A Look at West African Butterflies

In “Butterflies by Queen Naija”, the famous Nigerian author Chinua Achebe vividly chronicles the life of a contemporary butterfly–the first recorded evidence of butterflies in West Africa! In 1874, at the request of the British East Africa Company (which had granted rights to settle in Bambuhu, on the northern coast of Nigeria), a party of British soldiers and officers set out on a mission to find a large reserve of wildflowers in the interior of the country. The group included Captain James Cook, who described in his journal the beautiful butterflies he saw on the bush “so still and retiring that they looked as if they wished to hide themselves.” According to the account, they found “a mass of beautiful butterflies on bush-tops and walls in many different colours, which made me wonder whether there were any such creatures on earth.” After surveying the area and recording some details, they returned to England, where the photographic department of the Natural History Museum in London carried out further research and discovered the exact source of the wildflower butterflies.

Unfortunately, very few butterflies have been recorded since, probably because most of the natural habitat has been destroyed. Chinua Achebe did, however, describe other butterfly species that he found in the district. He named them Ocotillo, which according to The Book of butterflies indicate a tribe of butterflies related to the swallow, and he called the Ocotillo a “long-winged butterfly, its fore wings being tapering, nearly complete, and ending below the instep.”

It is clear from this account that there are many more varieties of butterflies in West Africa than previously known. One of the best places for butterflies to live is in the confines of an artificially planted row of avocado trees (which also provide shelter from the hot sun and rain), but you should be careful to avoid planting too close to any man-made structures, such as fences, tanks or palaces. As long as you know where to look and when to seek out a glimpse of the majestic butterflies that have populated your region, you will never fail to be awestruck by their beauty and distinctive features.