Ibia of Eket

In Ibia of Eket writes Dr Sjouke Bakker about his life as a doctor in Africa, South America and the Netherlands Antilles. Frank stories about his youth in Friesland during the second world war, it takes you to the operation room in Nigeria and to the isolated tribes of Indians in Amazonas in Brazil.

Sjouke Bakker was born in 1932 in Kollum, Holland as the youngest son of dutch reformed parents. After his study of medicin at the Free University in Amsterdam and two years of military service as a doctor he does a locum in 1964  on St Eustatius. After the course in tropical medicin he departs in 1965 to Nigeria and stays there seventeen years and witnesses there the Biafran war (1967-1970). When he takes leave of Africa in 1982 he receives the Chieftaincy title "Ibia of Eket" for his dedication as the chief medical officer of the Immanuel Hospital in Eket.

After this impressive period he settles in 1983 permanently on St Eustatius, where he as doctor and director of the local hospital and head of the public health department worked till his pension in 2000. In 1993 Dr Bakker receives a royal decoration for his work in Africa and the Cariben. His stories are written in a pleasant and entertaining style and depict among other personal memories a period of a civil war in Africa of which most people by now have no  knowledge about.