Located along the edge of the lagoon on Lekki peninsular in Lagos (Nigeria), Èbuté Lekki (Lekky Jetty) is a tiny yet vibrant fishing village where women remain the key fishmongers.
At Èbuté-Lekki, suppliers (fishermen), middlewomen (fishmongers), and customers are all within 10 feet of each other. The pier is the negotiating floor where village women buy fish directly from the fisherman as well as barter amongst themselves before reaching the customers standing at the end of the pier.
Down by the jetty, women rule. They work, play, love, and live here. Even more inspiring are the stories of primary school students and teenagers that row themselves an hour each way in wooden canoes from Idé, Igbódolá, and other Lagoon villages over to the Èbuté-Lekki side of the lagoon to attend school every day.
If awarded a grant, I would be honored to continue and expand my photojournalism work along the shores of the peninsular. My documentary work would be twofold: follow the entire supply chain at the jetty, from the early morning hours when the fishermen go out to fish, to the negotiating process at the pier with the women up until the fish reaches the customers by midday-early afternoon.
The second aspect of my documentary work at the pier would be to follow the children across the murky lagoon to their villages to capture a day-in-the-life snapshot, conduct interviews, and tell some of their stories.
Impressions will be collected via photography, video, and audio recordings to accompany slideshows and other multimedia. Social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and StumbleUpon will be leveraged to their fullest for drawing attention to these stories.
Most of the documentary and photojournalism work coming out of Nigeria has been centered on her volatile oil industry and Delta region. While these stories are extremely important, I would love to show the day-to-day life of average Nigerians who live their lives fully doing what they love in the simplest of ways.
Having spent the first 15 years of my life growing up in Nigeria, with most of that time spent living and volunteering along the Lekki peninsular itself; this project means a lot to me.
