Lagos: Supernatural City

by Tim Cocks

Overview

This is a frantic, mystical journey through Africa's biggest metropolis: Lagos. Going beyond the popular images of mad traffic or crowded slums, it tells of the incredible feats Lagosians must pull off to survive their broken-down city. It also reveals the secret enabling them to cope with the chaos and precarity of Nigeria's most populous centre: spirituality.

A female street fighter in a male-dominated mafia extortion business. Two powerful chiefs locked in a deadly feud over billion-dollar real estate. An oil tycoon who gambles her fortune on televangelists' prophecies. A rubbish scavenger dreaming of a reggae career. A fisherman's son trying to save Makoko, the "floating slum," from demolition and transformation into luxury waterside flats. A priestess to a river goddess selling sand to feed Lagos's voracious construction boom.

If anything unites these disparate figures, it is their belief in unseen forces, and their commitment to worshipping them—whether at secret shrines to West African gods and ancestors, or in the iron-roofed churches and domed mosques dotting the Lagos skyline. In this extraordinary city, Tim Cocks uncovers something universal about human nature in the face of danger and high uncertainty: our tendency to place faith in a realm beyond.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781787386945
Publisher:	Hurst
Publication date:	08/01/2022
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	8.77(w) x 5.76(h) x 1.31(d)

About the Author

Tim Cocks is a British-born Reuters journalist of South African parentage. Currently based in Johannesburg, he was formerly Reuters West & Central Africa bureau chief, based in Dakar, following four years in Lagos as Nigeria bureau chief. He holds an MPhil in philosophy from the University of Oxford.

Table of Contents

Preface xiii

Prologue: A Place of Endless Impossibility xvii

1 Man-of-War 1

Part I The Iron Lady

2 Toyin 9

3 State of Betrayal 25

4 The Fighting Never Stops 41

Part II The Scrapyard Bard

5 Eric 49

6 A Witchdoctor's Magic 71

7 The Gold from Dirty Rocks 85

Part III God's Energy

8 Uju 95

9 Signs and Wonders 113

10 The Exorcist 127

Part IV Ghosts

11 Golden Chain of the Sky 143

12 Birth of a Monster 153

Part V The Overlord

13 Fatal 165

14 Ancestral Real Estate 185

15 A Bottle of Spirits for His Deities 203

Part VI Noah's Lagoon

16 Noah 213

17 Acts of God and Men 231

18 The Haystack Ghost King 247

Part VII The Ajah Woman and the River Goddess

19 Kemi 257

20 Shifting Sands 271

Epilogue: Gods of Hustle 287

A Note on Sources 295

Acknowledgements 299

Editorial Reviews

''A remarkable if underrated book of narrative nonfiction about what everyday life looks like for a range of the Nigerian city's residents, in all of their shame and glory.'' — Los Angeles Review of Books

"An entertaining take on the city by an enchanted foreigner." — Adewale Maja-Pearce, Anglo-Nigerian author of The House My Father Built

"Tim Cocks' affection for Nigeria's exuberant and complex metropolis shines through vividly sketched Lagosians in their dogged pursuit of a better life." — Lola Shoneyin, author of The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives

"A vivid portrayal of Africa's biggest city, deftly capturing its combustible energies and multiple contradictions. In its daily struggle for survival against challenges both human and natural, Lagos signposts the future of the human race. Read this book as a prophecy." —Paddy Docherty, author of Blood and Bronze

"Lagos is an immersive and thrilling journey. It's a testament to the power of storytelling, transporting readers to a world both familiar and fantastical." — Business Day

From the Publisher