The last French speakers in Lagos - The Mail & Guardian

This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team and Code for Africa

Ajongun’s family moved to Makoko, one of the city’s most storied areas. It is a floating suburb, built above the water on stilts and wooden planks. Underneath Ajongun’s new home are the murky waters of the Lagos Lagoon, littered with plastic and human waste. “It is important to me that my children go to school and are able to read and write. I hope and pray they are able to go to university in the future,” Ajongun says. He holds a primary school certificate from the Benin Republic, and the West African senior school leaving certificate.

In six classes in a single-storey building, the pupils of the Pythagore Bilingual are often repeating after the teachers. The students of the school are mostly of Béninoise origin. The school teaches some classes in English to serve the “more Nigerian” community of Makoko. Ajongun does not know what he would do if he were evicted from his current home. The prospect is a source of great anxiety, because although he can live and thrive in Makoko, where he can get by with his Egun and French, Lagos proper is much less forgiving.

This might force local authorities to start planning for Makoko instead of trying to erase it in favour of a new waterfront development.

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