1. Posted on Tuesday 30 May 2006 - 15:01

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   Redactie AfrikaNieuws

   

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   Photo 1: Order amidst disorder. Line up of danfo buses at the popular oshodi market
   Photo 2: Rock of ages. This is the back of a molue
   Photo 5: Danfo buses
   Photo 6: Akande: 'I have no idea what the letters on the back of this bus means. Don"t even know in what language it is..."
   Photo 10: Akande: 'Safety is of the Lord. This is indeed an inscription the molue needs to encourage people to board it because it is noted to be most unsafe of the four modes described.
   Photo 11: Akande: 'An important part of the whole bus experience in Lagos are the 'conductors". They collect the fares for the trip. There are no prepaid tickets. You pay cash worth the distance you are going when you get in the bus.These conductors never seats, they always hang by the door ways."
   Photo 12: Conductors by a molue doorway
   Photo 13: Akande: 'This can only happen in Lagos! That"s why its so peculiar. Notice the www. Address in the background.'
   Photo 14: Kiku ma pa alanu mi, won se bola tan. This is Yoruba for 'may death not kill my helpers, people think that am finished but am not".
   Photo 15: Akande: 'The duty of a man...I hope its not the baby in the background.'
   Photo 17: Notice the line of molue in background. This is the popular oshodi market. The market that never sleeps.
   Photo 18: Akande: 'Who is clean? A new day has come. This must be some kind of call to repentance.'
   Photo 19: Akande: 'I have no idea what this guy means with 60 by 120 and that"s what borders me.'

   Photography: the public transport of Lagos

    

   Intrigued by the public transport in Lagos in Nigeria, photographer Deyemi Akande strolled down the streets of his hometown to photograph the taxis, danfo"s and molue"s. As a guideline for his series, Akande tells about the different types of public transport and the graffiti often found on the back on the vehicles.

   'If you have lived in Lagos, it is often said that you can survive anywhere. There is never a dull moment on the streets of this over populated commercial nerve of Nigeria. Lagos transportation is a topic worth a thesis! I did something close to that with photographs. Most of the pictures were taking while driving so the focus was documentation not esthetics. There are four main kinds of public transport vehicles in Lagos:

   The taxi, popularly call 'oko asawo", this literally means the husband of harlots! Yes it"s derogatory, but it has its story. At a time, things were so bad in Nigeria that only very few people could afford to take a cab to their destination as it is the most 'prestigious" and hence most expensive mode of moving around the jolly city of Lagos. Only young ladies who had affairs with rich men were seen in these cabs, that"s where the name harlots came from.

   The Danfo, these are usually the old Volkswagen combi buses. They are known to have the 'best worst" drivers planet earth can boast of. They drive on the covet, face oncoming traffic, horn when there is no car in front of them, listen to music on top volume, sing out loud while driving with no regards for the passengers they have onboard.

   Coaster buses, These are the buses with 30 seats. They are nothing near what you think you know or have seen. They have gone through heavy structural changes! They no longer seat 30 people and that"s all I can say.

   The 911, this is the big daddy of them all. It is popularly called the MOLUE, funky train, or the people"s parliament. These buses are the biggest of them all; they are the Benz 911. It is the cheapest of the four and is said to be for the masses. It all happens in there; I can"t begin to explain it all. It is called the people"s parliament because there is always a kind of political argument on long trips

    

   Now those are the types of transport we have on the streets of Lagos. I am working on documenting the exciting and sometimes thought provoking graffiti that one finds on the back of these buses. The graffiti reflects to an extent the mind of a society and it can be seen as 'the writings on the wall" for those who care to look.

   Most of the inscriptions are in context of the society so a number of it may not make much meaning to someone who is not a Nigerian or who isn"t resident in Lagos. Whether, funny or thought provoking or plain boring, the point of the graffiti is that it has provided a voice for the masses to express themselves. They can only hope that the inscriptions will catch the eye of some rich lawmaker or policy man and something....something will come their way."

    

    

   Deyemi Akande (1975) lives in Lagos, Nigeria. He studied Geography at the University of Ibadan. Currently he is a doctorial student at the same university. His research is on an endangered Gorilla specie in Nigeria. He started to take photographs 'seriously" in 2003. His main focus is on stills and documentary photography. He has exhibited his work Several times in Lagos. Akanda about himself: 'I love airplanes and jazz music. I wish I could go was to flying school but that is a very big dream for a 'normal" African boy. I really like the work of Nigerian photographer Don Barber and photojournalist Peter Obe who covered the Nigerian civil war."
   

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1. Posted on Tuesday 10 April 2012 05:24

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   LarryPage

   

   
   28 berichten
   Lid sinds February 2012

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   I know that the Danfo Buses are the the Volkswagen Combi bus. A Pretty old vehicle but its perfect for transportation because of the VW Parts installed on it. As you can see in the picture there are many combi bus that were used in transportation.

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