The City of Factories

1859, Nigeria. In the fishing village of Itu Agan, nine-year-old Alabi and his inventor father test a new steamboat prototype when a platoon of automaton soldiers raid their village. The metal invaders execute the village chief and capture Korede, Alabi’s father, leaving him and his mother alone and devastated.

There is no choice but to accept the new order. All the village boys begin work as fishermen and plantation farmers as soon as they become teenagers and, for nine long years, Alabi m...