Letter from Lagos 2

A few months in Lagos is generally enough to send even the most hardened critic of the new South Africa home with a different attitude. The sheer difficulty of living and working in the commercial capital, even for privileged expatriates, almost beggars belief.

Incessant power cuts and traffic jams, intermittent communications, impassable roads, floods, road blocks and fuel shortages are just a few of the problems faced daily. Add to this a generally alien environment which often seems threatening, and more than one expatriate (or expatriate’s spouse) has simply given up and gone home.

Yet if you can manage to live with these challenges the city has much to teach and many things to enjoy. The outward appearance of chaos belies what is in fact a highly structured urban society. Institutions which once gave meaning and order to other societies are still here in full force – family, mosque, church and guild, just to name a few,

Take for example, the markets. Tradition has it that what is now Nigeria hosted the first market in sub-Saharan Africa, established over 1000 years ago and still flourishing in Kano to the north, Lagos has over 350 official markets -either specialist such as Epe fish market and Lekki craft market or general such as Tejuosho market which houses at least 1000 stalls and where you can buy almost anything. Other markets sell hand-made wooden or rattan furniture, hardware, fabrics, printing inks and accessories, electronic equipment, baskets and woven goods, vegetables…..the list is endless.

Each market has an elected leader and a council which regulates its affairs. The council comprises representatives from the various trades selling within the market (the trades operate in the tradition of guilds in Europe). The umbrella body is the Association of Market Women and Men - women being mentioned first in recognition of the fact that the overwhelming majority of traders are female. The Association is presided over by the current Governor’s mother, a redoubtable old lady who operates out of her own house on mainland Lagos. Here every Thursday, meetings are held, lobbying strategies agreed and pursued, disputes settled, educational courses run and largesse handed out to the needy.

Markets serve as a vitally important distribution channel for the goods which pour through Lagos. More than 40% of consumer goods sold in Nigeria go through Lagos first. Without strong and well-regulated markets, trade, the lifeblood of the majority of the country which does not ride the oily gravy train and the employer of by far the largest segment of the population, would wither and die.

Many expatriates are nervous about visiting a market, yet the experience is unique. If you know how to bargain, you will find that your cost of living need not be twice or three times that of South Africa. Best of all, you will make many friends – “there’s no charge for looking”- and better understand a way of life that has been ingrained into Nigerians for many generations.