Least Liveable City in the World?* **

Have you ever been to Lagos, Nigeria? Would you like to go?

If so, then get a copy of Welcome to Lagos. Reading this book rewards you with an engaging and complex experience, just like the city itself.

P1300631 Lagos front

I visited Lagos many many years ago. I found the city  to be fascinating, frustrating and overwhelming.

Chibundu Onuzo, the author of Welcome to Lagos is a Lagosian currently resident in the UK. In a recent interview Chibundu noted, There are so many stories in Lagos. Leaving Nigeria made me appreciate what I left behind.

Lagos has an incredible pull on Nigerians throughout the country. It sends a powerful signal of a range of possibilities that draws people into its vortex of human energy, swirling round and round.

Welcome to Lagos starts in the Delta when two soldiers desert. They pick up other people, including a guerrilla fighter, a young girl, and a battered wife, forming their own informal family, brought together by misfortune and the magnetic pull of Lagos.

The five manage to make it to Lagos and stick together, despite internal and external challenges. They survive a series of adventures that brings the reader into the heart of the contradictions within Nigeria.

Enjoy your visit to Lagos!P1300638 Lagos back

* The Economist Intelligence Unit report recently ranked Nigeria’s megacity of Lagos, with its 20 million population, as the second-worst city in the world to live in.

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2016/08/18/the-worlds-most-liveable-cities

** Chibundo Onuzo, the author of Welcome to Lagos, disagrees, Who says the most liveable city is in the West? Culture doesn’t just live in museums.

 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/19/vienna-lagos-economist-intelligence-unit-liveability-index

• How do you define “culture”?

• Where do you find “culture”?

• What do you think makes a city “liveable”?

• If you currently live in a city, is it “liveable”?                                               Is it ranked by The Economist?

 

 

 

Author: Pamela Collett

I was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. I have a B.A. from Stanford University and a M.Sc. from Cornell University. I have lived and worked in San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland, California as well as in Washington, DC. Outside the United States, I lived and worked in Venezuela, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Uganda, Somalia and Kenya. I currently live in Canberra, Australia. I edited three books: Bold Plum: with the Guerillas in China's War against Japan by Hsiao Li Lindsay; Peace and Milk: Scenes of Northern Somalia by James Lindsay and Fatima Jibrell; and Solo vale si piensas rápido by Mehedy Lopez, a book of poetry in Spanish. In 2016, I published a book of my poetry and drawings, Silence Spoken. I have taught communication skills, English as a second language, and English for journalists (in Beijing, China) at university and secondary school levels. I was a features writer for the Daily Journal, (Caracas, Venezuela), and The Chronicle of Higher Education. I am a member of the ACT (Australian Capital Territory) Writers Centre, active in a writers’ group and a contributor to poetry readings, That Poetry Thing, in Canberra, Australia.

One thought on “Least Liveable City in the World?* **”

  1. Quite an alternative take on The Famous Five?!
    Interested to read about this exploration if what makes a city liveable.
    Country girl, myself, apart from teen and young adult years, and need that space and sky to breathe.
    This city’s more than big enough for me! Somehow I think I find my ‘culture’ in other ways: reading, radio, some tv, and travelling when able, etc. I guess that means it’s selective and limited. Then again, wherever we are, that’s the case to a greater or lesser degree.

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