!VAR HAGENDOORN

Welcome To Lagos

Welcome to Lagos is a three-part BBC documentary about one of the largest and fastest growing cities in Africa and indeed the world currently home to some 16 million people. It's a great, eye-opening documentary. It doesn't pretend that the slums of Lagos are a great place to live, but it doesn't portray them as hell on earth either. It shows how, against all odds, people get by and find moments of joy.

The first episode documents the people who live and work at the Olusosun rubbish dump and the people who work at one of the largest cattle markets. The dump is home to hundreds of scavengers who sift the garbage looking for recyclable material. Most work during the day, but some prefer to work at night, when it is less crowded, but also more dangerous. The dump is mostly self-governed. There is a chief who maintains law and order. People who steal or cause trouble get banned from the dump. It has shops, restaurants, cinemas, a mosque and a barber.

Episode 2 looks at the lives of people who live in Makoko, a slum neighbourhood in the Lagos Lagoon which consists largely of houses on stilts. Chubbey is an elderly fisherman with 18 children and 5 grandchildren. Paul is a saw operator at the largest timberyard in West Africa. Kissme and Daniel make their living diving for sand from the bottom of the Lagoon. To underscore the harsh living and working conditions during the filming a person working at a neighbouring saw mill is electrocuted.

Episode 3 focuses on people who live in dwellings on the beach at risk of being swamped by the tides. This part also follows Sagede a member of the Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Enforcement Unit whose job it is to take down illegal dwellings and chase down youth gangs.

My only criticism is that I wish the producers had chosen a wider array of subjects. For example, I would have liked to know more about the lawyer in episode 1. Where does he live? What is his background? Right now the documentary is biased towards the people at the bottom. So in that sense it's not a representative portrait of Lagos.

If you've got 2 hours to spare, do watch this documentary and judge for yourself.

To watch the other episodes, switch to YouTube.

Producer Will Anderson discusses the making of the documentary.