Sprawled across a lagoon on the Atlantic coastline of western Nigeria, lies Makoko, one of the world’s largest slums. Here inhabitants exist in makeshift homes of wood and scrap, perched on stilts which reach into the depths of the underlying waters. Often dubbed the “Venice of Africa”, canoes are the only means of transport to get around this water-world. As with other slums, for the residents of Makoko, theirs is a grim fate. Decades of neglect in terms of access to necessities such as clean running water, electricity, waste disposal and so on, has resulted in a myriad of environmental hazards. Consequently, poverty among the various communities who live in the slum that is Makoko is acute and a stark manifestation of the profound income disparity that exists across Lagos.Thus, theirs is an existence that is greatly contrasted from the reality of other more affluent Lagosians flourishing just on the other side of the Third Mainland Bridge that separates them.

Based on the above, the exhibition, Life on the Other Side explores the disparity that exists between these two worlds on either side of the bridge. On the one hand there is a community languishing in bleak conditions with residents barely eking out a daily living, while on the other hand, there is the thriving bustling metropolis that is Lagos, the largest city in West Africa. The residents of Makoko find themselves in a dilemma and have become removed from the mainland on many levels. That being said, many are aware of the promise of better opportunities that await just beyond the bridge, so although the latter might seem to ostensibly segregate the “Haves” from the “Have nots”, the bridge simultaneously epitomises an undeniable bond between the two groups. That is, they are all African.