“For someone who is interested in how governments, corporations and everyday people are responding to rapid urbanization, there is no better place to visit than Lagos, Nigeria. Everything and everyone has a story to tell, from the infrastructure, to the advertisements, to the millions of people who navigate this vast metropolitan area every day. The energy of the people, the colors of their dress against beautiful dark skin tones, and the rhythms created from car honking and conversation create a place that isn’t quite like any other…
An encounter that sticks in my mind is one that tells the true reality of the Lagosian hustle. It is not uncommon to be driving or to be being driven and have people try to sell you anything from candy to home furnishings right out on the street. I can imagine that on a particularly traffic heavy day, one may tire and pick up a sack of water or some fruits or nuts to eat but my father never opened the window for more than the morning newspaper during my stay.
However, in the midst of people selling children’s toys and school books I remember one man—no older than in his early twenties—was adamant about selling this dog. That’s right, a whole dog! Am I going to buy a dog on the way to work?! I couldn’t believe it, here is this live animal that this man is trying to sell me on the street. I wonder what his asking price would have been…
While in Cape Town, I met a guy who said one of his friends who had been to Lagos described it as how he imagined Hell to be. Disingenuous to say the least but it sounds to me like this friend of his didn’t want to see beyond his own narrow preconceptions. Of course the city is no cakewalk and as only a visitor I cannot adequately describe the gamut of complexities that make the city what it is but, I wish that he and others would see it as I did, people doing the best that they know how to get by…”
007/100 of #100DaysofConfessions Instagram Project