Lagos Is a Vortex of Energy
In a recent book, “Èkó,” the photographer Ollie Babajide Tikare captures the messiness and hope of the Nigerian city.
In a recent book, “Èkó,” the photographer Ollie Babajide Tikare captures the messiness and hope of the Nigerian city.
January 10, 2026
“Man on Bike,” Ikoyi, 2023.Photographs by Ollie Babajide Tikare
The fabric of Lagos, Nigeria’s megacity of some twenty million people, is delicately strung together: a mainland with a populace that spills onto several islands in a lagoon that brushes against the Atlantic Ocean. Countless arrivals make their way to Lagos every day with little money, finding places to live in shantytowns and hastily built tenements, or, sometimes, on the street. It is a challenging city, one that doesn’t welcome newcomers as much as it eventually makes room for them, daring them to make a home and earn their keep in an environment without much of a social safety net, and with little opportunity for formal employment. Even if you do have the economic means to obtain housing, health care, and generators for when there is no electricity, few services reliably work. Over a decade ago, I was one of those new arrivals, moving to live and work in the city for the first time. I had spent only a few weeks in Lagos prior to that move—my father grew up there—and that childhood trip could not have prepared me for the heaving landscape which I grew to know, whicht fascinated and frustrated me, which made me both despair and laugh. But a side effect of the city’s extreme nature is how it overshadows its other aspects: the creativity, intelligence, and hustle of both its intentional and accidental entrepreneurs; the tenderness of relationships within its communities.
“Woman Waiting,” Ikoyi, 2023.
“Fashion Designer,” Lekki, 2023.
“Man Selling Nuts,” Lagos Island, 2023.
The British Nigerian photographer Ollie Babajide Tikare took note of those aspects, capturing daily Lagos in his recent book, “Èkó,” a collage of scenes and portraits from the city, taken from 2023 to 2025. Several of the photos are taken in media res: people walking in a market, venders moving through traffic with their wares, a man wading into the blue-green waters of Tarkwa Bay, a striking image of a man framed by trees and a tall building, straddling a bicycle while he is on the phone. Every Lagosian has a different version of the city, from water-based shantytowns to opulent housing estates. But they are all united by the city’s streets. The eccentricities of a city define it; in Lagos, transportation is one of them. There are people who walk to get around, and others who board minibuses called danfos which follow specific routes through the city. To get to their destinations more quickly and cheaply, some Lagosians get on the backs of okadas, or motorcycle taxis. Tikare photographs one resident resting his arm through the window of a bright-yellow danfo; another is caught in the rearview mirror of his car as he drives.
“Woman in Red,” Tarkwa Bay, 2024.
Lagos’s style is displayed through these photos, too: the easy confidence with which residents wear bold outfits and hair styles. A male fashion designer wears jeans that are deliberately torn and patched with printed fabrics; another man has low blond curls. Lagosians’ sartorial experimentation and reverence for occasion-attire rival those of any fashion capital; it’s a place where you can never be accused of being overdressed. Tikare photographs a woman taking a rest from selling snacks on the street, clothed in an elegant skirted outfit in a traditional orange and brown print, paired with flip-flops; and another woman who could be on an outdoor break from her shop job, in a pencil skirt and tailored shirt. Tikare continues through Lagos, stopping at the legendary night club the New Afrika Shrine to capture Femi Kuti performing; at the beach to photograph young people at play; and in the streets to take warm, natural portraits of students and older people surrounded by green foliage and color-saturated walls.
“Church,” Ikeja, 2024.
“Woman Selling Puff Puff,” Tarkwa Bay, 2024.
“Boys in the Water,” Tarkwa Bay, 2024.
I’ve heard Lagos described as a tropical-climate version of a city like Moscow, an environment perceived to be so culturally hostile that its inhabitants have to summon great resilience in order to survive. But that’s not quite right: the city may be unwelcoming, but its residents are so hopeful, so trusting that they will realize their Lagosian Dream. In what they trust, I’m not sure—it’s not the federal or local governments, which tax but don’t provide. Nor is it their leaders, who do well personally even as their constituents struggle. Many Lagosians place faith in a higher power, but it may also be a trust in one another, despite the warnings everyone is given from childhood to be suspicious both of strangers and of people you know. When the essential fabric of society has been stretched to its near breaking point, because of the various failures of extractive authorities, it’s impossible to rely only on yourself. Instead, you need family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, and sometimes even strangers to help when you can’t get transportation or child care or medical attention, to pitch in when your area has no water or light.
“Man With Bonde Hair” Lekki, 2023.
“Fish Market,” Victoria Island, 2023.
“Balcony View,” Makoko, 2023.
“Uncles,” Ikeja, 2024.
And so Lagos remains a vortex of energy, pulling in the aspiring and the curious, while somehow sustaining its longtime inhabitants. There are indeed Lagosians who are desperate to leave by any means possible. But there are also those who continue to come, and those who have left but who still often return. There are those who exist in the limbo between belonging and not: I claim membership in that category, as does, it seems, Tikare. As a British Nigerian, Tikare wanted to explore “half of his family’s place of origin” and go beyond documentary observation in his work to “share the spirit of its people and an authentic personal discovery.” He hadn’t spent time in Lagos before, but felt drawn and connected to it. I understand why. I moved out of the city after several years. But I can’t imagine staying away.
“Beach Scene,” Tarkwa Bay, 2024.
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