Going To Makoko To See Dear Mandela


The Nigerian version of Dear Mandela is rendered in Pidgin with short video modules. There was also a screening of the documentary on the building of the floating school via the rebel architecture of Kunle Adeyemi.
The trip to Makoko started out as a mystery. There was a text mes­sage from my friend Toni Kan, the writer and newly-minted brand ambassador of Samsung Note5, that I should keep the evening of Friday, October 9, free for an engagement. Further text and email messages in­formed me that I should get to MRS filling station at the Adekunle end of Yaba, Lagos by 5.30 PM for the trip to the Makoko floating school for the screening of the award-winning docu­mentary Dear Mandela. I had happy company in the white-bearded sep­tuagenarian taxi driver who took me to the Adekunle axis, a personification of the dignity of labour, who gave me the history of WEMA Bank and pointed to the house of the founder of the bank at the end of the street.
Toni Kan and his personable busi­ness partner Peju Akande drove into the filling station at just about the same time. We made small jokes about Toni now being a Samsung ambassador and having a ready Personal Assistant (PA) in Peju Akande (PA), for as it stands, a PA is a PA!
We drove through a crowded nar­row road in Toni’s jeep until we could move no more. We asked some of the urchins around how to make our way to where we can board canoes going to the Makoko floating school built atop the lagoon. We were told that we had missed the entry point but that we could still make our way through one narrow pathway they pointed at. It was a winding journey past many corners and shanties. There was the Catholic Church serving the commu­nity, St Andrew du Lac, an outstation of St Dominic’s, Yaba. Past the modest church, we walked on until we saw the ill-assorted canoes manned by youths who could speak neither English nor Yoruba. Their language was Egun, but somehow we managed to communi­cate. At N50 per head we took to the canoes not bothering about life-jack­ets or insurance.
The waters were dirty black in the narrow estuary leading to the broad­ness of the cleaner ocean. The masses of Makoko waved at us, wondering at the strangers in their midst. There was a very large stationary canoe filled to the brim with heavily dressed men and women, mostly women, having a party atop the sea. Our canoe had to make way to a corner to allow another much bigger canoe to pass by.
The floating school stood to our right, and the paddler of our canoe expertly maneuvered to the scene. The other canoe carrying some of the ladies banked somehow, with water coming into the board, which saw one lady going almost hysterical. It was the same lady who kept stressing that we must not go back in the night with the same small canoes.



For the full story, check The Union newspaper.










































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