Title:
Makoko Sawmill

Year:
2015

Running time:
20 minutes

Format:
HD digital film, colour with sound

Location:
Lagos, Nigeria

Curious blue sticks probe Makoko Sawmill.

Whole trees from all over Nigeria, float on the Lagos State Lagoon, converging at this humble mill.

Domestic traces – an air of languor mingles with the trade.

Area boys watch and wait. Halted machines similarly await revival.

Nigeria Power Holding Company has ceased the electric.

Sticks drift
Heavy toil
Manual shift

An order emerges. Groups of men aka “Pullers”, “Rollers”, “Carriers”, work together to process wood, women and children resourcefully recycle sawdust.

All the while observed by idiosyncratic blue sticks doing nothing and everything at once.

Framing, measuring, chasing.

Watching and waiting.

About Makoko

Makoko is a self sufficient water community in Lagos, Nigeria. Settlers from nearby countries such as Togo and Benin Republic arrived by boat over 200 years ago and made their home on the Lagos State Lagoon.