Portuguese Ambassador to Nigeria, Paulo Martins Santos, has said Nigeria’s diversity is its biggest tourism and cultural asset. He also disclosed that his best Nigerian delicacy is Jollof Rice, among other salient issues. Charles Ajunwa brings excerpts
What is your impression of the Carnival Calabar?
I arrived on Saturday just on time to also witness the beautiful children’s carnival. The First Lady was there and it was a beautiful parade. Today, I’m here with the bikers. What I’ve seen so far really can’t get much better than this. I know that you have been doing this for 20 years but it looks like you’ve been doing it for 200 or 2, 000 because of the level of professionalism and the attendance that you have here, the enthusiasm, makes me believe that you’ve been doing this forever.
So as the chairman (Chief Gabe Onah) was saying, for me this is like a comeback experience. The Portuguese people have been in this part of the world more than 550 years ago in the 15th Century. Back then this part of the world, the geography, the people living here, there was not much information about this area in Europe or the rest of the world. And when we came here, we introduced this part of the world to the rest of the other continents and the other peoples, sharing information on who lives here, how does this place look like, and others. We also left here a mark that is still very visible today in the names of the cities, the caves, rivers, in all the geographic names that you still use today. Calabar is one of those examples.
Calabar means the quiet harbor in my language. So it’s of course a place where the Portuguese ships found refuge after struggling with the waves of the ocean. When they come here up the Cross River they could finally rest. So it has this very beautiful symbolism to us today. In that sense, it’s very good really for me to be back home. It’s like a privilege and I hope to be to be able to come back here and what I can also tell you is that I will convince also other embassies, ambassadors in Abuja to come here because they don’t know what they’re missing.
The next year (2026) they should cancel their holidays. Usually many of my colleagues go home over Christmas and New Year, but I think this is a very good reason for them to stay here in Nigeria also during this season. I say thank you to the governor, and chairman.
Any cultural shock coming into Calabar?
No. I’ve been living in Nigeria more than two years now. So no cultural shock whatsoever. I’ve been travelling in this country. But again, I think I can tell you that even when I arrived, I really didn’t feel a big cultural shock. You know that Portugal and the African continent in general have a very long history, including Nigeria.
As I said, we were the first Europeans that visited this area. This happened more than 550 years ago. Of course, as you can imagine, after all this time, there’s a lot of shared experiences and shared history that makes Portuguese people really don’t feel much of a cultural shock whenever we come to Africa. In my case, having been living here more than two years, I got used to all the Naija way of life and I feel very well in all corners of this country.
Having spent a few days in Calabar, how can you assess the hospitality of the people down here?
So far, it can’t get any better than this.
Again, I just arrived a day ago. But the opportunities that I’ve been given by the people here who have been hosting me and accompanying me are really interesting. I’m already getting a good glimpse into what this city and what this state represents. I also went briefly to Akwa Ibom State. So, I already had even the opportunity to see a bit of the countryside of this country. So I already left the capital city. I’m very impressed. It’s a beautiful place. Of course, the fact that it’s near the coast and the ocean, for us Portuguese, it’s always a big plus because we are maritime people. I couldn’t feel better than what I’m feeling now.
This is the 20th edition of the Carnival. What do you think the government can do to make it more globally acceptable to the people?
I know it’s now been 20 years, it’s still relatively short time for a tradition like this. Of course, it needs some more years for the festival really to take hold globally and people know about it. But what I can tell you is that I would recommend, more of a global campaign so that people are more made aware of this. People are aware of the carnivals in Brazil, of course, first and foremost, very big events. Also some of the Caribbean festivals. But I think a lot of people, for instance, in Europe, they are not aware that this festival exists. That would be my recommendation to really try and make a sort of a global campaign to raise awareness that this festival exists and how good it is to see if we can attract also more of a global audience to it in the next editions.
Did you have anything in Portugal that is similar to this?
Oh, yes, of course. Carnival in Portugal is a very big thing. And that’s actually the reason why in Brazil it became so big. As you know, Brazil used to be part of the Portuguese expansion. We were there for 300 years. And it was mostly through us and our traditions that the Brazilians made it a big event. Now much bigger than what it is in Portugal.
But in Portugal, it’s the original carnival that we have been celebrating since the Roman Empire. The carnival is a really very, very old holiday in that part of Europe. It comes from the Roman Empire tradition. It’s 2,000 years old tradition. It’s very old.
In terms of culture and tourism, what strikes you the most about Nigeria?
Diversity. I think that’s the key word here. As I was telling you, I already had the opportunity to travel, I would say, a lot. I’ve been now to by far the majority of the Nigerian states. And to me, the most attractive things in terms of culture is really this diversity of this country that makes each state and sometimes even regions within the states to be very unique. So whoever thinks that Nigeria is monolithic, that person is very wrong.
There’s a huge variety, a big palette, of cultural manifestations here. And this is, of course, very much because of the structure of this country with all its different languages, religions, ethnicities. That’s, for me, the most beautiful thing about Nigeria, and that it’s then reflected in its culture.
What’s your best Nigerian delicacy?
I like jollof rice. I really got used to it. I can’t live without it now. It’s true.
Are you recommending this to your fellow countrymen? And is there a possibility of their participating here as a float or something?
I will be telling them about this. We have a relatively big community of Portuguese people here. They are not so much in this part of the country with just maybe two or three exceptions. Because mostly they are up North building this new railway from Kano to Niger Republic. So that’s where I have a lot of people. They are, of course, a bit far away from here. Then, of course, we have a big group in Lagos. I will definitely tell them about this and recommend them to come next year.
What would be your recommendations for all the floats used during Carnival Calabar?
In Portugal, we usually keep the structures that we used for carnival that are really relevant in terms of symbolism and history.
We keep them in museums. So most of it, of course, they are reused and recycled. But if some structure is really symbolic and relevant, we keep it in a museum.
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