WEBVTT

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Cities are like siblings
in a large polygamous family.

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Each one has a unique personality
and is headed in a distinct direction.

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But they all have somewhat shared origins.

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Sometimes I think postcolonial cities
are like the children

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of the two least-favorite wives,

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who are constantly being asked,

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"Ah, why can't you be
more like your sister?"

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(Laughter)

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The "why" of cities is largely the same,
no matter where they are:

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an advantageous location that makes
trade and administration possible;

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the potential for scalable opportunities

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for the skilled and unskilled alike;

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a popular willingness
to be in constant flux

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and, of course, resilience.

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The "how" of cities, however,
is a whole other story.

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How are they run?

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How do they grow?

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How do they decide who belongs
and who doesn't?

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Lagos is my home.

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You can always find the Nigerians

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by following the noise
and the dancing, right?

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(Laughter)

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Like any major city,
that place is a lot of things,

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many of which are highly contradictory.

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Our public transportation
doesn't quite work,

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so we have these privately owned
bright yellow buses

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that regularly cause accidents.

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Luxury car showrooms line badly maintained
and often flooded roads.

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Street evangelism is only
slightly less ubiquitous

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than street harassment.

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Sex workers sometimes
have two degrees, a bank job

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and a prominent role in church.

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(Laughter)

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On any given day,

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there can be either a party
or a burned body

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in the middle of a street.

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There is so much that is possible in Lagos

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and so much that isn't,

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and very often the difference
between possibility and impossibility

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is simply who you are,

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and if you're lucky enough,
who you're connected to.

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Belonging in Lagos is a fluid concept

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determined by ethnic origin,
sexual orientation, gender,

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but most visibly and often most violently,

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class.

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Before Nigeria became a country,

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fisherpeople from the inland creeks
started to come down the Lagos lagoon

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and establish villages along the coast.

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About 60 years later, my grandfather,
Oludotun Adekunle Kukoyi,

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also arrived in Lagos.

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Like me, he was an alumnus
of the University of Ibadan,

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a young member of the educated elite
in the independence era.

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Over time, he built an illustrious career
as a land surveyor,

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mapping out now-bustling neighborhoods

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when they were just waist-high wild grass.

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He died when I was nine.

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And by that time, my family,
like the families of those fisherpeople,

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knew Lagos as home.

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Among the Yoruba, we have a saying,

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"Èkó gb’olè, ó gb’ọ̀lẹ,"

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which can be translated to mean
that Lagos will welcome anyone.

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But that saying is becoming
less and less true.

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Many Lagosians, including
the descendants of those fisherpeople

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who arrived generations
before my grandfather,

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are now being pushed out

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to make room for an emergent city

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that has been described
as "the new Dubai."

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You see, Lagos inspires big dreams,
even in its leaders,

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and successive governments
have declared aspirations

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towards a megacity
where poverty does not exist.

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Unfortunately, instead of focusing
on the eradication of poverty

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as you would expect,

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the strategy of choice focuses
on eliminating the poor.

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Last October, the Governor announced plans

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to demolish every single
waterfront settlement in Lagos.

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There are more than 40
of these indigenous communities

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all over the city,

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with over 300,000 people living in them.

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Otodo Gbame,

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a hundred-year-old fishing village

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with a population about
three-quarters that of Monaco

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and similar potential
for beachfront luxury --

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(Laughter)

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was one of the first to be targeted.

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I first heard of Otodo Gbame
after the demolition started.

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When I visited in November 2016,
I met Magdalene Aiyefoju.

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She is a now-homeless woman

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whose surname means, "the world is blind."

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Magdalene's son Basil
was one of over 20 people

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who were shot, drowned

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or presumed dead in that land grab.

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Standing outside her shelter,
I saw the two white-sand football fields

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where Basil used to play.

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Spread all around us were the ruins
of schools, churches,

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a primary health center, shops,

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thousands of homes.

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Young children enthusiastically helped
to put up shelters,

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and about 5,000 of the residents,
with nowhere else to go,

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simply stayed put.

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And then in April,

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state security personnel came back.

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This time, they cleared
the community out completely,

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with beatings, bullets and fire.

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As I speak, there are construction crews
preparing Otodo Gbame's beaches

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for anyone who can afford
a multi-million-dollar view.

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The new development
is called "Periwinkle Estate."

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Forced evictions are incredibly violent
and, of course, unconstitutional.

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And yet, they happen so often
in so many of our cities,

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because the first thing we are taught
to forget about poor people

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is that they are people.

