Africa Is a Country

America? Begging in Nigeria!

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

America? Begging in Nigeria!

By
Sonja Sugira

A white woman begging in Lagos's popular Mushin Market. Turns out it is a performance piece.

Image Credit oneVillage Initiative via Flickr CC.

Courtesy of the folks over at This is Africa, I ran across this video of an (presumably) American woman begging in a market in Mushin in Lagos. If this is meant to be satire, it seems to me to fall particularly flat. It doesn’t help that the video was, as far as I can tell, posted without context or information, although according to TIA, it comes from Jelili Atiku, a Nigerian sculptor, performance and video artist (with whom I am unfamiliar). It is unclear whether everyone here is in on the performance, or whether the Nigerian people in the video are merely there to provide (unintended) comic relief. Judging from their reactions, though, most of them think (realize?) it’s a joke. But at whose expense? Perhaps, the woman at 2:19 sums it up best, “America? Begging in Nigeria! No you’ve come to cheat us.”

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