NIGERIA: A Dream of Utopia

For one month, delighted Londoners watched the 80 ceremonially dressed Nigerians—some with necklaces of animal teeth, others with feathered straw hats, at least one with a jeweled crown—parade into Lancaster House for their historic conference. Everything possible had been done to make them feel at home. For the Colonial Office's big reception at the Tate Gallery, all nude statues were carefully screened so as not to offend Moslems. The Lord Mayor served up a banquet of stewed peanuts, and one paramount chief—His Highness James Okosi II of the Onitsha—fulfilled a lifelong ambition:...