This Is Lagos: Shine Your Eyes — A Poem of Hustle and Contrasts
A luxurious bus rolls into Lagos as the billboard announces, “This is Lagos.” The hustle begins: agberos shout, passengers leap onto moving buses, hawkers press close, and quick fingers leave someone with an empty pocket. “Are you JJC?” a voice asks. “This is Lagos, my friend. Better shine your eyes.” From the Shrine’s Afrobeat pulse to the neon nights of Oju Ẹlẹ́gba and Ọpẹ́bí, the city has a wild, seductive side. But not everything is as it seems. Mami Wata’s daughters haunt the night, and the poem warns again: shine your eyes. Lagos is also bridges stretching toward the island, Marina’s towers, Apapa’s port, Idumota’s traders and Broad Street’s bankers. There are bright skies, Eléko’s coast and coconut water on a Saturday afternoon. At Bar Beach, white-robed worshippers dance and prophets make offerings to the sea. Highlife drums fill Isale Eko as the crowd dances. Then comes Lekki, with its polished image and people claiming crowns they do not own. From the mainland to the coast, the poem captures Lagos as dazzling, restless and full of contradictions.
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