Makoko is about five miles away from Lagos, Nigeria's leading commercial and industrial center. To put things in perspective, imagine Wall Street's Financial District or San Francisco's Knob Hill, surrounded by homeless people living in tents, taking a dump on the sidewalks, and just ... Oh, wait, I just realized we have the same thing right here in America. The ONLY difference is that our homeless seem to be sprinkled distributed across this great nation, while Nigeria's Homeless (An estimated 15,000 to 250,000 men, women, and children) are jammed into one place. Originally, Makoko was a small fishing village established over one hundred years ago; soet of like Fishermen's Warj - Today, Makoko's inhabitants consist mainly of migrant workers from West African countries looking for a better life in Nigeria. The oily black water is no longer suitable for fishing; it smells of raw sewage and leaves a thick layer of trash around the shack stilts. There is no basic infrastructure, no plumbing, no clean drinking water, electricity, or means for waste disposal. The place is an environmental and health hazard.
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Well, before I headed back to the states, I finally decided to try out the local cuisine, consisting of snake, eel, fish, and, of course, "Bush Meat", which is basically anything the locals can get their hands on.
Photos by Russell C. Park
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