Olawale Adekola
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Lagos, Nigeria·2024·Documentary

Aftermath in Makoko

When the bulldozers finished, what remained was the water, the stilts, and the people who had nowhere else to go. This is the story of the families who lost their homes in the Makoko waterfront demolitions — told through the residents themselves.

A waterfront settlement of wooden stilt houses at dusk, smoke rising from cooking fires.
A woman stands in the doorway of a wooden home, looking out across calm dark water.

The first demolitions came at dawn. By the time the community was awake, three rows of houses along the edge of the lagoon had already been pulled into the water.

Children paddling a narrow wooden canoe between stilt houses.
Children move between what is left of the houses, days after the clearance began.
Portrait of an elderly fisherman mending a net inside a dim room lit by a single window.

“We are not asking for much,” one resident said, mending a net for a boat he no longer owns. “Only somewhere to put our feet that won't be taken from us next week.”

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