J. H. O. Olowe

Marooned in the Creeks: the Niger Delta Memoirs J. H. O. Olowe

After Joshua Olowe earned his bachelor's degree in 1978, he took part in the compulsory National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) program in Nigeria. Along with his teaching partner, Samuel, Joshua served for one year in the Koloama District in the Niger Delta area as an English teacher. But though he set out to make a difference in the lives of members of the community, he encountered debilitating setbacks.

Filled with rich detail and intense emotion, Marooned in the Creeks tells one man's story of navigating the challenges, joys, and opportunities of being a social and geographic transplant into an unfamiliar world. Olowe shares how his work within the small Ijaw community of Ukubie along the Akpoi creek offered him firsthand knowledge of the hardship and travails these people endured, and mirrored his own strategies and struggles he adopted to survive. Despite disliking his post and having no chance to relocate, Olowe decided to make the best of the situation. He formed an incredibly close bond with the place and the people, and found attitudes far different from his own. He details his confrontations with the school principal, his love affair with the intriguing Ebitonye, and the strange inner workings of the village itself.

A compelling narrative, Marooned in the Creeks reveals how a single eye-opening experience can forever change our perception on life.