A Surprising Story of Makoko

It's time to tell a few stories about the slums. Might sound a bit surprising, but the most joyful experiences I have had in Nigeria so far are the visits to a desperately poor fishing community called Makoko. But surprising is also the place itself.

Despite of being one of the most famous slums in Lagos and in whole Africa, Makoko is surprisingly small - about one kilometer wide, at most. But what it lacks in size, it compensates in everything else. It is immensely crowded and densely populated, with an estimated population between 100 000 and 200 000. Nobody really knows the number. But what makes Makoko extraordinary as a slum, is that it is mostly built on water. It's a maze of bridges, canals, huts, narrow alleys, shelters and small wooden houses supported above the water by logs. A myriad of sights and smells fill the senses. Women roasting freshly caught fish on their cooking fires, smoke hovering on the alleyways, chicken and goats digging piles of trash to find food, people skillfully carrying heavy water pots over their heads, mud splashing under the feet, canoes sliding between the huts.

But above all, the most striking, shocking and joyful thing about Makoko is the children. The sheer amount of them is just unbelievable - they are everywhere! It has been estimated that 60% of the population of the community are small children. One of the families that our organization helps has 15, and that is not uncommon at all. But what a merry sight they are! Despite of the extreme poverty, nowhere ever have I seen such an amount of joy, smile and laughter. The experience is just uplifting. Everywhere I walk, a cascade of children meets me with smiles and shouting: Oyibo, oyibo, oyibo! Despite the initial shyness, they are always welcoming, eventually surrounding, touching and hugging me. Some of them even put up a wild dance of joy - something between the best moves of the late MJ and an African tribal dance.

Visiting a slum like Makoko is an eye-opening experience in several ways. There is the poverty and material shortage, of course. But otherwise, you won't experience too many of the negative things that the stereotypes would suggest. The safety, for example, is not bad. In fact, the vibe of the whole place is the exact opposite - welcoming and generous. To my understanding, the government and the official police forces have quite a negligible presence in Makoko - it's the Area Boys (local street gangs) that keep the order in the slums. And they are doing it well, it seems. Despite of the hustle and bustle of the slum, the experience is always somehow peaceful. The people live there in a beautiful communality, helping each other to survive. Numerous ethnicities and religions live mixed up, side by side. Makoko is a place full-packed with the whole spectrum of life and human emotions from extreme pain to extreme joy - something you won't see in the rich world.

Catching the Landlords (a.k.a. Mouse in the house)

My day started at around 4 AM in the morning. I woke up in a complete darkness to a loud, rustling sound coming from the corner of my room. I was awake in a split second, heart beating like a drum. I grabbed my light, put it on and pointed it to the corner of the room. My food bags lay there, but nothing else. I tried to search the room but didn't find anything. I went back to sleep, doubting myself - maybe it was just a dream. But just as I was about to fall asleep again, it came back. Rustling of the food bags. Slowly and silently I picked up the light, pointed and put it on.

And there it was. A mouse, or a small rat. I got a glimpse before it disappeared behind the rubble. Actually, I was quite relieved, because I had feared that it was one of those big, cat sized rats, that you see in India and some other places. I took a shoe for stamping the creature, but it was impossible to find, so I went to sleep.

The same thing happened 5 times during the next hours. Everytime as it got to my food, I put on the light to smash it with my shoe, but each time it outran or outsmarted me. Once I was already totally certain that I would get it, as I saw it hide behind a bag. But as I removed the bag, there was nothing.

In the morning, I talked with the locals. They laughed and told me that mice in the house are very common. Particularly hard-to-catch individuals, they call "the landlords". In the evening I bought a mouseboard from the street. It's a sticky board, where you plant food in the middle and the mice get stuck when they come to get it.

Power had shifted. around nine o'clock in the evening, I had the "landlord" on my trap. But when I saw it struggle there to get out, I just pitied it. I removed it and let it outside. And to my surprise, the next morning I found another landlord from the board.

After that weekend, there's been several others "lording" my house. The next generation is smarter, however. They don't go to my traps as easily as the first ones.