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The middle class neighborhood of Dolphin High Rise Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos, Nigeria. who make up Dolphin’s middle class, there were the mechanics and traders and tailors who don’t have cars: the working class. Then there are those who live on the estate to serve the middle class: those who deliver the water, and do odd jobs. These were mostly Nigerians from the north of the country; it’s much poorer there, so many northerners travel south in search of manual work. The more I delved, the more colorful and diverse Dolphin became. There was the young woman studying Russian at university — she proudly told me of her trip to Moscow; the young girl who wanted to be a writer, but she couldn’t read because her glasses were broken; the robe-wearing evangelist; the Manchester United fans (they’re everywhere!); The guy with the little photo studio who Photoshopped exotic backgrounds into his photos. There were teenagers whose parents had a generator and who watched “Spiderman” while the rest of the estate was without power; their apartment was so loud they couldn’t hear us knocking on the door. I met a couple who ran a non-governmental organization who proudly announced they were HIV positive before even telling me their names. I watched Chinese soap operas while children prepared for school and their father, a Muslim, made his morning prayer. I ate rice and canned fish under a spotlight after the electricity went out and plunged the apartment I was in into darkness. I peeked in on a private gym where muscular men lifted lumps of concrete, and into a makeshift fitness studio where women did aerobics. Complex communities are a challenge for storytellers. Those boxes we use to simplify and compress are helpful when describing a place, especially when you have a limited number of words and photos. But they are also a problem, especially when it comes to Africa. One of the reasons I decided to make this project about Lagos was that I wanted to make work that challenged our view of the continent. So often, people describe Africa like a 22 CURRENT FALL 2017
Short Read Mr. Tajudeen Bakare is seen at his family’s home in Dolphin Estate with his daughter, Hazeezat Bakare, 11, son, Hamzat Bakare, 8, and daughter, Hammeerat Bakare, 4. Dolphin High Rise Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos, Nigeria. single country with a single 11% culture. I’m often asked by well-meaning people to explain the African mentality OF NIGERIANS ARE towards such and such, or what do Africans think about MIDDLE CLASS this or that? On a continent with a population nearing a billion, and 54 countries and many, many more cultures, there is no single answer. Part of the reason I went to Lagos was to do a story about Africa’s diversity. Rather than trying to define a place with a few pictures, I wanted to create work that embraced the city’s complexity — that showed a small slice of the continent and left people with the idea that there is much more to Lagos, and to Africa, than can be captured in any article or photo essay. I went to Dolphin to find Lagos’ rising middle class. I went there falling into the usual trap of trying to define a people and a place in a narrow way. I did find the rising Lagos’ middle class in Dolphin, but I also found much more. Story and photos by Robin Hammond FALL 2017 CURRENT 23
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