"Thieves abound in Lagos, and in this book. Every minute, every page is for the thief-- the pickpocket, the dubious petrol station attendant, the murderous armed robber, the compact disc pirate, the hostage-taking area boy, the bribe-taking police, customs and embassy officers, the thieving politician whose actions and inactions account for power failures and fuel scarcities... [all of it written] in prose that is at once precise and haunting, even long after the final word."
In the Guardian (UK), Tolu Ogunlesi reviewed Teju Cole's Every Day is For the Thief (2007), a novella with photographs about life in Lagos, Nigeria. Cole visits tomorrow 2/10.
Picture: Oil pirates clash with oil companies in the Niger delta.
Showing posts with label lagos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lagos. Show all posts
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Thieves Everywhere!
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Tweeting Lagos Nigeria
Inventing a new form of poetry, Teju Cole, who visits 2/10, continues to tweet his own versions of breaking headlines from Nigerian newspapers:
"The Lagos State Secretariat in Alausa is full of filthy creatures gorging themselves. But also, it has been invaded by rats."
"Angry at Olumide, of Igando, for not becoming a pastor, the Holy Spirit cursed him with kleptomania, with a sub-specialty in cars."
"While he was fetching firewood in Bauchi, persons unknown removed from Umar’s face both his eyes. He is understandably upset"
More tweets.
Picture: Lagos, Nigeria.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Headline Haiku
Teju Cole, who visits Friday, 2/10, has taken to tweeting headlines and stories from the Nigerian newspapers, reformulated as a kind of poetry. Another tweeter-blogger, based in Monrovia, Liberia, has categorized them as "totally brilliant and unique" Haiku remixes:
"In Calabar South, Inyang, refilling a kerosene lantern while its wick was lit, sent himself and two others into final darkness."
"The man whom the concerned citizens of Port Harcourt nearly lynched for turning a boy into a goat is now being interrogated by police."
“'Dr Collins Okafor,' not a doctor at all, worked at the General Hospital in Calabar for only a year before he was found out."
More on the Moved to Monrovia blog.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Nigerian Authors Look West
Yinka Ibukun of the Associated Press writes about Nigeria's impressive literary diaspora.
Featured authors include Teju Cole, who visits February 10 (Friday), as well as three past visitors to the Institute: Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
"The chaos of Nigeria's largest city of Lagos gets boiled down to prose as a narrator notes 'how unpretty' its sprawl looks, with 'its unplanned houses sprouting like weeds.' Another author describes the madness of the commute, how six roads meet and 'there is no traffic light.'"....
More.
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