Real Life in Lagos

“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the lion or a gazelle. When the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”

I have never spoken with Christopher McDougall before, but I believe this famous quote from his book Born to Run would have been inspired by living in Lagos for just a few months. There seems to be a frenetic pace to every activity on the streets of Lagos – except, of course, during weekend parties popularly called “owambe.” The infamous ‘danfo’ buses, ‘keke Napep,’ and ‘Okada,’ which are the major transport services in this city, helps to highlight the pace and the ruggedness of this city.

But…wait…that can’t be all. Lagos is not that simple.

It’s always a common thing for us humans to generalize the behaviour and lifestyle of a certain group of people living in a city, country or even a continent. We tend to look for a convenient and simplistic word or phrase to lazily describe this set of people. For some, people are generally defined by their race, ethnic tribe, religion, and so many other unquestioned and unbelievable boxes. We fit people into tiny boxes and spend time trying to name these boxes – the time that could possibly be spent living with these people, learning and loving the beauty these set of people embody.

Experiences are unique to every human – beautiful, ugly, and the beautifully ugly (the oxymoron that keeps coming to mind while thinking of Lagos). You can’t simply find a word or a group of words to explain the experiences of those living in this Lagos. You need to walk up to each person living in this city to reach an appropriate conclusion.

For Lagos, what you would experience is determined based on some key factors: Location, age, social interests, income class, and perception of life in general. Generally, your income would influence all the other factors; it would influence where you decide to live, your social interests, your perception of life, and even your age. Yes, your age! Extremely wealthy people, whether old or young, are popularly hailed and called ‘Chairmen.’ But, I think we are moving too fast. Let’s back up a little.