Barber Adébayor

Barber Adébayor
Originally uploaded by parisdelhi.

After talking a bit about the frustrations of village work, I had to come back with a more inspiring story. The Barber nicknamed 'Adébayor' is that story.

Waiting for a bush taxi back to village I decided to get a haircut. Fortunately for me, I was taken to 'Adébayor,' a barber located adjacent to the taxi station.

As the locks fell away, Adébayor began to tell of himself, that he had just returned from the ECOWAS games for the handicapped, held in Mauritania, where he won 3rd place in West Africa in the discipline of Weight Lifting.

His strength is not to be contested. Many told him that suffering from Polio, he would not be able to run a barber shop. But after pleading in Churches and Mosques up and down Togo, he put together enough funds to launch the business that you can see behind him in the photo.

Adébayor's mother left at an early age to Niger and his father was killed in a taxi accident in which he was also injured. Adébayor made it through to 9th grade before deciding that he needed to learn a trade in order to get by.

He told me how he cried the first time he met White handicapped athletes in Nigeria. That experience caused him to feel a solidarity with the whole of humanity. As he clipped away at my hair I certainly could feel that he saw me not as another rich White man, but as a fellow human being.