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We believe that a home is a thing
a person absolutely has a right to,

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unless the person is poor
and the home is built a certain way

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in a certain neighborhood.

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But there is no single definition
of the word "home."

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After all, what is a slum
besides an organic response

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to acute housing deficits
and income inequality?

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And what is a shanty if not a person
making a home for themselves

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against all odds?

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Slums are an imperfect housing solution,

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but they are also prime examples
of the innovation, adaptability

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and resilience at the foundation --

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and the heart --

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of every functional city.

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You don't need to be the new Dubai

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when you're already Lagos.

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(Applause)

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We have our own identity,

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our own rhythm,

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and as anyone who knows
Lagos can tell you,

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poor Lagosians are very often
the source of the city's character.

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Without its poor, Lagos would not
be known for its music

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or its endless energy

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or even the fact that you can buy
an ice cold drink or a puppy

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through your car window.

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(Laughter)

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The conditions that cause us
to define certain neighborhoods as slums

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can be effectively improved,

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but not without recognizing
the humanity and the agency

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of the people living in them.

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In Lagos, where public goods
are rarely publicly available,

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slum dwellers are often at the forefront
of innovating solutions.

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After being disconnected
from the grid for months

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because the power company
couldn't figure out how to collect bills,

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one settlement designed a system
that collectivized remittances

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and got everyone cheaper rates
into the bargain.

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Another settlement created
a reform program

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that hires local bad boys as security.

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They know every trick and every hideout,

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so now troublemakers are more likely
to get caught and reported to police

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and fewer of the youth end up
engaging in criminal activity.

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Yet another settlement recently completed

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a flood-safe, eco-friendly
communal toilet system.

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Models like these are being
adopted across Lagos.

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Informal settlements are incorrectly
named as the problem.

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In fact, the real problems
are the factors that create them,

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like the entrenchment of poverty,

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social exclusion

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and state failures.

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When our governments
frame slums as threats

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in order to justify violent land grabs
or forced evictions,

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they're counting on those of us
who live in formal housing

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to tacitly and ignorantly agree with them.

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Rather, we must remind them

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that governments exist to serve
not only those who build

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and live in luxury homes,

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but also those who clean and guard them.

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Our --

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(Applause)

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our realities may differ,

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but our rights don't.

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The Lagos state government,

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like far too many on our continent,

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pays lip service to ideas of inclusion,

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while acting as though
progress can only be achieved

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by the erasure, exploitation
and even elimination of groups

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it considers expendable.

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People living with disabilities
who hawk or beg on Lagos streets

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are rounded up, extorted

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and detained.

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Women in low-income
neighborhoods are picked up

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and charged with prostitution,

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regardless of what they actually
do for a living.

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Gay citizens are scapegoated
to distract from real political problems.

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But people, like cities, are resilient,

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and no amount of legislation
or intimidation or violence

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can fully eliminate any of us.

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Prostitutes, women
and women who work as prostitutes

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still haven't gone extinct,

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despite centuries of active suppression.

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Queer Africans continue to exist,

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even though queerness is now criminalized
in most parts of the continent.

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And I'm fairly certain that poor people
don't generally tend to just disappear

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because they've been stripped
of everything they have.

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We are all already here,

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and that answers the question

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of whether or not we belong.

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When those fisherpeople
started to sail down the lagoon

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in search of new homes,

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it could not have occurred to them

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that the city that would
rise up around them

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would one day insist
that they do not belong in it.

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I like to believe that my grandfather,

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in mapping new frontiers for Lagos,

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was trying to open it up

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to make room for other people
to be welcomed by the city

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in the same way that he was.

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On my way here, my grandma called me

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to remind me how proud she was,

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how proud [my grandfather]
and my mother would have been.

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I am their dreams come true.

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But there is no reason why their dreams --
or mine, for that matter --

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are allowed to come true

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while those of others
are turned to nightmares.

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And lest we forget:

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the minimum requirement for a dream

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is a safe place to lay your head.

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It is too late now for Basil,

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but not for Magdalene,

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not for the hundreds of thousands,

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the millions still under threat in Lagos

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or any of our cities.

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The world does not have to remain blind

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to the suffering that is created
when we deny people's humanity,

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or even to the incredible potential
for growth that exists

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when we recognize and value
all contributions.

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We must hold our governments

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and ourselves

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accountable

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for keeping our shared cities safe
for everyone in them,

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because the only cities worth building --

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indeed, the only futures
worth dreaming of --

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are those that include all of us,

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no matter who we are

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or how we make homes for ourselves.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)