A Safer Waterfront In Lagos, Nigeria

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TFA/ Lagos
Lagos, Nigeria is located in country where citizens once thrived in their community. However, the Umuofia clan described in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is far from the impoverished, bustling, fraudulent megacity depicted by journalists Alexis Okeowo in “A Safer Waterfront in Lagos, If You Can Afford It”, and George Packer in ”The Megacity”. Although the transformation between the communitarian society and the city built on individualism and mercantilism is drastic, the onset of this change is visible in Things Fall Apart. Throughout the novel, Christian European colonists act as catalysts for change in not only Umuofia but the entire Ibo culture. The legacy of colonialism is still visible today within Nigeria’s government …show more content…

The Nigerian government has been criticized by several activist groups in the past few years for building high-end resorts in wealthy sections of Lagos, while consciously neglecting the lives of millions of poverty-stricken citizens (Okeowo). In preparation for the glamourous up-and-coming borough of the city, the Lagos State Government has “forcibly [evicted] communities without any warning or planning and without any remedy” (Okeowo). Packer reaffirms that Nigerian policies are set up to benefit the few wealthy citizens whilst “leaving the vast majority of people poorer every year”(Packer). The Lagos State Government’s disregard for the communities within the slums resembles the European colonists’ disregard for the Ibo culture. In Things Fall Apart, the colonists first invade Abame, one of many Ibo clans, in an uncivil and barbaric manner. Obierika describes to Okonkwo “Everybody was killed except the old and the sick” (Achebe 139) during the annihilation of the Abame clan, highlighting the European’s merciless execution of everyone in the marketplace. In other clans such as Mbanta and Umuofia, the colonists’ path to occupation is less violent; however, the new English policies begin to deteriorate the Ibo value system and introduce a method of disrespecting the needs of people they perceive as savage or

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