Some time ago, I came across the memoir of my dear colleague at Kuwait University, Professor Enosakhare Samuel (Sam) Akpata, originally from Lagos University in Nigeria. He joined a few days after me. It was just after 9/11 and I was quite anxious when having arrived in the oil-rich small emirate in the northeastern corner of the Persian Gulf. But there were friendly people there, highly esteemed colleagues and so many support staff which made my commencement of work in a new academic environment really a sort of soft landing.

While I served six years at the new dental faculty at Kuwait University, Sam stayed ten after which he retired and relocated to Nigeria. The Faculty experienced a golden time then with an international staff hired by the highly competent Kuwaiti Dean, Professor Jawad Behbehani. I have written about my short time in the Middle East, my encounters with locals, both indigenes and expatriates, my traveling, my hopes and fears, here on this blog and on its precursor.

Now, Professor Akpata had a different approach. After his successful academic career in Nigeria he and many of his Nigerian colleagues experienced the economic decline in the 1980s. So, he decided to seek new perspectives in the oil-rich Middle East. He spent altogether 13 years in Saudi Arabia and another 10 in Kuwait. Reading his honest and humorous memoir brought back many of my own memories. When everything was new and exiting. When living was even safe, in contrast to what one expects.

To be honest, my time in Kuwait was the adventure of my life. Some of my colleagues from the West shared my impression. I remember a famous oral and maxillofacial surgeon from Finland who stayed in Kuwait for just two years. He often claimed that this time was definitely the best in his life so far.

Many colleagues sped up their academic career when at the young Faculty or afterwards. Others, including me, slowed down. The new environment, the culture, in fact multicultural diversity, the climate. Easy to visit places, which would be just unthinkable when living in Europe then and even more at the moment. All of this was overwhelming for me and lastingly put my academic ambitions into perspective.

Professor Akpata painfully avoids names of real persons and does not mention the most friendly support staff which impressed me at least as much as my colleagues from Kuwait, Scandinavia, the US, and Australia. But it also becomes clear, he liked our most talented students and became proud of their achievements when mentoring them. This nicely fits my own memories, not only when thinking of my Kuwaiti students, many of whom are now assistant or associate professors in the College of Dentistry at Kuwait University.

8 January 2026 @ 10:35 am.

Last modified January 8, 2026.