The future of Bar Beach
"I guess this innocence was lost or damaged when the Military Government of the day decided that Bar Beach was the perfect place to stage the executions of armed robbers. And so it was that after school instead of hurrying the driver to get us to the beach for ice creams we would urge him along so that we did not miss the executions. Bizarre, I know.
We would arrive to find the suspects all lined up, blindfolded and tied to stakes with a row of Army marksmen in front of them. The command would be given and the marksmen would unleash a salvo of shots."
Read the full article (by Taj Onigbanjo) here.
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4 comments:
Well said Taj. Bar Beach in the Seventies was heavenly. Our family went every Sunday to enjoy the sun, crazy waves and even crazier goings on. On any sunday you would be entertained by various traders, dancers who ran swords against their naked stomachs and eye lids! without drawing blood..., young men and women trying to brave the 15ft waves, but clearly couldn't swim and would have to be dragged out coughing and spluttering by some European sunbather. We would walk for what seemed like miles to the shipwrecked 'Sagittarius' (Is that still there?), collect the biggest shells I've ever seen on any beach, eat jollof and drink copious amounts of warm coke, blisss..... Of course Takwa Bay took over as the place to be, but it never matched the drama of Bar Beach in my opinion.
I remember those executions being televised as a child. Horrific..... @funke Bar beach much have been a great place in the seventies too bad i didnt get to see it!
Read the article a long time ago when it was published in The Guardian, and it still brought out the same feeling in me now... Where did we go wrong?
My mistake, this (http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0604-02.htm) was the article that was published.
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