This is a short read about the season we currently are in in Nigeria. It tries to showcase some of the experiences faced by Nigerians during this period.
Harmattan in Nigeria usually comes around November and lasts till around early March every year. During the harmattan period, cool, dry and dusty wind from Sahara desert blow over the country and some other west african countries into the Gulf of Guinea and this characterizes the dry season and lowest- sunshine months in the country.
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The fine dust that comes with harmattan known as harmattan haze are picked from Sahara desert and this causes dry air making the nose dry, itchy and painful. The atmosphere is heavily clouded and might cause poor visibility, homes are dusty causing several cleaning times, skins of people become dry and white; these effects of harmattan are usually not the desirable ones but the cool weather (some people do not fancy the cold temperature especially at early mornings) and less sunshine are more desired and welcomed. In homes, floors, furniture, curtains, clothes, kitchen utensils etc become dusty and constant cleaning and mopping is inevitable. People have to lubricate well with body lotions their skins to avoid it being dry and white, and gloss their lips with lip gloss, balms or vaseline to keep them from cracking which could be painful. Some do not like the morning cold as a result of low temperature which could be as low as 7 to 10 degrees Celsius while some love it because the heat from so much sunshine is mostly reduced during that period.
Some people in the water logged areas, lagosians for example love this period very much as there are very minimal rainfalls, meaning less mosquitoes, less water-filled pot holes on the road that are splashed when cars enter them and increased night life. During the wet/rainy season, there is water everywhere and due to poor drainage systems, mosquitoes are able to breed, multiply and feed well leading to more people having malaria,. Thankfully this reduces during the dry season. Poorly constructed roads get spoilt easily creating pot holes filled with dirty water and making people walking on the road sides be victims of water splashing from cars that run into them. This also usually do not occur during the dry season/harmattan period.
Overall, the thing most of us enjoy during this period is the 'African cherry' (I am not entirely sure if that is the correct english name, but that what it is popularly called as its english name). Agbalumo as it is popularly called in the Yoruba language is a very juicy and tasty fruit widely enjoyed during the harmattan period.
If you are Nigerian, kindly write in the comments section what you like and don't like about harmattan. If you are not Nigerian, you can share what season you are in your country.
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