Word: kano
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...backwoods of Western Nigeria last week, Yoruba tribesmen gazed unbelievingly at the strange men who tumbled out of the sky to make speeches and hand out toy balloons. Curious Hausa merchants applauded politely, as jabbering loudspeaker trucks moved slowly through the ancient city of Kano. Independence is coming next year to Britain's big West African colony, the most heavily populated country on the continent. And next month, Nigeria (pop. 35.7 million) will choose its first national government...
...lure away the vultures that are ever present in Kano, even on the tree-shaded grounds of Kano's Central Hotel, carrion had been dumped outside the city, and by the time the royal visitors flew in last week scarcely a bird could be seen. The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, representing their niece, Queen Elizabeth, were on their way to Kaduna to attend the biggest durbar (homage to princes) in northern Nigeria's history...
Houses with Shoes. In three years, Kano's Japan Housing Corp. has built in Tokyo alone "six new cities, each with 30,000 people." The "cities" are four-story apartment houses run either by the government corporation or by private companies that bought them for their employees. One building is filled with the families of 900 ragpickers who pay $1 a month in rent. In construction is a twelve-story building for the rich (monthly rent: up to $350), which will have a roof garden, Turkish baths, a nightclub, bowling alley and a parking lot for 250 automobiles...
...decorators are taking up Japanese-style sliding doors and silk screens, many Tokyo housewives now cook with gas, wash dishes in stainless steel sinks, and serve meals, not to a family sitting cross-legged on straw mats, but at Western tables. By 1993-"in time for my 107th birthday"-Kano hopes that Tokyo will be a city of skyscrapers, is even planning to build one 20 stories high...
...gadget-the simplest of them all in Western eyes-has already made its mark. "One of the first things I did, before we built a single apartment house," says Kano, "was to order thousands of Yale-type keys. The result has been staggering. Getting keys to their own front doors has done more to Westernize many Japanese than any other single factor." Kano's tenants agree. "Formerly," said one last week, "either my wife or myself or one of the children simply had to stay home when the rest were out: Japanese houses are quite open and there...