In his weekly Takimag column, our well-traveled doctor recalls a recent informative conversation with a perceptive Nigerian taxi driver in London, which allows him to think back to his many visits to that west African country.

This is lazy, but not necessarily stupid, for taxi drivers are often well-informed, having overheard a great deal; and they are besides blessed with that knowledge of human nature that derives from experience rather than from reading or theorizing. They are often derided as being prejudiced, but there is no one more prejudiced than he who has a theory to preserve against all evidence.