Buses and Bribes: Lagos’s Shadowy Transit Network
October 21, 2022 10:59 AM   Subscribe

 
“Navigating the city is almost like navigating a slow death”

Never been to Lagos, but lived in Kano. You never forget the traffic part, it's really something.
posted by elkevelvet at 12:54 PM on October 21, 2022


Thank you for posting this, I found it really interesting. Will have to look into his book!
posted by elanid at 1:39 PM on October 21, 2022


fascinating. I couldn't have imagined a system quite like that. thanks for the post!
posted by martin q blank at 2:08 PM on October 21, 2022


What he says about corruption reminds me about how the Thieves' Guild works in Ankh-Morpork (thieves are licensed, have quotas, give you receipts you can show at your next robbery, and they crack down with violence on unlicensed thieving) except far less funny.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 4:34 PM on October 21, 2022 [4 favorites]


Lagos seems like something else... An extension of the city to a megacity to a whole new thing. Unfortunately so many stories about it are malign. Like this one, a whole "system" defined by violence and predation from both governmental and private sources. It seems awful.
posted by Nelson at 11:05 PM on October 21, 2022


His book also takes a comparative look at corruption in many other countries. Nigeria is far from unique. Across nations, even the language used to describe corruption is surprisingly similar, such as the use of the word “eat” as a proxy for extortion. (Rwandan refugees refer to corrupt Tanzanian officials when they say, “they eat our sweat.” In Mexico, a bribe is called a “bite.” In Hindu-speaking India, the phrase for corruption translates to the “eating of money.”)

Aside from the mistake there where Hindu is not a language, yes this seems to be shared by Malay as well (lit. 'to eat a bribe'), though for small-time corruption like this the colloquial term is lit. "coffee money".
posted by cendawanita at 9:23 AM on October 22, 2022 [1 favorite]


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