Description
| Product ID: | 9781787386945 |
| Product Form: | Hardback |
| Country of Manufacture: | GB |
| Title: | Lagos |
| Subtitle: | Supernatural City |
| Authors: | Author: Tim Cocks |
| Page Count: | 344 |
| Subjects: | Society and culture: general, Society & culture: general, Cultural studies, Travel writing, Cultural studies, Travel writing, Nigeria |
| Description: | Select Guide Rating This is a frantic, mystical journey through Africa's biggest metropolis: Lagos. Going beyond the popular images of mad traffic or crowded slums, we learn of the incredible feats Lagosians pull off to survive their broken-down city, and 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. A priestess to a river goddess selling sand to feed Lagos's construction boom. Belief in unseen forces unites these figures, as does their commitment to worshipping them--at shrines, in mosques and in churches. 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. This is a frantic, mystical journey through Africa''s biggest metropolis: Lagos. Going beyond the popular images of mad traffic or crowded slums, we learn of the incredible feats Lagosians pull off to survive their broken-down city, and 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. A priestess to a river goddess selling sand to feed Lagos''s construction boom.Belief in unseen forces unites these figures, as does their commitment to worshipping them--at shrines, in mosques and in churches. 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. |
| Imprint Name: | C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd |
| Publisher Name: | C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd |
| Country of Publication: | GB |
| Publishing Date: | 2022-05-26 |
