Something strange and funny happened to me on my way to London from Casablanca. The Seat alotted to me, seat 15C happened to be the middle seat with one seat on either sides of it. When I got to my seat,the two women who were supposed to sit on either sides of my seat are already seated. One should be in her early fifty and the other should be in her early twenties all white. So I got there and said 'hi, excuse me'. The early fifty stood up, so I slipped into my seat. The plane was scheduled to take off in the next 20mins. So we just sat there. I, looking around and praying that the take off would be smooth, the early twenty woman pressing her iphone and giggling, the early fifty woman nursing a novel( I've forgotten the name of the novel). It happened that the early fifty woman wanted to direct the over head air conditioner meant for her seat to the appropriate position, she was trying to do it without standing up and height is not really on her side. So, I decided to help her out, since am more advantaged. I turned the knob to different sides asking her when it's ok. At one particular angle, she said it's now ok. She said thank you, I said you are welcome. She asked me which state of America am I from, I asked her in our normal igbo way (answering question with question) why would you assume that I am from America? She said I have a very strong American accent.. At this moment, impulse was telling me to lie and tell her one state in the US but I changed my mind and told her that I am from Nigeria and not America. She cringed, she was surprised... Then she asked me how come I have a strong American accent, I told her that we Nigerians know how to do a lot of things. Immediately she removed her arm from the arm rest we were sharing, shifted to the extreme of her seat. I just smiled and looked at the early twenty girl, I noticed that she did the same thing, then she brought out her ear phone and started nodding. I just smiled, and balanced my arms comfortably on the arm rests I was supposed to share with them. When we were given landing forms, none of them gave me a pen though I asked for it. It was a girl sitting behind me that gave me a pen to fill my form.
Due to their xenophobic attitude they made my journey more comfortable, except for the pen issue though. The only crime I committed was that I am not just a black man, I am also a Nigerian. Maybe if I had said that I am from the US, they would have snuggled to me. Funnily, I found out that they are not even British citizens, but Moroccans. Africans eh.
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