"People make out a will before they travel to Nigeria," Chike Madueke, a major player in the Nigerian film industry says sadly, standing at the entrance to the Givatayim Theater. On the wall are pictures of Nigerian art, and in the auditorium rehearsals are beginning for a magnificent fashion show, but in the eyes of its ambassadors to the West, Nigeria's image problem is so dire that it overshadows any other joy.
Madueke, who is about 40, is head of the Nigerian cultural festival delegation that set out from Lagos to Givatayim two weeks ago Saturday in an effort to burnish Nigeria's image in the world. This is his fourth mission this year, after visits to Paris, London and Milan. In the Givatayim Theater, before an audience of 500 who paid NIS 140 per ticket, nine Nigerian models (both male and female) put on a fashion show that included dancing and music (with the help of 19 musicians and dancers), and there was also an international premiere of the Nigerian movie, "Now or Never."
Zizi Cardow, a 37-year-old divorcee and one of the designers whose clothes were featured in the show, is wearing a skirt she designed herself: Made of cotton, it's cut in an asymmetric shape and bears a typical floral pattern in blue and yellow. From her ears dangle 20-centimeter-long bead earrings, she carries a little black Chanel purse and wears red thong sandals by Tods. In the evening, she slips into something sexier - a very short and very tight strapless dress with tribal designs in brown and red. The next day, on the way to a business meeting in the Givatayim Mall, she's wearing a red bandanna dress in another tribal style that serves as a minimal coverage over a micro-mini skirt. |
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