witnessed many harmattan seasons. The harmattan brings
fine granules of dust that cause coughs, redden the eye, color the skin ashy,
and lend the atmosphere a patina of grey. It also gives the air a tinge—a mere
tinge—of cold. At the height of the harmattan season, the temperature drops in
the mornings, hovering around fifty-five degrees fahrenheits. In tropical
Nigeria, that’s what we call cold.
Whenever
I had come across the word ‘winter’ in print, I mentally transposed ‘harmattan’
in its place. Why would I pack a special winter jacket for my trip to New York
City when my people had never needed to invent harmattan jacket? The entire
arsenal of our combat against ugulu-grade
cold consisted of Vaseline (to sheen up dry, scaly skin), a sweater (usually
worn by the very elderly and children), a handkerchief (to ward off dust), and
a pair of sunglasses (to protect the eyes from airborne sand).
