By: Savannah Jung

One of the exciting things about Brunei is the number of different cultures that all live here. Having people of so many different backgrounds living in one location is a great way to learn more about others. I had the pleasure of speaking with Adedamola Sanni from the Nigerian community who serves as the Lead for International Day at Panaga School and has been a part of this growing community since January 2020.

How many members do you have?
We have 17 families within Panaga and several other Nigerian families in academia, sports and retail business across Brunei.

Do you have a committee of volunteers? And what does that committee do?
We have multiple committees that all play an important role in making our community fun and active. Our executive committee has seven people and they oversee the affairs of the community and interface with the Nigeria High Commission, based in Kuala Lumpur. The Panaga School International Day Committee has three people who coordinate the Nigeria community participation. Independence Anniversary Celebration (NIAC) committee has eight people and they organize the annual Nigeria Independence Celebration. Our onboarding committee has three people who help welcome new members and provide helpful information for Nigerians coming over to Brunei. Lastly, our electoral committee has two people who conduct the annual executive committee election.

What events do you host?
Each year holds many events so we are thankful we have our committees to help them all run smoothly. The NIAC is typically celebrated around October 1st. This year we have a gala night set for October 2nd but we will also be celebrating by having a community hike and beach walk, a beach clean-up, a golf competition, and a charity event at SMARTER Brunei. In November we typically host our Annual Bankole Futsal competition, which is open to every- one.

 

We also have smaller events like regular social evenings (which we call “Naija Nights”) that are hosted by community members but are also open to guests, and quarterly family hiking events. There are also cultural evenings called Igba Eze which involve playing traditional musical instruments, singing and dancing. For arriving and departing members we have Members Welcome and Send-Forth events.

 

 

 

Do you only accept people from Nigeria or does your membership extend outside of that?
Our community is open to Nigerian families and friends of Nigeria.

How can people who are interested become members and get involved?

Interested Nigerian families and friends of Nigeria can apply to be members through the Executive committee (email: Nigeriansectionpanaga@gmail.com) or via Panaga Club membership.

What hopes and future plans do you have for the community?

Our community will continue to showcase the warm, colorful, and entertaining cultures of Nigeria. We look forward to further strengthening the bonds within the Nigerian community here in Brunei and with the rest of the Bruneian and International community. We want to continue to sustain charitable initiatives like our contributions to SMARTER Brunei and also promote sporting activities to keep our members fit and healthy. Overall, we want to continue to make Brunei home away from home for all of our members.

By: Pieter Pesie

 

How long has the Dutch Community been around in Brunei?

The Dutch community has been in Brunei almost as long as BSP. It is hard to find an official establishment date, but this was before we started to work digitally for sure.

Is it for all of Brunei or just KB and Panaga?

All Dutch people in Brunei are welcome to join the Dutch community. We also have members outside of Panaga, for example people living in Bandar or people who are working temporarily in Brunei for other contractors.

What kind of events does the community organize?

The Dutch community has a few annual events:

• Sinterklaas celebration on December 5th
• Dutch Night and Kinderfeest, open to everyone
• Walkathon based on the traditional Dutch walking days where kids walk four consecutive days, open to everyone
• Traditional Herring party, where we celebrate the new herring season
• Welcome back Cycling dinner, traditionally held in September when people have returned home from summer leave
• Comedy night (the alst time this was held was prior to COVID and was organized together with the British community)
• Regular happy hours, pub style quiz nights and beach BBQs

Besides all of this we also offer Dutch Swimming lessons to the community children on a weekly basis. All of this is run by our amazing volunteers.

How has COVID-19 and lock down impacted your work?

Just like everybody, we had to adjust to the COVID situation and follow the rules and regulations applicable in Brunei.

The positive thing is that we re-started the pub quizzes; we set up an on line pub quiz and people could join with one other couple. After two online events, we are now back to in person pub quizzes.

Do you only accept Dutch people as members? Is the membership level fairly static?

The Dutch community is mainly for Dutch people, but we welcome people that have lived in The Netherlands or hold a Dutch passport. The language at the events is Dutch. Practically all Dutch people in Brunei are members of this community. Our membership has seen a decline. In the past, there were around 200 Dutch families in Brunei but currently we have about 40-50 families.

How do people become members or get involved?

Normally, we know when Dutch people are arriving via colleagues or Outpost. Then we send a welcome e-mail explaining what the Dutch community in Brunei is. If people decide to become a member, we provide the forms and people can register at the Panaga Club.

What are your plans for the future?

The plan for the future is to keep organizing events and activities for the Dutch community and the Panaga community as a whole.

All of our events are organized by volunteers and since the community is not as big as it used to be, we chose to focus on a few big, yearly events. We see that the majority of Dutch people attend the events that are organized and we hope to continue like that.