Residents of the world’s largest floating slum are keeping their hopes up as lockdown sinks their livelihoods,
By: Kevwe Okporua.
A Riot of canoes bumping into each other in narrow waterways as paddlers yell a chorus of instructions to other boats: “Move! Shift! Stop!” Expletives are thrown in for good measure in one of three languages spoken here: Egun, Yoruba and French. Children could be seen floating in large plastic basins, joining the hustle and bustle of traffic.
Makoko, an informal waterfront settlement in Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria, is often referred to as the ‘Venice of Africa.’ It is also ‘the world’s largest floating slum,’ where thousands live cheek by jowl in stilt houses nestled deep in murky black waters.
One participant in the daily chorus is Owolabi James. He has ferried residents and visitors around these waterways for almost 20 years, yet he’s only 25. “I was born and bred here,” Owolabi says with a smile. “I started doing this work when I was a child, and now I own the canoe that I work with.”
At first glance, Makoko’s population could be considered at extreme risk from Coronavirus — hygiene and social distancing pose a serious challenge in these cramped conditions. On closer inspection, however, the global pandemic, which has infected more than 14,500 people and resulted in 387 deaths in Nigeria, is the least of their worries.
Fishermen and fish sellers, who account for most of the 100,000-odd people who live here in poverty, there’s never been a census, have bigger concerns. Hunger and the ever-looming threat of eviction pose a bigger risk to residents’ way of life than disease or infection. Families who live on the water also depend on it for their livelihoods. “I work between five to six canoe trips in a day,” says Owolabi. “But since the Coronavirus came and everyone was told to stay at home, I’ve only been doing about three trips daily.”
Nigeria is Africa’s biggest economy and, with 182 million people, the continent’s most populous country — the food security of millions of people is at stake as coronavirus wreaks havoc with incomes.
Government is ramping up support for some of the most vulnerable groups in the country — the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, for instance, provides food rations to schoolchildren with the technical support of the World Food Programme (WFP)in Abuja and Lagos.
In Mokoko, people must maintain multiple incomes to survive. Sarah Tinsheme is a tailor. The 24-year-old also helps her mother sell basic non-perishable food items such as bottled water, dry pasta and seasoning cubes. Most of her time is taken up in another way, however. “My main occupation is selling fish,” says Sarah. “We smoke the fish beforehand.”
The task of smoking usually falls to women while men are occupied with sewing fishing nets, building and mending their canoes and then wading into the deep parts of the water to cast, as motorists zipping past on Lagos’ Third Mainland Bridge look on. Everyone here — be they fish sellers, commercial canoe riders, canoe builders or canoe repairmen — relies on daily takings to survive. Mokoko’s fish market, one of the largest in Lagos, is the beating heart of the community. It’s where families buy the food they need to eat, where they earn their living, and where most socialising is done.
With markets shut because of COVID-19, however, life as people knew it has stopped.
Jutin Segodo Avlanwhen owns a hair salon. Her customers, market traders, have stopped coming. The 38-year-old mother of five says rationing meals for her children has become her new normal.
