Religious Masses

I've been looking for this video for ages... The video says it shows 2mn people in an open air church service in Lagos at one time. The way the video looks I believe it.

Massive, outdoor services are happen regularly here. One, at the Redeemed Camp, is organized by the largest evangelical church movement in Nigeria, and happens monthly. People joke that if Redeemed did an IPO it would be the one share they buy. But more on the church later, first of all one has to admire the sheer scale of the movements...

Star Commercial

Star is Nigeria's national beer. Even though it's now owned by Heineken it still comes straight to mind when people think of beer in the country. As in, "Let's go have some Star and Suya".

The brand came out with a pretty cool commercial recently (well maybe year ago but I've never seen it!). It evokes the "good old times" (if ever they existed), playing a popular highlife tune and shows a bit of the colourful reality of the country today. A proud, spirited, happy people living in a beautiful country too often ignored. Our Lagos.

Our Lagos

OUR Lagos is beautiful and positive. I've thought a lot about how to put it in words: The energy, the culture, the reality of love and happiness and excitement all intensified by the contrast to the harsh realities of the city. The unending tiredness that comes from a overly hectic life, and the tranquility of a beautiful garden in the middle of the city. It makes me warm and fuzzy inside.

I want to scream it out to the world, but as you can see I'm not very good at that. I want to show everybody that our Lagos is not one giant squalor or full of playroom extravagance. Hanna, a friend that has just left did this in her own special way. We need more Hanna's. So from today, I'm going to start a new series of posts as an ode to Lagos, Our Lagos.

We don't ignore the hard parts of life in the city, but they get enough attention. There may be a rant from time to time. If there is, please ignore. Lagos' beauty comes in a thousand pieces; I hope I can piece them together for you.

PS: This mini-series has outgrown my blog, and I wanted to invite others to join the fray. As a result we've started a new site and posted all the posts there. Have a look.