Word: nigeria
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...month-long, 1500-mile caravan trek from their home in Timia, across the desert, to the salt oasis of Bilma. After collecting a load of Bilma's salt, which still occurs in the form of upright pillars as described in the Bible, the group will head south for Nigeria, where they will sell their cargo to Hausa traders. It is an age-old example of the "comparative advantage" theory of international trade: the salt farmers, the transporters and the traders each stick to what they do best. There was a time when the salt ferried by the Tuareg was worth...
...more than just a legend. In the foothills of Mount Pelion, 170 km northwest of Athens, excavations have revealed remains of a Mycenean palace and city, a trading center for the mythical Jason and the Argonauts, who could have been gold traders sailing the Aegean and Black Sea. NIGERIA Crime Wave The streets of Lagos have become a battleground as police struggle to contain a dramatic upsurge in armed robberies. In the 10 months from August last year, 273 civilians and 84 police have died at the hands of gangs of thieves. Some of the gangs have as many...
...Gallery in Manhattan featured a number of Noks, including a "fine large-size sculptural terra-cotta, low-fire ceramic human head" with a minimum required bid of just $2,300. A woman who answered the phone at the gallery insisted that the items were "certifiably genuine." When asked about Nigeria's prohibition on the export and sale of Noks, she replied, "Maybe they were here before this law was passed...
...Louvre, antiquities are displayed with a respect uncommon in an African museum, where an exhibit may be dusty, unlabeled and all but forgotten. Moreover, the antiquities are safe. Frank Willett, a leading authority on Nigerian antiquities, has advised that disputed items in Western museums not be returned to Nigeria unless they can be properly protected. He compares the illicit-art trade to the drug trade. "The stimulus for all this, of course, comes from the West," he says. "If collectors and museums were not interested in acquiring these pieces, there wouldn't be an illicit trade in them...
Some attempts to stem the traffic may be working. Authorities in Mali have cut illegal exports 75% by enlisting villagers as informants. Mali is the only African country with which the U.S. has signed a bilateral treaty restricting the importation of cultural artifacts. In Nigeria, museums boss Eluyemi is talking with a group of illegal traders--who insist on being called vendors and have even formed a union--to work out "compensation" for the works they find to ensure that at least some objects remain in the country. The 1995 digging frenzy in Kawu slowed after six months, partly...