FORGET the glamorous travelogues. A SHOCKING new photo series has peeled back the polished facade of one of the world’s fastest-growing megacities, exposing a DEEPLY DIVIDED metropolis where survival is a daily public spectacle. British Nigerian photographer Ollie Babajide Tikare’s book “Èkó” is NOT a celebration—it’s a RAW, UNFLINCHING indictment of life in Lagos, a city where the human spirit is tested on every overcrowded street. The images are a SCANDALOUS contrast: opulent estates tower over water-based shantytowns, while citizens are forced into a degrading, life-risking transport lottery. See the so-called “easy confidence” of a man WRESTLING his bicycle through chaotic traffic, or desperate commuters clinging to the backs of deadly motorcycle taxis known as ‘okadas’. This is not vibrancy—it’s VIOLENT ADAPTATION. The city’s famed style, captured in a woman’s elegant traditional print paired with flip-flops, is rebranded here not as fashion, but as a heartbreaking symbol of PRIDE IN THE FACE OF CRUSHING CIRCUMSTANCE. The photos at the New Afrika Shrine and sun-drenched beaches are a mere distraction from the GRIM REALITY: a system where the vast majority are left to fend for themselves in an urban jungle, their dignity framed by decaying walls and choked foliage. This is the TRUE cost of breakneck growth, a portrait of millions living on a knife’s edge where every journey is a gamble and every quiet moment a temporary ceasefire with chaos. The final, haunting implication is clear: this is not a unique tragedy, but a HARBINGER of our collective urban future.
Author: Kayitsi.com
