A Nigerian boarding school’s rats still haunt their former student

Wall Street Turkish - International (English) · Oct 27, 2026 · 1m

The author remembers the rats that lived alongside her at her boarding school in Nigeria during the 1990s. Thousands of girls arrived with suitcases packed with food for the term, including cornflakes, sugar, powdered milk and hot chocolate powder. After some girls gave the rats a taste of their food, the rats gathered on the lawn next to her dormitory at dusk, sometimes six or seven deep. At first, they scattered when people approached. Eventually, students had to clap and stomp to get them to move. The writer says she was once chased by two large rats while fetching water one night. A…