Research Task. A Walk Through Makako and Iwaya
Makoko is one of the largest informal settlements in the biggest Nigerian city Lagos, which used to be the capital of Nigeria.
Type ‘Google earth’ in a search engine and go to the site. It is earth.google.com.
Search for “Makoko” and you will be directed to a satellite view of the large Nigerian city of Lagos located in west Africa on the gulf of Guinea.
Assuming that you have downloaded on your computer the “kmz/kml” files provided as part of this e-module, you can now proceed to open them from Google Earth. To do that you have to go to “Projects” click on “New Project” -> “Import KMZ/KML file from computer”.
Once the file is opened the view will shift to Makoko and display the area we have marked as a slightly transparent polygon. We chose the colour and the level of opacity, but you can change the properties of polygons within Google Earth and then save the new version on your disk or as a project in Google Earth. If you choose the second option next time you open Google Earth your project will appear ready to be loaded.
You will find 4 files related to the project ‘Makoko’ saved in “kmz” format, which can be opened on Google Earth. Makoko1 is the original area of Makoko which is marked if you type Makoko in Google Earth. The other three files are polygons that cover areas adjacent to Makoko, which are clearly identifiable from satellite looking at features delineating boundaries such as large surrounding streets, green areas and water. Iwaya is a neighbourhood adjacent to Makoko. You will notice that parts of Makoko and Iwaya are accessible in Street view i.e., they have been visited by Google, while Makoko2 and Makoko3 – two areas that are located closer to the coastal area of the Lagos lagoon are not.
Have a walk in Makoko and Iwaya
In Google Earth you can have a virtual visit of places by using the service called “Street view”. Google has filmed the place by driving around with a car carrying a special camera. This enables you to “navigate” using pointers and have a 3D view of the actual streets and buildings. You may notice that whenever humans appear in the street view their faces are blurred to avoid recognition: the same holds for car plates.
1) What are your first impressions from Makoko and Iwaya? Do they look like neighbourhoods built according to urban plans and regulations? Do you think that projecting European experience in how planned and regulated urban areas look like could be misleading?
2) Do you think there is any reason why Google did not visit the other two built areas located next to Makoko and Iwaya?
BBC produced three-part mini-series ‘Welcome to Lagos’, which showed life in the informal settlements of Lagos. The series were originally aired in 2010 causing controversy and sparking criticism. Currently the three episodes of the film are not available on the BBC website. But you can go on YouTube and type BBC’s ‘Welcome to Lagos’ and you will be able to see parts of the film. In the opening remarks to the series some of the inhabitants of Lagos determined, adaptable and incredibly resilient”. But Nobel prize winning Nigerian writer Wole Shoinka said the BBC programme displayed "the worst aspects of colonialist and patronising" attitudes to Africa https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/apr/28/soyinka-bbc-lagos-documentaries-criticism.
3) Judging from those parts of the BBC’s film that you managed to see, do you think that thus criticism was justified? Do you think in principle discussing poverty and informality instead of focusing on other aspects, which definitely exist in a Large city such as Lagos is tendentious or misleading?