On Welcome to Lagos (guest post)

A Somewhat Unexpected Welcome to Lagos

Generally speaking, I am inclined to agree that international audiences appear to be far more interested in pictures of starving Africans, as opposed to well to do Africans living in luxury in Africa.

Whether this is due to what they are shown by the media or due to their own expectations is debatable. However there is no doubt in my mind that a situation that allows supposedly educated people to state that the only thing that they know about an entire continent is wildlife in East Africa, wars around the continent or starving people is unacceptable.

It is always extremely saddening to hear that children in the Western world, some of whom bear African names indicating their roots are guilty of asking ignorant questions about people living in trees in Africa. It really makes me wonder about the quality of education in the West and appreciate the power of the media to shape the way we think.

There is no doubt a lack of balance in the coverage of Africa, and Nigeria in particular as I know too well. Such coverage leaves a lot of people suspecting average Nigerians such as myself who have never been in trouble, or committed any crime whatsoever of being fraudulent.

I have a degree in electronic engineering and like a lot of young Nigerians, am working to make a living. I am by no means an uncommon example of hard work and honesty (and believe it or not modesty too) in Nigeria, but that is not the Nigerian the world knows, instead they know the Nigerian stereotype that large corporations such as Sony perpetuate with tasteless insinuations in TV ads, or that the very same news corporations that we will eventually pay to air ads promoting Nigeria emphasize by focusing on the negatives whenever reporting on Nigeria.

Let’s be honest, a lot of Western businesses would be very wary of an email from a Nigerian indicating interest in doing business.

I am of the opinion that as long as other people tell our stories, they will naturally tell what strikes them the most – that is probably human nature.

I think it was Fela that implied in one of his songs that Mungo Park was led to the source of the River Niger by African guides, but because he had the pen and paper history will forever claim that he discovered it.

As for the BBC documentary Welcome to Lagos, it first came to my attention when I saw the pictures on the BBC website and I thought to myself here we go again.

I saw the comments in response to Will Anderson’s blog, one of which pretty much summed up the entire mood of the majority of Nigerians by asking him to stick his face in a dustbin. Unavoidably, my opinion was already skewed before I had seen the documentary myself.

However on Saturday I saw the first episode of the documentary and far from leaving me with a feeling of annoyance, it left me with a sense of pride and the desire to send Will (…yes we can now be on first name basis), the warmest pat on the back an email can achieve.

It is true that he focused on the slums of Lagos when there was a lot more to Lagos than its slums, but to me the documentary was more about Lagosians than about the city itself. In less than one hour he managed to capture the essence of Lagos, its people – the frustrated yet happy, hardworking, determined, ingenuous, loyal, and caring people that the majority of us are in spite of our difficulties. He was able to show people that there are quite a few of us who are determined to honestly work our way out of poverty, getting our hands dirty…literally.

Some people have questioned why he chose a men at a dump, and not some equally hardworking young men outside the slums of Lagos and I have to say that he may be guilty of not trying because British audiences might not be as moved by the story of say largely self taught computer programmers in their mid-20’s who about three years after obtaining their degrees and starting a business in their living room now employ about ten people and are handling multi-million dollar deal, providing Nigerian made solutions to meet our local needs (that example is not fiction).

All indications point to the fact that in spite of his four month stay in Lagos, Will was unable or unwilling to find a story worth telling outside of the slums of Lagos.

In spite of that, I appreciate that he did not import the slums and that they are real. What he showed us is a reality in Lagos, though by no means the only reality. I feel satisfied that while he could easily have shown any of the easy to find evils around Lagos he found positivity where most people would have failed to look. He found love, friendship and respect for others, qualities that sometimes appear to be scarce in people.

I worry that the biggest critics of the documentary including our High Commissioner to the UK who really needs to find more productive ways to keep busy, are guilty of what appears to concern them the most, an inability to see beyond the dump and see the people whose stories all human beings, especially us Nigerians with all that is said about us can be proud of.

Lagos faces a lot of challenges, but somehow manages to be one of the largest single economies in West Africa, boasting annual budgets larger than those of quite a few African countries. More than anything else, Lagos is its people – we all play a role. I hope that in the future, organizations like the BBC will show the other faces of Lagos as well.

If the first episode of this series does not show that we are great people from a (potentially) great nation then it’s quite possible that only a miracle will.

Personally, I cannot wait to see the next episode; I hope it’s at least just as good as the first.

Umeike Ekenedilinna

[email protected]

April 27, 2010.