TimCocksJournalism

My book

Description

This is a frantic, mystical journey through Africa’s biggest metropolis: Lagos. Going beyond the popular images of mad traffic or crowded slums, we learn of the incredible feats Lagosians pull off to survive their broken-down city, and the secret enabling them to cope with the chaos and precarity of Nigeria’s most populous centre: spirituality.

A female street fighter in a male-dominated mafia extortion business. Two powerful chiefs locked in a deadly feud over billion-dollar real estate. An oil tycoon who gambles her fortune on televangelists’ prophecies. A rubbish scavenger dreaming of a reggae career. A fisherman’s son trying to save Makoko, the ‘floating slum’, from demolition. A priestess to a river goddess selling sand to feed Lagos’s construction boom.

Belief in unseen forces unites these figures, as does their commitment to worshipping them–at shrines, in mosques and in churches. In this extraordinary city, Tim Cocks uncovers something universal about human nature in the face of danger and high uncertainty: our tendency to place faith in a realm beyond.

Reviews

‘An entertaining take on the city by an enchanted foreigner.’

‘A vivid portrayal of Africa’s biggest city, deftly capturing its combustible energies and multiple contradictions. In its daily struggle for survival against challenges both human and natural, Lagos signposts the future of the human race. Read this book as a prophecy.’

-Adewale Maja-Pearce, Anglo-Nigerian author of The House My Father Built

‘A vivid portrayal of Africa’s biggest city, deftly capturing its combustible energies and multiple contradictions. In its daily struggle for survival against challenges both human and natural, Lagos signposts the future of the human race. Read this book as a prophecy.’

- Paddy Docherty, author of Blood and Bronze

'A riveting romp through rubbish heaps, go-slows, mega-churches and swampy estuaries ... a testimony to the human spirit

‘A vivid portrayal of Africa’s biggest city, deftly capturing its combustible energies and multiple contradictions. In its daily struggle for survival against challenges both human and natural, Lagos signposts the future of the human race. Read this book as a prophecy.’

'A riveting romp through rubbish heaps, go-slows, mega-churches and swampy estuaries ... a testimony to the human spirit

-Daily Maverick

'For anyone who has experienced the hot and humid charms of Nigeria’s biggest city, this book will resonate'

'The disparity of endless partying and wealth set against a backdrop of an overpopulated city struggling with fuel scarcity and high inflation is well captured in Tim Cocks’ book Lagos: Supernatural City'

'Tim Cocks draws on the central theme of spirituality that constitutes the psyche of Lagos to produce a collection of tales of men and women who call on unseen forces at a turning point in their lives'

-African Business

'Tim Cocks draws on the central theme of spirituality that constitutes the psyche of Lagos to produce a collection of tales of men and women who call on unseen forces at a turning point in their lives'

'The disparity of endless partying and wealth set against a backdrop of an overpopulated city struggling with fuel scarcity and high inflation is well captured in Tim Cocks’ book Lagos: Supernatural City'

'Tim Cocks draws on the central theme of spirituality that constitutes the psyche of Lagos to produce a collection of tales of men and women who call on unseen forces at a turning point in their lives'

- Le Monde Diplomatique

'The disparity of endless partying and wealth set against a backdrop of an overpopulated city struggling with fuel scarcity and high inflation is well captured in Tim Cocks’ book Lagos: Supernatural City'

-Conde Naste Traveller