Painters, blacksmiths and wordsmiths: building molues in Lagos

African Arts, Autumn, 2008 by Damola Osinulu

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The coastal Nigerian city of Lagos has received much attention from urban planners, geographers, architects, and journalists for its phenomenal and unchecked growth (Packer 2006, Koolhaas 2000). The population is estimated to have grown to as much as 15 million in 2002, from 25,000 in 1866 and 230,000 in 1950 (Koolhaas 2000:652, Echeruo 1977:30, Mabogunje 1969:257). One of the questions raised by this astronomical growth is how the inhabitants of Lagos successfully traverse the city to fulfill their daily obligations. The city's growth implodes as much as it explodes, so that as it spreads it also becomes constricted. As a result, movement within and without is continuously impeded. It is not uncommon to be caught up in one of the city's infamous go-slows for hours on end. How does mass transit work in such an environment? One answer is the molue (Fig. 1)--the large, privately owned buses that ply the city's streets, literally overflowing with passengers and their possessions. Traffic on Carter Bridge, one of the three bridges that connect the Island of Lagos to its mainland, often terminates in a slow-moving chain of molues lined up nose to rear like yellow train cars. (1) It is, in fact, impossible to imagine the city of Lagos without its yellow buses. The intention of this paper is to discover and amplify the role of creativity in the tight urban spaces of Lagos as expressed through the construction and decoration of the city's trademark buses. Even within the prescribed anonymity of state-legislated paint schemes and despite the sheer numbers of buses on the road, individual drivers and owners attempt to express a unique sense of identity through the way they design, build, and decorate their buses. Furthermore, these expressions of individuality can be seen as a tactic of resistance against the strategies of the physical and spiritual systems against which the bus drivers and owners struggle.

Molues are typically constructed locally on imported Mercedes-Benz 911 chassis. In accordance with state regulation, they are painted bright yellow and circumscribed horizontally by a thin, black, double stripe. (2) They usually have seating for about forty to sixty passengers, although their actual occupancy is limited only by the malleability of the occupants' flesh (Olukoju 2004:227). The late Nigerian Afrobeat maestro, Fela AnikulapoKuti, recalled the severe discomfort of Lagosians' commute in his song "Shuffering and Shmiling" (1989):

   Everyday my people dey inside bus
   Forty-nine seating and ninety-nine standing
   Them go pack themselves in like sardine
   Them dey faint, them dey wake like cock.

Office workers, housewives, traders, and laborers are all united by their uncomfortable condition and the consistency of their daily struggle. We must ask what sort of social interactions are encouraged or discouraged in such confined spaces. What sort of cosmopolitanism is promoted by "sardine politics"?

If the bus is uncomfortable, it is only because it is a microcosm of the motor park and, next on the urban scale, the whole city. In Lagos, the motor parks (3) are often not planned parks at all but major intersections or bus stops that have grown into complex urban centers. Perhaps the most renowned of these nodes is Oshodi, the intersection of Agege Motor Road and Apapa-Oworonsoki Expressway. Architect and educator David Aradeon describes Oshodi as the "living stage where a collage of scenes are acted and played out without a script." He continues, "Oshodi is multifaceted: offerings of transportation nodes; collage of market places on the spread; montage of cooking and eating spreading in the arena" (1997:51). As can be expected, such an area is constantly gridlocked and there is an endless tug of war between the agencies of the state and the participants in the city's unofficial economy. One minibus driver taking a break at the nearby Ikeja Bus Stop, complained about the difficulties of operating in such an environment, "LASTMA [Lagos State Traffic Management Authority] will give us a hard time if we unload our passengers [in an undesignated area] but passengers disregard the bus stop locations" After listing the locations on his route where there are no designated bus stops he continued, "There is only one garage for the whole of Ikeja and buses are forced to create an obstruction.... [Furthermore] the Agberos [motor park touts] will collect 20 Naira from you otherwise they will damage the vehicle." (4) Other drivers told me of their struggles with Lagos State Task Force, the Federal Police, Vehicle Inspection Officers, and the Local Government Transportation officials. In such an environment, one is in a constant struggle against the agents of power and in competition with one's peers.

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Public transportation in Lagos is an almost entirely private and road-based affair. It is thought that up to 75,000 privately owned buses ply the roads of Lagos (World Bank 2002). The majority of these are the smaller danfo or kia-kia ('quick-quick') minibuses, which are usually reconfigured imported second-hand buses. These are easier for individual entrepreneurs to procure, reconfigure, and operate than the larger molues. As a result, the World Bank reports that the use of molues is on a decline of 2.9% per annum while the use of danfos is on increase of 17.2% per annum (ibid., p. 2). Taxicabs also meet some of the demand. Like molues, danfos and taxis are also required to comply with the yellow paint scheme. The city's seemingly insatiable transportation needs are also met by unregistered taxicabs known as kabu-kabu. The face of Lagos transportation has been transformed in recent years by the advent of the motorbike taxi. Known in Lagos as okadas after one of the first privately owned airlines, these motorcycles ply the streets of Lagos with passengers and all sorts of improbable cargo piled on. The okada operators have acquired a daredevil reputation for their penchant for darting between other vehicles. Not surprisingly, more than a few passengers and drivers have ended up in the orthopedic hospital or worse.