A quick comparison

I went to the American Cultural Center in Niamey, the capital of Niger, today, and my experience there has prompted me to do a little comparative exercise.

In all of the other capital cities I have visited there are the French equivalents. My experiences in these have been somewhat different to the 'American' experience:

In the French cultural centres, there is always a bar, and I've eaten at the one in Ouagadougou (an excellent sandwich). There are frequent concerts - I saw an excellent Dutch-Burkinabé jazz group in Bamako, and a very entertaining local group in Ouaga. The atmosphere is very friendly, if expat heavy, and they seem to be genuine social centres, involved in the cultural side of city life.

During my visit to the American Cultural Center, I was put through a metal detector, asked to provide identification, told to leave my bag with the guards and then denied entry to the building proper. Over the phone from the guards' booth I was given details of the (minimal) activities offered by the centre and the very short opening hours of the library. As I left I took a photo of the exterior of the building - I was promptly summoned back inside and forced to delete the photo while they took my passport and made a report of my misbehaviour, presumably with my name and passport number. I was then allowed to leave.

This is not meant to be an anti-American rant. For a start all the staff I dealt with at the Center today were Nigerien (although every other Nigerien I've met, including police and soldiers, has been much friendlier). All of the staff at the US embassy in Niamey (I got my US student visa here today) have been very helpful and friendly. Furthermore, I can understand why such precautions are necessary - it's not as if American embassies and other symbols of the country haven't been attacked in Africa before. Nonetheless, the contrast was so stark that I can't help but comment.