Whether Nigerian Federal Governmentlikes it or not, this BBC serie about Lagos I first found on Ghetto Radio websiteenables to understand what makes Lagos city so fascinating! How making a living confronted to overpopulation and poor economic conditions. Of course Lagos has its middle class and rich people but indeed life of the have-nots is more interesting to report.
Of course Lagos is not only a ghetto but ghettos are part of it. And despite problems and poor conditions, there’s to my mind a really strong optimism emerging from this documentary. While looking at it, knowing all the fuss it made, with the Federal Government lodging a complaint againt BBC about depicting Lagos as a slum, I was amazed. This film is on the contrary all about life and energy in Lagos from Ojota to Makoko, from Ajegunle to Ebutte-Metta with people filled with dreams in places where neither the western world nor the Nigerian elites could imagine somebody’s would be able to make a living. And not a single so-called expert in population and/or urbanism, or government official, to talk at their place! What really brings something fresh in it.
Actually it’s a strong and accurate picture of Lagos city which can drives you crazy as well as it can makes you stronger than ever. And to be honest I understand it annoyed FG, because there is at the same time dreams, revolt and despair in this documentary. What almost everyone who someday migrated to Lagos certainly experienced.
Le nouchi est à la Côte d’Ivoire ce que le pidgin est au Nigeria, une langue populaire et mouvante, urbaine, dont se saisissent aujourd’hui la grande majorité des populations d’Abidjan ou de Lagos, mêlant des mots dérivés du français ou de l’anglais avec d’autres issus des langues nationales de ces pays et créant ses propres idiomes.
Le nouchi est par ailleurs au français ce que le pidgin est à l’anglais, une réappropriation de la langue et un enrichissement de la plateforme fournie par les langues de base.
Chriss Aghana Nwobu is a curator, fixer and photographer based in Lagos, Nigeria, running an agency called Ikollo Gallery. As part of a Nigerian team made of photographers from the West African state, he crossed a few west African borders to reach Bamako, Mali, for the biennale photography festival known as “Les rencontres africaines de la photographie de Bamako”, which took place in November/December 2009. The project was named Invisible Borders 2009.
This experience offers the opportunity to talk about the project, introduce Chriss Nwobu’s work and beyond to shed light on borders issue and assess this photography festival, highly reliant on Western funding, seen from a Nigerian perspective.
All photographs by Chriss A. Nwobu.
1) Hi Chriss, you crossed a few West-African countries to reach Bamako with some friends. Where did this project originated? and who were these people? Could you introduce them?
I have been nursing the thought of doing a road trip around Africa, to have a better grasp and an opportunity to document the way my brothers and sisters live in the different geographical boundaries called the African states, their beautiful cultures, colours, their pains, joys and above all the different peoples called Africans.
Here is an interview with the young Nigerian dancer and artist Qudus Onikeku. Also an invitation to discover his work, his writtings and thoughts.
Hi Qudus, when last we met It was at National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos. You were performing « Those Things that Burn in Us », a dance and music performance you created with the choregrapher Isioma Williams. I also noticed that you wrote somewhere « There is something missing that we might probably not find in this generation. We know that there is something that burns, much more stronger than what we attach ourselves to… » You seem to burn so much… So please let us know, what is burning in you and why?
What burns in me is somewhat inexplicable for me at this moment, its jut a natural mystique I guess and I’m not ready to question it yet, cos it could slow me down, one thing I am quite sure about is that, I have clear idea of my ideal world, I am very precise with where and who I want to be. Why? I think it’s a celestial responsibility that perhaps my mum could explain where she took me, when I was in her womb.
Bienvenue au pays de la Teranga ! L’hospitalité y est la norme mais surtout ne soyez pas déviants !
Au Sénégal les mobilisations anti-homosexualité prennent des airs de croisade !
Voici donc venu le temps des redresseurs de torts, des entrepreneurs de morale en lutte contre les comportements « contre-nature » ! Ils sont les chantres des valeurs perdues et des gloires passées, les gardiens d’une double mémoire, islamique et africaine, et pourtant ils sont hors de la société sénégalaise contemporaine. Inattaquables mais inassimilables. Se pensant garde fous contre des valeurs importées et des comportements dictés par des mains étrangères ils ne sont en réalité que garde chiourmes de quelques familles maraboutiques que la seule existence d’une population qui n’applique pas à la lettre les enseignements reçus dans leur prime jeunesse menace. Oui car la plupart des homosexuels au Sénégal sont sénégalais, musulmans, mourides ou tidianes, très vraisemblablement croyants, et africains avant tout bien entendu. Autant d’identités qui leur sont refusées !
When I woke up and switched on my computer this Sunday morning I had a mail from Alex Matthews, a South-African blogger with whom I’ve been in touch since a few months through digital media. He invited me to write a piece for the “World View” column of his new blogazine called The Soap Box.
“The Soapbox aims to fight political and cultural apathy and to foster tolerance and a culture of intelligent debate” reads the page dedicated to the new website on his blog Afrodissident! That’s a good one and I will definitely try my best to contribute to its launching! There are many reasons for this.
Here’s an interview with Ehiz Ojesebholo, a Nollywood film maker. His wife and him run an outfit called CEROMS MEDIA PRODUCTIONS LTD. The special effects unit of CEROMS, known as NANTOONS STUDIOS, located in the busy area of Onipanu, Lagos, recently teamed up with another production outfit to produce Africa’s first CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) feature length movie, titled SMOKE & MIRRORS. Here is the trailer:
1. Hello Ehiz, you just completed the post-prod for the first Nollywood movie, Smoke and Mirrors, using CGI techniques. Please could you tell us more about it? How Nantoons studio work on this imagery? I remember these (very) young guys working almost on the ground when I visited your studios in the midst of gens noise…
Entre cyber-activisme et simples canulars plusieurs affaires sont venues la semaine passée émailler pouvoirs et contre-pouvoirs au Liberia, au Nigeria ou encore aux Etats-Unis. Avec des moyens techniques relativement limités, agrémentés d’informations glanées sur Internet qui ont permis de briser mots de passe et systèmes de sécurité, ces méthodes permettent à la fois d’appréhender les bienfaits de ces méthodes d’hacktivisme ainsi que les limites qu’elles engendrent parfois en termes de restriction des espaces de liberté. Les gouvernements des trois pays susmentionnés ont eu tôt fait de condamner ces attaques informatiques issues d’espaces de dissidence qu’ils ne parviennent pas à contrôler en totalité. Subterfuge ou vol le qualificatif pénal que reçoivent ces actions dites répréhensibles importe peu tant c’est cependant bien de dissidence qu’il s’agit.
Abondante est la littérature sur l’ancien fleuron colonial Dakar-Niger, aussi nommé Express Dakar-Bamako. Les articles se sont succédés à mesure que le train et les voies se dégradaient, venant rappeler l’histoire mouvementée de cette ligne de chemin de fer construite par les colons à la fin du XIXe siècle, rétrocédée aux gouvernements du Mali et du Sénégal en 1960 à l’indépendance avant d’être privatisée en 2003 et bradée à la société Transrail S.A, d’abord opérée par un consortium franco-canadien (Canac-Getma) puis par le belge Vecturis S.A en 2007.
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